Posted on 07/29/2002 9:17:11 AM PDT by COURAGE
Ron Smith's Something to Say Weekday Mornings 6:50AM rsmith@wbal.com
The Damage They Do: Can it be fixed? July 26, 2002 Ron Smith's Something to Say
(July 26, 2002)
Its hardly news that American society is paralyzed by fear of rampaging lawyers and their ruinous penchant for suing the crap out of anybody and everybody. We know that the legal system has become an instrument for legalized extortion. We know that ordinary people understand that the potential exists for turning all sorts of annoyances into a personal financial windfall through the sleight of hand of tort law. We know that judges and lawyers form an unholy alliance that shapes our society. What we dont know is what to do about it.
So, we talked with Phillip K. Howard yesterday about his latest book, The Collapse of the Common Good: How Americas Lawsuit Culture Undermines Our Freedom. He claims that this lawsuit culture has virtually destroyed the concept of authority in the name of enforcing individual rights. The cost is incalculable, ordinary choices are often paralyzed. Fear and suspicion now infect daily dealings in the workplace. And so on
Mr. Howard touchingly believes that the American people can cure this societal malady through learning how to do what earlier generations did easily: joining together to work toward the common good. Even while acknowledging the atomized nature of our current society, he say we the people can take back the authority needed to fix things by banding together and insisting on the restoration of a system of values.
I admire his optimism, especially since my own belief is that the clock can never be turned back to an earlier, presumably happier, time. The legal profession now costs us more than $700 billion a year, according to informed estimates. Thats a lot of moolah. Furthermore, I read the other day that the current soft job market for college grads is leading ever more of them to apply to law schools. So, well have ever more of these hungry barracudas milling about in the years ahead, looking to be fed.
If you think these words too harsh, just remember what Jesus Christ himself said:
Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! For ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers
ye have taken away the key of knowledge
. St. Luke 11: 46, 52.
I know some honorable ones that agree.
I was talking to my father about this subject the other night. When did the insanity start? We didn't have these sorts of bogus lawsuits in the first 175 years of the Republic, after all.
I'm guessing that like so much else, the downhill slide started in the 1960's. But why? What happened?
I really ought not to do this, because I personally cannot help but hate an awful lot of lawyers, I freely admit that.
But this quote, attributed to Shakespeare, is out of context. It's my understanding the full quote is something along the lines of "If you want anarchy, first thing, kill all the lawyers." which is certainly different than what is implied today.
Mr. Shakespeare might change his mind, though, if he were to observe modern 21st Century America.
May I suggest one refinement? "Losing lawyer pays."
This would virtually guarantee no frivolous lawsuits even where an unscrupulous lawyer fishing for work might otherwise try to get a client to file a unwinnable suit.
I can't believe I wrote that. "An", obviously.
..ever was...same as it ever was....same as it ever was....sam
One basic premise essential to this system is the principal that you any activity can and will be insured. This we known is not true. So among the unintended consequences of this theory is a tightening of what activities the general public can engage in. Of course if this were just about bungee jumping, there would be no losses (really). However, it is not just about bungee jumping. It is also about making vaccines, research and development of new drugs and advancements in civil aircraft manufacture (it is no coincidence that there have been almost no new civil aircraft designed and manufacture in the last twenty years- too much litigation risk).
Like all liberal ideas, the law and economics theory sounds good but sucks in practice. It disregards the costs of legal process and is a whole hearted retreat from the concept that the civil legal system is to provide redress from negligent conduct in favor of the creation of a general right of action by consumers against business. We have lost economic freedom and there were no votes nor were we consulted in any fashion.
The concept of loser pays will only partially repair the damage. As to whether we can go back, I am not sure that the judges of these United States would allow it without a significant constitutional amendment. Surely the liberal judges would not.
"The history of liberalism is the history of substituting what sounds good for what works."
I forget who said it. Might have been Bill Buckley.
--Boris
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