Years ago, my mother tried to nudge me into the legal field, not because of the earning potential, prestige, or ability to make a lateral move into politics or other sell-your-soul careers, but simply because I like to argue.
And while I find law fascinating in many respects, I would never want to be a lawyer.
After all, I’m rather attached to my soul, and don’t really have any desire to place myself into the most made-fun of career ever in existence.
But the legal field in recent years has become riddled with a surreal amount of bottomless stupid lawsuits, and I, in my morbid fascination, have been following some of the more asinine cases.
Of course, we’ve all heard the story of the 56-year-old man suing fast-food giants over the fact that they made him obese.
The funniest part of this whole lawsuit is a quote by John Doyle of the Center for Consumer Freedom, a restaurant industry group, who says, “To win his suit [the plaintiff] has to convince a jury or a judge that people are too stupid to feed themselves or their children.”
Ultimately, this lawsuit and many others only help reinforce the fact that many lawyers are practicing barratry, or the fine art of initiating countless groundless lawsuits for the purpose of lining their pockets and annoying the hell out of us more rational individuals.
It’s getting so bad that I almost expect the next time I drive up to my favorite nationally franchised obesity codependent enabler, I’ll have to sign my credit card receipt, three indemnification releases, and a liability waiver before I can get my daily recommended dose of America’s favorite nutrient: grease.
Enter here the concept of tort reform. A tort, in effect, is the pursuit of legal action based off of some damage or liability through negligence or willfulness.
Therefore, tort reform is a complex series of laws designed to prevent such barratry and to protect the U.S. civil court system from the sandblasting of superfluous cases it has been constantly receiving.
In effect, this election-year buzzword has the propensity to help curb our fast food and lawsuit hungry society to a slightly less loony level of legal whining.
Fortunately, our current state and federal candidates have all listed tort reform as an issue to focus on.
Just the other day, CNN reported that House Republicans passed a bill limiting frivolous lawsuits.
Democrats were cautious of the bill, claiming that it limited people’s access to the courts in far too an extreme a manner.
John Kerry and John Edwards have been pushing the issue and trying to make this a major election debate topic, especially Edwards, who is a former trial attorney.
George W. Bush, of course, has gotten behind medical tort reform by proclaiming, in his usual mind-blowing method: “We’ve got an issue in America. Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB-GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women all across this country.”
Both Republicans and Democrats agree that tort reform is necessary for countless reasons. What differs is their approach.
As a primarily bi-partisan society, we’re still trying to find the fine line between limiting legitimate access to the courts, and preventing the more lunatic litigation from ever crossing the court clerk’s desk.
In the end, however, I think we can all agree on two simple absolute truths: coffee is hot and fast food is bad for you.
Originally printed with permission inThe Daily O’Collegian, September 30th, 2004
2 Comments to “Would you like fries with your due process?”
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Have a look at the better side of things.
It has improved the patient access to health care and lowered the insurance costs for doctors, hospitals and nursing homes.
Hospital savings are being plowed into a variety of health care service enhancements ranging from the development of electronic medical records systems to the recruitment of more specialist physicians.
It has to be implemented not only in some states but also in the whole of States.
I got this information from the official website of the Co-Founder and Chairman of Texans for Lawsuit Reform ,www.dickweekley.com
Have a look at the better side of things.
After all it has strengthened the state’s economy in a variety of ways and are improving the quality of life for every Texan
I really dnt understand y there is such a big fuss on tort reforms. I wanted to know more about tort reforms and came across this site, which has got enough information on tort reform. Check it out
http://www.dickweekley.com