Abstract
I. Introduction . . . . . 248
II. Clients and Lawyers . . . . . 253
A . Client Ethics . . . . . 253
B. Responsibility Taking as the Moral Response to Injury . . . . . 253
C. The Typical Pattern of Denial . . . . . 256
1. Denial Reinforcement, Fault Projection, and Conflict Escalation . . . . . 260
2. Lawyers Benefit from Conflict Escalation . . . . . 262
3. Some Objections . . . . . 263
a. The Defense of Zealous Advocacy . . . . . 264
b. Counseling Clients About Such Matters Already Occurs . . . . . 266
c. The Lawyer's Epistemological Demurrer . . . . . 268
d. Client Alienation . . . . . 269
D. Counseling Responsibility Taking . . . . . 271
1. Trust and Relationship, Not Magic Bullets . . . . . 272
2. A Spectrum of Discourse: Confrontation, Indirection, and Engagement . . . . . 274
a. Confrontation . . . . . 275
b. Indirection . . . . . 277
c. Engagement . . . . . 278
3. A Skeptical View and an Optimistic Response . . . . . 281
III. Some Structural Factors . . . . . 283
A. Economic Incentives . . . . . 283
B. Toward Creating Economic Incentives against Denial . . . . . 288
C. Dispute Resolution Mechanisms . . . . . 294
D. Legal Education . . . . . 298
1. Subordinating Moral Sensibilities and Feelings to Technical Argumentation . . . . . 298
2. Training in the Ideology of Winning . . . . . 301
3. A Note on Lawyer Psychological Dysfunction . . . . . 302
4. Training Against Facing One's Errors Openly and Squarely . . . . . 303
5. Toward Reform . . . . . 305
E. Cultural Composition . . . . . 305
IV . Conclusion . . . . . 311
Recommended Citation
Jonathan R. Cohen,
The Culture of Legal Denial,
84 Neb. L. Rev.
(2005)
Available at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nlr/vol84/iss1/5