Miscellaneous

Tiptoeing through the Torts

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Not long ago, the New York Review of Books ran a review of Philip K. Howard's lament, Life Without Lawyers. (See Shall We Get Rid of the Lawyers?, Anthony Lewis, NYRB, vol. 56, no. 6, April 9, 2009.)

The reviewer asked whether people really tiptoe through the law -- because he himself did not.

This month's issue contains letters from Philip K. Howard, Harrison Sheppard, and Anthony Lewis. Howard claims he really does tiptoe, and suggests that Lewis might, too.

But given Howard's examples -- school[s], hospital[s], government agenc[ies], or large office[s] -- perhaps they should tiptoe. These are massive entities, all of which affect major parts of our lives. Our health (even life or death), Constitutional freedoms, and anything a government agency might regulate (food, drugs, agriculture, firearms, tobacco, alcohol, you name it!) are at stake. Why shouldn't we be able to use the civil justice system when wronged by one of these heavies?

It reminds us of an exchange we once witnessed between a law student and a medical student. The law student said I could really mess up someone's life. The medical student said I could KILL someone!

For his part, Sheppard advocates for retooling the law schools. He would transform them from a war-making model of legal practice into a peacemaking, problem-solving model.

We're all for that, but it doesn't change the fact that one person's litigious society is another's civil justice system. Given the choice, we'll take the Seventh Amendment.

Happy reading!

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on May 01, 2009 (boomark / email).