The First Thing We Do, Let's Kill All The Lawyers
What I think of the Corpus Smoking Ban
I woke up this morning and turned on the one of the TV news channels. The newscasters were reporting the news without their usual spin on what it all meant. There was no report on how unjust or how politically incorrect America is and not one single article that could be used as propaganda by our enemies. On another channel, I saw a group of congressmen and women commenting about how unbelievably well the last session had gone and how much was accomplished. All the worry about term limits was for naught it seems. It’s amazing what you can get done when you don’t have to campaign throughout your entire term in office. On yet another channel, there was a story on how well the downsizing of the IRS has gone. The agency was now called “The Bureau for Governmental Fiscal Responsibility” and their basic duty was to make sure all Federal contracts were legitimate, necessary, and cost efficient. They were also to assure the amounts on the tax form postcards were valid. I thought, “Wow, what’s going on here?”
I opened the metro newspaper and there was nothing but facts, dates, times, and a brief explanation of the events that took place recently. The editorial page was pretty much unchanged. I then perused my local weekly newspaper and the main topic dealt with what the people of our county should do with the windfall from the consolidation of all government entities that were redundant within the county. There was only one policing entity, one school district, and one central government building, located in the largest city, with satellite offices in smaller towns. Evidently, all the roads had been repaved, the water and sewer system had been completely rebuilt, all the government buildings had been remodeled or rebuilt, and there was still a large surplus of monies in the county bank account. I thought, “You know, we really didn’t need two police forces, five school districts, and a separate city and county government for a population of 30,000 people”.
I went to the mailbox and retrieved my mail (that was just delivered by a strange truck with advertising all over it). I noticed a postcard from the IRS (with a 5 cent stamp on it). It was a simple form asking how much money I earned last year. I was instructed to multiply that amount times 17% and remit that sum to my local BGFR office. On the back of the postcard was a form from the State of Texas asking me to mail a check for the amount I earned times 2% for the State School tax. Also, I was to include $20 extra for every child I had in the school system. If I earned less than $25,000 I owed nothing for either tax. I thought, “What a wonderful idea”.
The doorbell rang and my prescription from the pharmacy was being delivered. The price was less than half what it used to be. I asked the delivery person why the lower price, and he assumed it was the result of barring the pharmaceutical companies from advertising prescription drugs. “Now that was a no brainer”, I thought.
I answered the phone and my insurance carrier wished to explain why my bill for my “Totally Covered Policy” went down from $79 a month to $76. He explained the new “you sue, you lose, you pay” system had worked even better than estimated and everyone was getting a reduced rate. I asked him what exactly does the “Total Coverage Policy” cover? His answer was everything, auto, home, health, business, and the $200,000 life insurance I requested. I was totally speechless.
My mom called and asked me if I had voted yet. I asked her who is running, and for what? She hesitated for a second and then said, “You know, the cowboy and the guy with the bad heart are running for president against the Massachusetts billionaire and the personal injury lawyer.
For the first time today, I actually kind of hoped I was dreaming… Then it hit me, “Why does this scenario have to be a dream? Most of these improvements are going to happen someday strictly out of necessity. Why do we have to dream of a government being fiscally responsible with our monies? Why should we have to dream of common sense being a criteria for the laws of our great country? Why can’t the media show some needed restraint during a time of war? It wasn’t that difficult for them during WW2. Why should some people make an ungodly amount of money being public servants? Why can’t we reign in trial lawyers and the insurance companies? Why can’t local governments be consolidated and downsized?
I then thought about the cowboy and the billionaire and their respective political parties and remembered their only mission is getting their parties elected or re-elected. The business of governing of our country was unfortunately not a top priority for these cowards.
I woke up mad as hell.
I sent this letter to the editor to the Caller. I followed procedure and made sure it wasn't over 250 words. For some reason it was not printed or acknowledged in any way. Perhaps Libby can dish it out but can't take it?
Stress Free Rights
Several scientific studies have
determined the effect of prolonged stress on humans can result in heart disease,
stroke, high blood pressure, and numerous other maladies. I noticed stress is
near epidemic in the Corpus area. After careful scientific research, I decided
the root cause of this stress is the direct result of a very noticeable tilt to
the left our once fine newspaper has recently taken. First, the Kerry
endorsement (I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in that
boardroom) and now the editor and some of her friends have decided they know
more about running our businesses than my colleagues and I. I scientifically
polled my friends in the service industry, and they unanimously believe Libby
and her friends should stay out of our businesses and let us continue to make
every effort to satisfy the needs of our customers. The business of pleasing our
customers IS our business and not something our fine city council should be
burdened with. To help eradicate this growing stress problem in our community, I
have formed a committee, “Stress Free Rights”, that will aid me in my
endeavor. After careful consideration, our group has determined the council
should approach the owners of Scripps Howard with a resolution calling for the
replacement of the current editorial board with people who are more in tune with
our community. Contact Libby at 886-3681,
averytl@caller.com or by cell phone at 779-9223 and express your feelings.
