What kind of lawyer is John Edwards?
John Stossel has an interesting article on unintended consequences of lawsuits. I have wondered why the number C-sections keeps rising. Is it true that three fourths of all obstetricians have been sued?
I watched John Stossel on CSPAN and he made a compelling argument against some lawsuits. He talked about how as a consumer reporter for ABC, lawyers would try to hand him ready made stories on the supposed dangers of this product as the first stage in developing a class action lawsuit. After this, I think twice now about the objectivity and accuracy of the various X considered harmful stories when I see one on the news.
I told my mom about seeing Stossel on CSPAN and she bought his book and enjoyed it. She gave it to my brother to bring to me and I am looking forward to getting it one of these days.
I can see a need for tort reform when lawyers set up lawsuit factories to practice legal extortion. Would you vote for Edwards if he were formerly a lawyer for Acacia or SCO? I would like to see more information on Edward's trial cases before the election.
UPDATE: NYT article on Edwards trial work including more information on Cerebral Palsy C-section lawsuits.
I agree that the actions of lawyers have worsened things for regular folks in some cases. But John Stossel is not much different than Geraldo Rivera in my eyes. He's a sensationalist TV guy and makes as much money chasing abulances as a lawyer. I wold find a more reliable source.
I think you have to look at our legal system through the lens of our semi free market society. We don't like the govenment doing everything for us and lawyers are part of the checks and balances. Democracies and free market systems are unfortunately woefully ineffecient in the path they take to meet their goals, but they seem to be the best system at eventually getting to a fair resolution of those goals.
On the flip side of the coin are some the scary statistics about malpractice. There are stats that 80,000 people die each year due in part to hospital or doctor negligence. That a third of autopsies reveal misdiagnosis. And on and on. It ends up that hospitals are no better than law firms, doctors no better than lawyers.
TV makes lots of money scaring people. For real stats about Medical Malpractice see: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/mmtvlc01.htm
As for the Vice Presidental qualifications, I'll pester a bit and ask: Would you vote for the CEO of a company who chose to do $23.8m worth of contracts for the sale of oil industry parts and equipment to Iraq in 1998 and 1999?
By CT on July 30th, 2004 at 2:37 pmStossel is one of the very, very few reporters/t.v. personalities that can be trusted to give us the news we need. Does he have a bias? Of course he does. What's interesting is that it is so different from the bias we're spoon fed morning till night on the networks. The amazing thing is that he works for ABC.
By DiAblo on August 8th, 2004 at 8:04 am[...] alpractice and the real cost being the practice of defensive medicine. I've blogged about tort reform before. Kerry's response on the abortion question was terrible and mean [...]
By Lively Debate » Bush vs. Kerry Debate 2 on October 9th, 2004 at 3:44 am