Oh, as I was listening to @fabsh mentioning this feedback on the new episode, I remembered another nice thing I read somewhere (must have been science fiction, too):
Lawyers make their money from the gap between the law and the common sense.
I think it’s very well said. Indeed, in a layperson’s day-to-day interactions with the legal field the layperson usually makes the judgements based on tradition, custom, and, ultimately, common sense (which includes assessing how much the tradition is applicable, for example). However, when things come to court, it’s not common sense that the judge will use to evaluate (and punish) these judgements, but the law. Had it been otherwise, most people would be able to present their own cases and deal with the whole system on their own, using their own common sense; instead, everybody needs a lawyer as a proxy to the system, and uses the lawyer’s knowledge of the law to achieve the same goal. Had the law reflected the common sense closely, much less lawyers would be needed.
Of course, I don’t know how to build a legal system in which the law would reflect the common sense close enough, I’m not even ready to go as far as declare such a system possible…