Dear John,
Thank you for your wonderful piece on Fox News Thursday night. It is so nice to see an unbiased report on an unbiased network. The only thing that could have been better is if you did a show from the henhouse interviewing foxes about why they should be the ones guarding them.
For those who may read this letter and not know you, John Stossel is a "journalist" on Fox News and hosts a one hour TV show. The other night, you did a show on "litigious America" where you criticized lawsuits and suggested that our system follow the rest of the world where the losers pays the cost of defense. Before addressing why that may not be a good idea, let me agree with a few of your points.
First, the lawyers ads on TV are atrocious. Most of these ads appeal to the lowest common denominator, and these attorneys are simply trying to make a buck. Unfortunately, they give those of us who are trying to represent individuals in legitimate cases a bad name. They are treating their clients as inventory, and they are simply running a business, not practicing a profession. Furthermore, when we go to court with legitimate claims, the juries look at us like we are the lawyers on tv. If you have an idea of how to eliminate these commercials, we are here with open ears.
Second, there have been some ridiculous lawsuits in this country. The D.C. judge who filed the pants suit as well as a host of other such lawsuits. Most of these cases are thrown out of court, and additionally, most attorneys, such as myself, would not take such a case. We have to invest our own money in these cases, and if we lose, we lose our money. We don’t assume the other side will settle. That is a dangerous way to practice law.
Unfortunately, you fail to explain to people that the courts have rules to take care of such cases. Rule 11 of the Rules of Civil Procedure allows Judges to sanction attorneys for frivolous cases. If there are so many such cases out there then why don’t the judges simply employ Rule 11. Additionally, you fail to explain the economics of a case. An automobile products liability case costs anywhere from $250,000-$500,000 or more to prosecute. If the attorney loses the case, he loses that money. You don’t take such a gamble lightly.
Third, there are bad attorneys out there. There are attorneys who simply want to make a dollar and abuse the system. And, there are those people out there who desire to do the same, but guess what? There are bad insurance salesmen. There are bad doctors. There are bad stockbrokers. There are bad restaurants. And, believe it or not, there are bad journalists, and your story shows as much.
You throw out all these warning labels on your show and suggest that they are all the results of lawsuits. How about some proof or evidence of that? Maybe, the people at the company who put those labels on their products are the idiots. Maybe, they put those labels on the products thinking that it might dissuade someone from filing a meritorious claim in the future.
How about showing some legitimate claims such as those that involved the Ford Pinto years ago?How about interviewing the families of loved ones who are deceased or paralyzed as a result of a defective product? How about showing the cost to care for an individual who has been paralyzed? How about doing some investigation on the Toyota Acceleration issue and families whose lives have changed because Toyota wouldn’t fix the problem?
You suggest that our legal system is different than every other country in the world because the loser pays. Well, we are. The United States is different from other countries in other respects as well. Should we change those aspects of our country? Should we change from capitalism to socialism. Maybe communism would fit us well.
The idea of the loser pays is ludicrous. The reason we have contingent lawsuits is to have a check on the system. Someone who lives in public housing and is paralyzed from a defective product can fight the large corporation responsible because of the defective product. But, they are not guaranteed to win their case. It is up to the twelve people on the jury, and if those twelve people rule against her, how will she pay several hundred thousand dollars in costs. How would investors and employees fight Enron, Tyco, Worldcom, HealthSouth, and others to get their money back from criminals?
In your post show, your "guest" suggested that attorneys poured more money into political campaigns over healthcare than various healthcare industries. Are you suggesting that attorneys have more money than the Fortune 500 companies of the world? Do you think Karl Rove did not help get certain judges elected in this country in order to get more money into his candidates pockets? Why don’t you investigate the actual cost of malpractice cases on healthcare? Ummm, maybe less than 1%, and those include legitimate malpractice claims.
You have shown your lack of journalistic integrity by taking a subject near and dear to corporate hearts and using it to continue the jury brainwashing which started over thirty (30) years ago. You are perpetuating the myths the insurance industry and fortune 500 corporations want you to perpetuate. Come to Alabama, and I will show you how difficult it is to pursue and win a contingent fee case with merit. Tort reform has taken over most of the country, and all it has done is hurt the legitimate claims. Frivolous lawsuits should be capped at $0.00, but meritorious claims should not be capped. Caps only hurt the meritorious claims.
I will leave you with several thoughts which might be worthy of further investigation on your behalf. In the Pants lawsuit, why did it cost the couple so much? Why wasn’t the case dismissed early in the process? What kind of attorney did they have? Why didn’t they have insurance? If they did have insurance, why didn’t the insurance company defend the claims against the couple? What about defense attorneys who bill by the hour and drag cases out so they can make their fees? What about the fact that defendants can make offers of judgment and get their costs if they win, but plaintiffs can’t? Why don’t you investigate these issues?
I will point out one other reason why there is so much litigation in this country – in my opinion. There are too many attorneys. Law schools are graduating students in droves, and the average attorney’s income across the country is approximately $80,000.00. These new lawyers have to figure out how to make a living so they come up with new, creative ways to do so, and they may include novel legal theories and more lawsuits.
Finally, how you can actually host a show of this nature when you yourself admit that you ran to a lawyer to sue someone who injured you. That’s is the hypocrisy of America at its best.
