Tim May wrote:
We as a culture have swung far away from "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me" toward a culture of lawsuits. And the lawyer lobby supports and embraces this culture, getting laws passed making it easier every day to suppress speech.
For my first year of law school I'm taking Contracts, Criminal Law, Legal Writing, and Torts. The books for the first three subjects aren't too bad from a "lawyers are scum" perspective, but both of my torts books had me screaming within twenty pages. In one, the authors argue for greatly increasing the scope of tort offenses and reducing the permissible defenses [1]. As if the US doesn't have enough frivolous and nonsensical lawsuits. In the other, on page 3 yet, the authors argue that if someone is injured such that he can no longer work, _someone_ should be held financially liable because society has lost the first person's wages [2]. That seems just half a step from saying that the people are the property of the state. Maybe I'm reading too much into poorly-phrased paragraphs, but I haven't seen anything in either book to contradict the bad impression. [1] _Understanding Torts_, Diamond, Levine, and Madden, Matthew Bender. [2] _Torts and Compensation_ 3rd ed, Dobbs and Hayden, West Publishing See http://www.overlawyered.com for a jaundiced view of the legal system. The site editor, Walter Olsen, has particular "issues" with plaintiff's lawyers. -- Steve Furlong, Computer Condottiere Have GNU, will travel 518-374-4720 sfurlong@acmenet.net