Thursday, August 16, 2012

Could We At Least Shoot The Ambulance Chasers?

                                                 
I dare you to watch TV for an hour and not be bombarded with at least half a dozen of those slimy personal injury lawyers.  I hate them.  The gag factor is in full throttle when those ads appear.The world would be better off with fully half of them dropping off a nice steep cliff.

We are a nation of law.  We need lawyers.  But today we drowning in a cesspool of ambulance chasing lawyers who cost us untold billions in increased costs for every facet of our economy.  A General Practitioner doctor pays more than a hundred thousand dollars a year in malpractice insurance...and passes the costs to you on their bills.  Tobacco companies are still killing us but they charge $65 bucks for a carton of cigarettes in Arizona in order to fund the costs of all those personal and government lawyers.

How about the millions of lawsuits against the drug companies.  While I will readily admit the drug companies are greedy monsters, they are trying to formulate drugs which will save or extend life.  Those drugs go through years of patient testings, with the FDA looking over their shoulder every minute, but can never guarantee that every single patient taking their drugs will not have adverse side effects.  Yet the lawyers feed on every one of these adverse drug experiences, like jackals on a corpse!  They could care less about the client, as evidenced by the fact that most of the proceeds of these lawsuits go to the law firm.

And, if they really cared about their fellow man would lawyers fight tooth and nail in court to keep drunk drivers on the road?  Why not?  After all, when that drunk hits the road next time they can take the other side, the injured,  and sue the insurance company for millions!

Don't like your neighbor's tree overhanging your fence?  Don't even bother talking to him first; call your lawyer and sue the bastard!   Need a little extra cash?  Go into Walmart, pour a little shampoo on the floor and intentionally slip on it;  your lawyer will line you up with a chiropractor, get you a doc to say you're disabled and get you some big bucks!  Of course, Walmart will pass those costs on to the customer but who cares?

Remember when the Dems were writing Obamacare?  The Republicans dared to suggest that tort reform to keep attorneys from winning million dollar lawsuits for a broken toe?  The Dems killed it faster than you can whisper "lobbyist".  Yeah, that's right!  We don't know how much the Trial Lawyer's Association contribute in total to Dems throughout the year, but thanks to Presidential candidate reporting laws we know that the TLA gave Obama more than $25 million in 2008! What the hell!  They can certainly afford it.  After all they enrich themselves at our expense!


4 comments:

Ken said...

Before the depression my last year in the contracting biz, I grossed less than $500,000 but insurance cost me $29,000 in liability and another nearly $50,000 in compensation insurance all due to the frivolous lawsuits of employees and customers. One of our biggest problems was the lawsuits brought for fraudulent back injuries incurred by illegals on their way back to mexico when work ran out. With the help of sleazy ambulance chasers they figured our system out real quick. Rest assured though, the costs were just put onto the next bid and our customers had to pay. The trouble is though, the cost of insurance is based on experience modifications, more claims, higher cost, hence rendering the contractor non-competitive and unable to get the work.
Lawyers are causing a lot more harm than good in all aspects of American life. The most important would be the desire to invent or to attempt new things. Why stick your neck out so some spineless, bottom feeder can get rich on your dreams, destroying you and your family in the process. This IS "sad, damned sad"

A Modest Scribler said...

Wow, Ken, that is one lousy experience! But you're right, these frivolous law suits infect every phase of our lives...and ruins them.

I'm hoping someone in Washington will get to tort reform one of these years. It won't be the Dems; they thrive on TLA donations.

Anonymous said...

The previous comment are by obviously people who have never been injured or had a a loved one injured or killed by a company cutting corners on safety, or Big Pharma hiding bad drug results. They would be the loudest to complain if that were the case....

A Modest Scribler said...

Anon, I don't think that's the case at all. If a person has been harmed by a drug, then fine, get a lawyer and sue. What we don't like is having these ambulance chasers initiate a nation wide class action lawsuit, go on TV to cull even the most fringe complaints, and all for the almight dollar.

And there are far too many court judgements where the fine is excessive to the charge.
Thanks for comnenting.