Comment by lazyGeneral | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lazyGeneral | Hacker News Reader

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I posted these question in a comment here:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5048729

I can imagine and believe that defending yourself against the US government is costly, what I don't understand is what the breakdown of all expenses would look like.

What services do you need to purchase/hire that you wouldn't get in a normal court case?

Is it because you spend a lot more time in court or in preparation?

Do you need to choose among lawyers with special certification? What type of paperwork do you need to produce?*

In the Latin America (where I am) I could easily see the biggest expenses being bribes and it is in general what I think of when you need a problem solved. (Not a good thing at all...)

P.S. Making an infographic about a case like this vs a regular court case would be an interesting project and could help us make the case for Aaron...anyone want to help by looking for data / making one on your own?

Long story short:

The type of lawyer(s) who can even competently take this case exist in small numbers and are the big law primadonnas that work for $500 an hour minimum. Just interacting with the government prosecutors to get a scope of the charge and starting to build a defense, before one word is said in court, is easily $200,000 (400 billable hours is nothing) in a trivial case and if you really want to win a 'difficult' case, then expect a lot more.

On top of it, your chances of winning are still pretty slim. Meanwhile your prosecutor has the practical equivalant of not only infinite wealth but the support of "terrorism" and "organized crime" legislation and powers that pretty much strip you of many rights and usually lead into freezing of your assets even if you have that kind of money.

While conservatives in America tend to be pretty wacky, from my perspective as a liberal, I do agree with them regarding federal law enforcement being out of control. Perhaps it was justifiable to have these powers when dealing with actual terrorists and mafioso's but they use these very same powers against computer nerds and potheads.

Obama could reform this if he chose to. I hope this story has legs. This is all quite insane.

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