Correspondence
Correspondence BULLY FOR YOU! MATT LABASH'S "Beating Up on Bullies" (Feb. 24) was dead on. Who doesn't have a memory of being bullied as a child? I remember my shining moment came in the sixth...
...And the freedom to criticize others, whether fairly or unfairly, is part of our right of free speech...
...Most people fear us because of our Merlin-like prowess in the dark arts of computers...
...said another way: "All I ever needed to know about saddam Hussein I learned in grammar school...
...The ability to laugh at oneself is also good...
...They've grown up, just as nearly everyone does...
...MARVIN COHEN New Haven, CT BULLY CONTROL PROGRAMS have a long-term problem...
...anti-bullying efforts was right on...
...An aggressive anti-bullying campaign that will disrupt social order and the material well-being of France is unthinkable...
...MARK MITCHELL St...
...On another point in Labash's article: I'm in the IT industry (read: I'm a computer geek...
...We began taunting him...
...Instead of folding up the money-changing table where they presently conduct business with Iraq in the Temple of Democracy, the French are turning their cheeks (again and again) in the hope of preserving the social and economic status quo...
...There's another aspect of this problem that needs to be addressed...
...We would make sure the teacher saw him picking on us...
...We will absolutely get hurt if we don't confront him...
...This would reduce the number of marginal cases attorneys would be willing to take and would increase the likelihood that a defendant would take a case to court rather than settle for a nominal amount to avoid the cost, stress, and risk of litigation...
...Punitive damages are the fundamental issue...
...HERRING Birmingham, AL I READ WITH GREAT INTEREST Matt Labash's "Beating Up on Bullies...
...Religion can and does do more to stop bullying than all the weekly meetings, questionnaires, and on-site coordinators put together...
...I remember my shining moment came in the sixth grade...
...A solvent, high-profile lawyer would have much deeper pockets...
...I've been a target of bullies, and they should have been dealt with by their parents and the school principal, but by no means should the entire school population get immersed in "anti-bullying" propaganda...
...Lawyers who consistently do so in hopes of the big payout should be as subject to discipline and public censure as are incompetent physicians...
...since that time, French officials have constructed an artificial solidarity based on "peace education...
...Then we realized that we were smarter than he...
...policy on Iraq...
...We used to dread recess because of him...
...This was a battle of French mounted knights of armor versus English infantry armed with long bows and axes and it destroyed a whole generation of French nobles...
...I don't see any bullying on the job...
...GERARD R. CLEERE Scottsdale, AZ OUR FRIENDS THE FRENCH AS A VETERAN AND VERTEBRATE, I figure that any time spent mocking the French is time well spent...
...However, as a professor of world history, i must (reluctantly) point out that the French did win a big one, contra "French Military History in a Nutshell" (Parody, Feb...
...We teased him, we called him names...
...They are just as dangerous and ultimately far more costly...
...My friends and I were tormented by a kid who had failed the sixth grade three times...
...On his deathbed, the French godfather of social science, Henri de saint-Simon, proposed a "New Christianity...
...In some areas of tort practice (medical malpractice leaps to mind), well more than half (some reports are as high as 90 percent) of the cases that reach the courts are resolved in favor of the defendant...
...Maybe that's what these programs should do, just give the kids time to be kids and let them grow out of it...
...Finally, the liberals will allow God in public schools...
...24): the Battle of Poitiers in 732 a.d., when Charles Martel (Charlemagne's grandfather) defeated the invading Muslim army from North Africa—thereby insuring the right of all Europeans to refuse to go to church, rather than mosque, for the next 1,300 years...
...Louis, MO MATT LABASH'S ARTICLE on anti-bullying programs in public schools has the added bonus of (perhaps unknowingly) shedding light on a key reason why France has stubbornly refused to support the U.S...
...Our "bully control" programs have the long-term effect of denying our children the very lessons that they need to learn to survive in this nasty world...
...NEAL BAND East Lansing, MI...
...unless they commit a crime, abandon their clients, or steal money, lawyers are unlikely to be disciplined, let alone sued, for anything that resembles "malpractice...
...Then, when bullies are megalomaniac tyrants and confrontations can mean dead and broken bodies, our grown children have neither the experience nor the guts to take on the bully...
...I should think this would be popular legislation in many states...
...the lottery incentive would be removed...
...Frankly, a little ridicule is good for people...
...Here is a better solution: Plaintiffs' lawyers who take cases on a contingency basis are far more than financial partners...
...We forced him to come at us . . . and the teacher caught him...
...He never bothered us again...
...As usual, the do-gooders have found another way to do harm in the name of doing good...
