Legal help for the selfemployed?

I'm wondreing why the leagl system has a bias against the selfemployed .I'm a barber of 28 years.Y know going in you will pay for thins many take for granted.[taxes,health care,no paid days off]I moved to a new location after 1 year of preperation and walked in to a hornets nest.The location was very hood and did due diligance on the building.Afer doing quite well the frist year,during a drought,I exprianced mive flooding problems.Seems the buildin sat slightly below the road and during a storm I would be flooded.It only took 15-20 miniutes of hard rain to close me down.This happened over 30 times in one year.[2003]I found myself unable to pay rent due to loss of buissness loss and clean up cost and time due to health concerns.I contacted my landlord,the health department and other goverment offices and finally an attorney.I found I could not get any restitution for my losses[around $18,000] and after a year of fighting I lost my buisness.