Tort Reform

MY FATHER was a tort lawyer, and was very good at it, but he hated it. He wanted to be a musician, but his parents were willing to send him to college only on the condition that he become a lawyer, like my grandfather. He wanted to be a musician, he was a good one, and he loved it, but in the nineteen thirties a career in music, especially in jazz, was not respectable.

Personal injury legal liability trial lawyers are affectionately known as "ambulance chasers", not entirely without good reason, but wherever you have a lawyer you have another lawyer, usually opposed, on the other side of the courtroom. In tort cases these people represent the defendant, which is usually a business, a corporation, or a municipality.

My father described one of his favorite courtroom tricks: the plaintiff sits on the witness stand, wearing a neck brace. Dad walks back and forth across the courtroom, asking questions. Suddenly dad looks at the jury, and remarks, "please notice how the witness turned his head the entire time i was talking to him, following me around the room with his eyes".

Well done, dad. really something to be proud of. the insurance companies loved the money he saved for them, and mom, sis and i loved the things the attorney's fees brought.

Medical liability is often blamed for the enormous cost of health care in america; attorney's fees, mal practice insurance, huge awards by juries against those found guilty of medical malpractice.

Tort reform is a big issue in america, with good cause. probably some monetary limit should be placed on both damages and punitive awards. Since every human life is priceless, and its therefore impossible to determine the dollar value of any human life, why not require that all such determinations be reasonable, neither exoribant nor trifling?

Little people who are seriously injured by negligence on the part of big corporations, hospitals and such, should be fairly compensated for their suffering. But that compensation should not destroy the party being sued. 

Fixing the System requires changes, but not comprehensive, sweeping changes.

Bb

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