"Lamar Loper's First Case" in Paul Ruffin (1993). The Man Who Would Be God. Dallas, TX: Southern Methodist University Press, pages 119 - 137.

A short story discussing the "nature of law" as it is experienced in the lives of a wife (Jeanne Ann) who is trying to free herself from a brutal marriage.  The story is set in deep East Texas and centers around a "legal aid" lawyer trying to "negotiate" with the woman's husband on her behalf. Lamar Loper is the newly appointed lawyer who is going to represent Jeanne Ann in what is described to Loper by the "older attorney" he is replacing as no "routine divorce case" with the following observation:

"I know you were thinking" the older attorney said, glancing at the road from time to time, "that you were off on a routine divorce case, but you'll come to see soon enough that what's routine out here in the Thicket is probably downright extraordinary to someone fresh-out of law school.  I mean, you've heard of domestic violence and crime in downtown Houston, but that is nothing, son, compared to what you're going to run into up here.  Every son-of-a-bitch of'm has a gun in his pocket or under his pillow, a knife in his boot, chains and clubs, claw hammers, chainsaws.  They fight and claw and cut each other up, then go to church on Sunday and pray and weep and go home and start the week over, bloodying wives and kids and cousins.  Crazy bastards.  Animals.  A divorce case down there may get passionate, people might even get hurt and killed, but out here --- hell, you just got to see for yourself" (Ruffin, pages 121-122).