The Culture of Legal Denial

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