Barry Anthes
“The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers”
William Shakespeare
Most lawyers will argue this phrase from Shakespeare’s “Henry VI” is taken out of context and actually supports their once respected profession. Unfortunately with the advent of oversaturated television advertisement from questionable personal injury lawyers, the phrase has a new relevance to most ordinary people. Unfortunately, the scope in which PIL’s have affected our lives today is not noticeable to the ordinary citizen. The resulting economic debacle of PIL scams such as the mold crisis has caused irreparable monetary loss to the average citizen in the way of higher insurance premiums. Every item we purchase has an added lawsuit premium tacked on to the final cost, either trying to recoup losses or allay future costs associated with frivolous lawsuits. There’s no telling how many products have been scrapped because there is no way to protect the idiot factor from hurting themselves somehow with the ordinary use of helpful gadgets. Only when reminiscing about the “good old days” can you realize the impact their proliferation has had on every day life. When was the last time you had fun at an office party? If you even have one anymore, it will be alcohol free and probably not be funded or sanctioned by the company. When was the last time your neighbor let you borrow a power tool or a car or let your kids swim in their pool? Do you even know who your neighbors are? Have they invited you to a party lately? When was the last time a friend let you hunt on their land? The real fear of a lawsuit has changed the way we live our lives and do our business. Those of you that believe life is actually safer and better because we are protected from ourselves and corporations are either plaintiffs, PIL’s, or looking for the great lawsuit lottery to land on you. I will admit some lawsuits against unscrupulous people and businesses are necessary. Unfortunately those cases are not enough to keep food on the tables of the greedy PIL. They must find any and every excuse to take your insurance money from you in order to survive. They go after insurance monies because they will usually throw money at them to make them go away or because they will have to pay their lawyers more to defend them than the lawsuit is worth. It’s a vicious cycle that will be repeated over and over until some actual tort reforms are put in place. A young man had a very bad accident at my home and as a result I was sued for a substantial sum of money. Although I was in no way responsible for his accident, my insurance company settled for my maximum coverage. I had no problem with this, because the gentleman needed all the help he could get. When I was signing the final papers swearing I had no other insurance policies, I asked the lawyer when the gentleman was going to get his money. I was informed the money, minus the attorney fees, would be forfeited to the government because he was declared indigent and the medical fees were more than the suit covered. I promptly escorted the lawyer out of my business. The only reason I was sued was to line that PIL’s pockets. We are the only civilized society that allows anyone to sue anyone for any reason and the resulting costs are born solely by the defendant. If you sue me for what turns out to be a frivolous reason, you should pay for my pain and suffering and time and money spent defending myself. Contingency fees (the lawyer gets paid from the winnings) should be outlawed. If a case has merit there should be no problem finding a qualified attorney to represent you for a fee that can sometimes be added to the settlement. Accidents still occur, contrary to the thinking of the PIL’s. They believe for every accident that happens there is someone or something somehow negligent to some degree. If I trip over a rock in the street and break my arm, it is not the cities fault that the rock was there, it is not the shoe manufacturers fault because they didn’t build their shoes rock proof, it wasn’t the homeowner that allowed the rock to get into the street; it was purely and simply an accident. If I had been paying more attention it probably wouldn’t have happened. There is absolutely no way to protect everyone from everything; therefore accidents will always happen no matter how many lawyers there are. If you are happy paying more for fewer products, losing more and more personal rights and freedoms, watching your insurance rates climb almost daily and watching the high paying jobs disappear or relocate to a less litigious area then just sit back and relax in your blissful existence. If you are like me and very concerned about financially ruined families, mom and pop businesses and, yes, even once thriving corporations contact your representatives and express your feelings. There are several lawsuit abuse organizations that are doing a good job of getting the word out about this injustice. One of these is Bay Area Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse or BACALA is headquartered in Corpus Christi. CALA is their parent organization and has some interesting links. We cant just sit back and hope this problem will fix itself, it will only get worse without some serious legislative intervention. Unfortunately, this is where the problem lies, as most politicians are also lawyers. Find out all you can about the people you vote for and vote accordingly. Lawsuit abuse is a cancer on our society and is spreading rapidly. Let’s stop it before it is terminal to our economy and before some greedy PIL takes another life savings from an innocent victim.
On a side note, I have a few attorney friends and I would like to assure them that I am not disparaging the entire bar association. As a whole the profession is still worthy, noble and necessary. I have an envious admiration for criminal and defense lawyers and even corporate and tax attorneys have my full support. It is a shame the ABA does not do an adequate job of protecting and maintaining your professional reputations by policing itself better. A few bad apples really do spoil the bunch.