Feb. 20, 2005 - 10:20 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

A Different View

Last night I made my usual shoot from the lip entry, giving my thoughts about what is going on and received a great e-mail giving the writers view on the same situation. Interesting. Verbatim is the quote:

Just a couple of comments about your entry. I grew up in what is known as one of the biggest legal hellholes in the country. Tons of litigation. Asbestos lawsuits. Medical malpractice. Insane numbers of suits. I actually worked in asbestos litigation for over a year, and am now studying all of this in lawschool.

Bush's tort reform is absolutely necessary. Absolutely positively necessary. Doctors are leaving my county. Not only because they fear they will be sued, but because there have been so many lawsuits here that the doctors can't get insurance. It's getting increasingly impossible to find an OB for example. Women often have to drive over an hour to get to their doctor. Now, while for a lot of people, that's not a big deal, I can't imagine that a woman in labor wants to be that far from her hospital.

Trial costs in my county are ridiculous. Why? Venue shopping. Lawyers come from all over to litigate here. It's expensive and it's unfair to those of us who live here and may need court time for something. Why should someone from New York get to have their case heard in my neighborhood when they've never been here and I have a case that I need to have heard in the court? Because of all the lawsuits that are brought here, family court days were reduced, for example. So all these people who are dealing with divorces and custody issues and adoptions have less court time. And they live here and pay taxes here and pay the salaries for these judges and court workers. Personally, I think they deserve to be here more than some guy from New York with a half-hearted asbestos claim.

The thing about litigation is that if you have a legitimate claim? You're going to get money. If you have a legitimate asbestos claim, no lawyer wants to take it to court. They want to settle. The companies will offer the plaintiffs money because they know they'll lose and even if they pay what the settlement would be, they save in court costs (and the plaintiff saves too, because plaintiffs often pay their lawyers a percentage PLUS fees - such as copying, expert witness fees, etc - it adds up). Medical malpractice? If a hospital makes a mistake, they'll pay. Quickly. Why? Because they don't want it to get out there that a mistake happened in their facility.

So oftentimes, when these cases go to court, it's because they don't have much of a chance of winning or because someone's gotten money hungry and is holding out for more.

You hear a lot about asbestos litigation. Yet if you research cases in a lot of these counties, you won't come up with a single case. Hundreds are filed each year in my county alone. What happens to them? They settle. For a pittance. They might sue ten different companies, and get less than $2000 from each of them. By the time it's all said and done, the plaintiff gets so little that it's barely worth their time.

Also, I don't think people get that a lot of these cases aren't class action. Asbestos cases aren't class action. Most of the time, these lawyers seek out new clients. They get one client, see who his former co-workers were, contact them and see if they want to be represented. It doesn't cost the plaintiff anything, and yet it's not class action. But I wholeheartedly agree with the current plans to reform class action suits as well. Let's not clog up certain courts while ignoring others.

I'm in law school. In a few years, I will be a lawyer. And yes, tort reform will hurt the lawyers. But I'll fight for it anyway. It absolutely needs to happen.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On Sat, 19 Feb 2005 21:51:18 -0500, Ion wrote: My last night's entry

Some pre-emptive legal action against the present president could have helped, too late now. But - - - what next Mr. Dubya

http://bastion.diaryland.com/1913.html

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Well said my friend, and there are areas of agreement between us. I guess my main concern is that I get nervous when Dubya puts on the "Do Good" coat. He seems to be slanted too much toward corporations, industry and big business in general. My fear is that he will go much too far in what he does or has done or hopes to do.

I do agree that something should be done, but I think it should be done by someone more expert in fair play. Thank you much for your input. There is always room for A Different View . . . . . .

Blog