...There is nothing equivalent to the massive system of peer review that is in place to help insure that physicians are not only well qualified, but that they practice within a realm of reasonableness and safety...
...BARBARA HARTY-GOLDER Sarasota, FL THOUGH INTERESTING, William Tucker's proposed solution to the tort litigation scandal would likely bring on the argument that some deserving plaintiffs would be denied their day in court because their claims might be thought by plaintiffs' lawyers to be too risky...
...Many statutes and many states have "loser pays" provisions already—but the problem is that the plaintiff, if the loser, is frequently insolvent and there is no one from whom to collect...
...We may get hurt in the confrontation...
...Maybe the geeks in Britain just happen to be French imports, who take offense at everything...
...That means, by definition, that the lawyer has taken and propagated a meritless case at great cost to the defendant and the public at large...
...And like every schoolyard bully, he has to be confronted...
...Lawyers (not their law firms) should then be required to certify that, if they take a contingency case, they will be responsible for paying such levied fees and costs up to a statutory limit ($250,000 per case, up to three a year— the financial responsibility required of physicians in Florida for malpractice judgments) or lose their license to practice law...
...But a compelled artificial solidarity is no substitute for an authentic solidarity inspired by the notion that the key to True Order is the willingness to lose one's life so that others may gain theirs...
...such a scheme would punish the defendant and allow the plaintiff to be made whole for his real damages...
...France worships at the altar of social planning...
...Bully for the United states as it attempts to turn the tables on the real bullies...
...they are co-plaintiffs...
...Against a large French army the small English army of professional soldiers under the command of Henry V led the day...
...They deny or minimize the very valuable lessons that personally dealing with bullies teaches both the child being bullied and the child bully...
...I am from a small town, and when I return there, I see some of the guys that used to bully me and others...
...Why not provide for punitive damage payments (unreduced by lawyers' contingent fees) to be paid to some public or private agency with an interest in the area giving rise to the claim (e.g., punitive damages against automobile companies might be paid to the National Highway Safety Administration...
...When we got the much desired, "Louie, the next time I catch you picking on those boys . . . ," we moved in for the kill...
...TIMOTHY R. FURNISH Alpharetta, GA ALTHOUGH THE FRENCH finally got their act together during the 100 Years War, thanks to St...
...I say this because the chorus of the theme song for the anti-bullying movement is: Don't laugh at me Don't call me names Don't get your pleasure from my pain In God's eyes we're all the same Someday we'll all have perfect wings Don't laugh at me I hope you aren't going to tell me that God has been expunged by Peter Yarrow in his rewrite...
...CINDY JACOBS Los Angeles, CA LAWYERS SHOULD PAY UP WILLIAM TUCKER'S "Getting Fat on Torts" (Feb...
...they didn't have to explore their feelings and mirror others...
...In his opinion, social order could only be restored to post-revolutionary France through a commitment to a planned society held together by a system of non-theistic (i.e., atheistic) New Testament values...
...As such, they should bear the financial costs of litigation if they lose, more than simply the loss of their time and effort...
...24) is an excellent beginning, but veers off course...
...They are supposed to punish the wrongdoer for outrageous conduct, not provide a windfall for a plaintiff and his lawyer...
...We deny them these lessons when bullies are small and confrontations are bruises and cut lips...
...You know what...
...Awarding a user fee to the courts in the case of big-ticket litigation would only exacerbate the problem: Courts with lots of money would either find litigious, invasive, and ultimately (to the rest of us) offensive ways to spend it, or they would serve as conduits to transfer the money to the other branches of government that would squander it in the usual way...
...Joan d'Arc, the great battle of Agincourt in 1415 should not be glossed over...
...Lawyers, unlike physicians and other professionals, are subject to very little scrutiny for the way in which they conduct their business...
...JIM KELLY Atlanta, GA DESPITE being a Peter, Paul & Mary, and John Denver fan, I felt that "Beating Up on Bullies" by Matt Labash on p.c...
...And such a provision would affect all litigation, not just the big-ticket cases...
...saddam is a schoolyard bully...
...At the time, I would swear he stood seven feet tall and was solid muscle...
...if physicians lost half the patients they treated, the public would be up in arms and demand better results...
...They just grew up...
...I talk with these guys, I laugh with them, maybe even have a beer with them...
...They didn't take any DLAM training...
...J.C...
...Most important, these "user fees" or "surety bonds" would do nothing to stop the endless stream of merit-less litigation that occurs at a lower economic level but is just as crippling to society...
Vol. 8 • March 2003 • No. 25
