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Part 95 More On Law:
March 22, 2004:
I have just a few more issues of law that I want to present. Then I can move on to the constitutional amendments I think we need. Again I point out that there is no particular order to my list of needed laws.
Because of some stupid judges pandering to the media, I believe we need a new law to get them and their cameras out of our courtrooms. Once and for all, we must get them out of there. We must make it mandatory for the judges to bar live coverage. We must quit making a circus out of every major trial. A public trial does not mean a show trial. It means a trail that is not held in secret. That's all! That is what our founders meant. It was a protest against what King George of England did and what George Bush is doing now in Guantanamo. Take a look at the pertinent amendment, Amendment VI.
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
That does not say anything about making a public celebration and spectacle out of a trial. It calls for a speedy and public trail not a show trial. It also clearly makes what is happening in Guantanamo illegal. There people are being tried by military tribunals. A military tribunal has no place in our American legal system. That kind of sickness belongs to fascism.
Now I must deal with the legal issues of citizenship, honesty, integrity and the blame game. There is a long list of lawsuits that were won when they should not even have been allowed. There should be a way of disallowing these frivolous suits. One of these was by a woman who dumped hot coffee on her crotch while trying to drive a car one handed. Blaming the hamburger place and inadvertently punishing all of us was criminal dishonesty. As I said, the suit should not even have been allowed, let alone won.
Another of these situation are by those fools who use a mouse and keyboard so much that they suffer shoulder or wrist damage. They want to blame the mouse and keyboard makers for their stupidity. Everywhere we look now we find dishonest people who look for someone else to blame whenever they do something stupid. These stupid frivolous damage suits are really hurting all of us. They increase the cost of everything we use. They also undermine the people with legitimate claims for real damages.
When we are truly damaged by someone, either through intent or negligence, that is a good case. We should be able to get that case to court quickly and get it resolved. Right now that is impossible because our courts are bogged down with trivial and frivolous suits. A punk hotdog kid who roles a car over and maims himself should not be allowed to sue. He should have to pay his own costs. That cost should not be passed on to everyone who buys a car.
Somewhere in time we lost the notion of personal responsibility. If America is to survive, we must recover that. People must become responsible for their own behavior. People who sit on juries have to get honest. We have to get rational about this. The idea that corporations have deep pockets so let's burn em does not wash. The corporations do have money, but they will still have it after they lose a dishonest lawsuit. The cost of that suit will be passed on to all of us. It becomes part of the cost of doing business and will be added into the final cost of the product. Jurors who think otherwise are stupid. When they make a dishonest award, we will all pay for that.
It is commonly acknowledged that our court system s are overloaded partly due to these nonsense suites. We need to fix that. As the man said, justice delayed is justice denied. It will help to have laws that limit the number and kind of damage suits that get heard. Attorneys taking case on consignment tie up our system with frivolous suits. We need to do something about that. One way is to limit attorney's commissions. We can at least cut them from obscene to outrageous.
Another step would be to make personal injury attorneys liable for court costs when they bring and lose a frivolous law suit. Never mind making the plaintiff pay or having the court absorb the cost. Make the attorney liable. Right now there is no penalty for an attorney who brings a frivolous suit. He can con a simpleton into filing a nonsense suit and it cost him nothing. There is a penalty for the defendant just in attorney costs, but none for the instigator. That is clearly wrong and it is why we find more and more of these attorneys oozing from under every rock.
Another helpful step would be to make every suit filed go through a pretrial examination by a lay council of some kind. This council would have the power to allow or disallow a case to be tried. This would have to be carefully thought out to prevent abuse, but it could be done. There must be some way of stopping this insanity of blaming others for our errors. If not, we are doomed.
Now, about our government and officials. We need some changes in our bribery laws. I would make it illegal for any government officer at any level to accept any gift of any value whatever from anyone so long as they hold office. We have laws that sort of do that now, but too much is exempted. There must be no way to bribe a public official. When it does happen, we must vigorously enforce the Betrayal of Trust penalties.
Now let's get to truth in advertising. I believe the government should be in the business of exposing Madison Avenue. We cannot stop or suppress Madison Avenue. That would be against all of our principles, but we can punish them for false and misleading advertising. There is no rule that says we must allow deliberate lies to stand. Dishonesty can and should be punished. We can also try to make the people immune to Madison Avenue. We can do that through education. At the same time, we need not allow Madison Avenue to deliberately lie and violate the laws of ethics. They do that consistently now. We can and should put a stop to that. We can prosecute illegal activity wherever it occurs.
In that, the hucksters will argue artistic license. There is a line between artistic license and falsehood, but it is not as broad as they claim it is. We can always look at intent. If the intent is to sell products by misleading statements, there is no license.
My final point is about eligibility. We should lower the age
of eligibility for office. That was set a long time ago and it
seemed right at the time. All it does now is make sure most of
the people who run will be stodgy unimaginative mossbacks. If
you are old enough to get killed in Iraq, you should be old enough
to be the president of the United States. Either that or a person
should have to be as old as the president to go to Iraq and get
killed.
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