Citing Harvard law professor Harvey Silverglate, Kiriakou argues that the U.S. is so over-regulated that ordinary citizens commit felonies without realizing it. This allows the government to weaponize the legal system by selectively prosecuting individuals for political or other reasons.

While AI automates legal tasks, it also makes initiating legal action radically easier for everyone. This 'democratization' is expected to increase the overall volume of lawsuits, including frivolous ones, paradoxically creating more work for the legal system and the lawyers who must navigate it.

Former Michigan Chief Justice Bridget McCormack argues that the legal system's probabilistic nature, driven by human fallibility, is a core inefficiency. Greater predictability would reduce disputes by allowing businesses and individuals to plan around clear, consistently enforced rules.

New York City's most effective tool for reducing evictions wasn't new rental laws, but guaranteeing lawyers for poor tenants. This rebalanced a major power asymmetry (from 1% of tenants having lawyers to near-parity), enabling them to use existing rights and simultaneously deterring landlords from filing weak or frivolous cases in the first place.

The administration explicitly targets law firms that represent its opponents, creating a climate of fear. This discourages many elite lawyers from taking on such cases, potentially compromising the ability of officials to secure adequate legal defense and threatening the principle of representation.

Government programs often persist despite failure because their complexity is a feature, not a bug. This system prevents average citizens, who are too busy with their lives, from deciphering the waste and holding the "political industrial complex" accountable, thereby benefiting those in power.

Lawyers often act as "handmaidens of the rich," enabling wealthy individuals and communities to use the legal system to block public good projects like mass transit or affordable housing. This subverts the public interest and creates a society that functions well for the wealthy but fails the majority.

Citing high rates of appellate court reversals and a 3-5% error rate in criminal convictions revealed by DNA, former Chief Justice McCormack argues the human-led justice system is not as reliable as perceived. This fallibility creates a clear opening for AI to improve accuracy and consistency.

Through capital and connections, the top 1% can navigate the legal and political systems to their advantage—from securing bailouts to obtaining pardons. This creates a two-tiered system of justice where the law binds the 99% but does not equally protect them.