From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Apr 02 2002 - 09:50:36 MST
>From: "Smigrodzki, Rafal" <SmigrodzkiR@msx.upmc.edu>
>Zero Powers [mailto:zero_powers@hotmail.com] wrote:
>
>Blaming
>litigiousness on lawyers is like blaming forest fires on firefighters.
>Lawyers can't litigate with having clients (most of whom are *not* lawyers)
>who are involved in litigation.
>
>### reality is more complicated. Tort laws and the erosion of contract law
>(under the control of some illustrious legal theorists, and spurred on by
>the rank-and-file lawyers) created a situation where enormous economical
>incentives exist for both lawyers and plaintiffs to attack.
Listen, I'm no plaintiff's lawyer, in fact quite the opposite. But the fact
of the matter is that the great majority of Americans favor a legal system
wherein individuals are allowed to seek redress for their injuries caused by
others in civil courts of law. Granted the plaintiff's bar benefits as much
as their clients many times. But, hey, nobody wants to work for free. And,
believe me, litigation is *work*.
Your post leads me to believe that you don't have much real world experience
with the world of civil litigation. For instance what do you mean by the
"erosion of contract law?" I've been practicing law for well over a decade
now and have yet to see anything like "erosion" in the law of contracts.
Perhaps you could eloborate.
>A tort reform, and institution of a "loser pays the legal costs" rule,
>would
>come a long way to improving the situation.
In California that *is* the rule. You lose, you pay the other side's costs.
In several instances those costs also include attorney's fees.
-Zero
"I'm a seeker too. But my dreams aren't like yours. I can't help thinking
that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man.
Has to be." -- George Taylor _Planet of the Apes_ (1968)
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