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EDITOR’S NOTE Torts and Retorts

Are Lawyers and Lawsuits Destroying America?
By Chris Tucker |

ONE OF THE BIG BOOKS OF LAST YEAR WAS The Death of Common Sense, in which Philip Howard, himself an attorney, argued that our nation is lost in a labyrinth of litigation. Legal bills mount and dockets groan as we sue ourselves into oblivion. So the world ends-not with a bang but a motion for continuance.

Some of the leading attorneys we profile this month (“Dallas’ Top Lawyers,” page 58) certainly hold that view. Others vehemently disagree. It’s one of those societal dilemmas in which the macro view collides with the micro view.

Clearly, life today has a far more litigious tone than it had 20 years ago. Corporations and individuals sue and get sued more often, prompting calls for tort reform across the nation. In the last session of the Texas Legislature, restrictions were placed on punitive damages, and the concept of joint and several liability was altered to limit a single defendant’s liability when co-defendants are named in a suit.

Looking at the big picture, these seem like sensible reforms, long overdue. No nation ever sued its way to greatness, tort reformers say, They’re right.

But what about the micro view? The summer I graduated from college, I worked at a local company that used hazardous chemicals, including sulfuric acid, on the production line. The gallon bottles of acid were normally stored beside our work station-close to an emergency shower-but one day the delivery people, in a hurry, left them in a distant corner of the building. Near the end of our shift, I was sent to get two bottles of acid. On the way back I turned to speak to a coworker and as I did, one of the bottles bumped against a pipe and broke. Slipping on the slick floor, I dropped the other gallon and fell hard onto the jagged edge of a broken bottle, which sliced through the muscle and nerves in my left thigh before hitting the bone.

Among my first visitors in the hospital were two executives from the company, who after brief condolences asked me to sign a paper I stating that the accident was all my fault; in return, they would cover medical bills up to some amount or other. Luckily I was too sedated to sign. I spent the next two months on crutches while the burns and cuts healed and my lawyer, working on contingency, raised a number of questions about improper storage of hazardous materials, the use of breakable containers, and so forth. Eventually they settled out of court for $5,000 and payment of medical bills for two years.

Which left me with the question juries must answer every day: What’s an injury worth? There’s a long, ugly scar on my left calf, and because the sciatic nerve was cut, painful electric tingles run up and down my leg from time to time. Now I never wanted to model underwear or run marathons, so it’s hard to say the injury limited my opportunities or earnings. Some have told me I deserved nothing, since, after all. I contributed to the accident, while one attorney friend says we were crazy not to go after the big money and sue the makers of the bottles.

Anyway, that’s why I’m in a state of permanent ambivalence about the litigation explosion. My head tells me one thing; some days, my leg tells me another. Maybe it’s all a matter of where you stand.

THIS MONTH WE WELCOME Kimberly Goad to the magazine. Kim has spent the past six years writing for the “High Profile” section of The Dallass Morning News, where her subjects have included Laura Bush, Selena, Sharon McCutchin, Edward Albee. Susan Powter, and Jim Lehrer. In addition to writing features, Kim will oversee our coverage of fashion, home, and design. Also starting this month, frequent contributor Sally Guldens Stephenson, who covered business and real estate for D in the late ’80s, will report on the luxury-home market. Her first foray begins on page 120.

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