Verdicts on Our Coverage of Trial Lawyers

Although some good points were made in ''The litigation machine'' (Legal Affairs, Jan. 29), every impartial study shows that large verdicts, awarded by citizen juries that hear all the evidence on all sides, are rare.

It is also false to suggest that the majority of members of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America make hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars a year. More than three-quarters of ATLA members earn considerably less than $100,000 a year. That's far less than most corporate defense attorneys, corporate executives, and many other professionals.

The story says that ''flimsy cases impose unnecessary costs on Corporate America and waste the time of overworked judges.'' Every judge has the power--which should be exercised--to throw out lawsuits that are without merit and to punish those lawyers who bring them or offer frivolous defenses.

The tobacco, insurance, and drug companies--in their quest for special protection from the consumers and workers they hurt--want everyone to think the legal system is broken. It's not.

Frederick M. Baron
President
Association of Trial Lawyers of America
Washington, D.C.


The premise of your story runs counter to everything we know about the civil-justice system. Corporate defendants and their insurance companies cause legal costs to spiral by refusing to take responsibility for their misconduct and covering up documents. With corporate money having already bought the executive and legislative branches of government, America's court system is one place where individuals can force changes in the dangerous behavior of powerful industries and prevent future harm. It's a system of which we should be incredibly proud.

Joanne Doroshow
Executive Director
Center for Justice & Democracy
New York


Many defendants or their lawyers are not willing to trust their fates to juries, so they rush to settle. Why? In part, because they focus on highly publicized, outrageous results from jury trials, like the ''hot coffee'' verdict against McDonald's Corp. Unless and until defendants are willing to allocate resources as soon as possible to defend a claim and to trust the jury system, plaintiffs' lawyers will continue to have the upper hand.


C. Leon Sherman
Pittsburgh, Pa.


A step in the ''paint-by-numbers lawsuit'' was overlooked: Get media coverage. Media exposure is the best way to recruit victims and poison jury pools. The news media, especially TV, can always be relied on to cover the ''victim's'' case sympathetically because it fits into its villain-victim template. In fact, TV producers scour plaintiffs' lawyers conventions for ''content.'' Reporters are reluctant to expose this unholy alliance.

Eric Dezenhall
Washington, D.C.


Your article shows the need for serious tort reform. When the threat of a class action by a trial lawyer is stronger than a mafia shakedown of yesteryear, something should be done. Present-day trial litigators are nothing more than pirates looting and taking bounty wherever and from whomever they can. Justice for a client is simply incidental.

David Wilkinson
Marietta, Ga.


Can anyone who purports to believe in the American ideal of independent courts dispensing impartial justice be proud of a situation in which business interests and trial lawyers square off in every state that has judicial elections in an effort to win courts for their respective sides? Is there any surer formula for assuring public cynicism concerning the integrity of the judiciary?

Mark Kozlowski
New York


The 1983 Presidential Commission on Education report, ''A Nation at Risk,'' lead to a national debate on educational policy. A Presidential Commission on Civil Justice could set in motion forces to bring about change in the courts. Otherwise, we will soon be a nation at risk for another reason.


E. Thomas Coleman
Alexandria, Va.

Value Funds Elbowed Their Way onto the ''A'' List

I consider your annual scoreboard ''The best mutual funds'' (Special Report, Jan. 29) the best single source of information on the subject. However, I find it disturbing that your ''A'' list had such a massive turnover from last year. And if it was such a hard year for mutual funds, why did the ''A'' list grow?

Joel Foulon
Johnsonburg, N.J.

Editor's note: Funds are rated relative to each other, based on a five-year record. The top 7.5% get the ''A'' rating. As more funds hit the five-year point, the number of rated funds increases. Our story indicated that the rise of value funds pushed many growth funds off the ''A'' list.

America Needs to Do More about Mad Cow

Our government is not concerned enough about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (''Mad cow: The U.S. is not immune,'' Science & Technology, Jan. 29). The Agriculture Dept.'s own Web site provides some disturbing facts:

The government examined the brains of ''hundreds of cattle'' last year to check for BSE. But USDA statistics show that more than 36 million cattle were slaughtered in 2000. This means that the brain tissue of less than one quarter of 1% of cattle have been examined in a lab--the only reliable way to test for BSE.

While importation of live ruminants from mad-cow-infected countries was banned several years ago, cattle embryos were imported until just recently. We now know that infected mother cows can pass BSE to their offspring. Are there BSE-infected offspring in this country? Neither the USDA nor anyone else knows yet.

Britain, Germany, France, and Italy have reassured their citizens, yet BSE is spreading through Europe, leaving panic, carcasses, and the economic collapse of the beef industry in its wake. The U.S. government needs to be rigorous in its testing and enforcement of regulations and honest with the public about the potential danger.

Kathy Guillermo
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Norfolk, Va.

Higher Fares Would Fix U.S. Air Travel

Since the U.S. is currently addicted to low-cost airfares, expanding airline capacity, as you suggest, would quickly be offset by increased demand (''The repairing of America,'' Editorials, Jan. 22).

A return to government-regulated higher airfares would decrease demand, reduce crowding, and enable the airlines to pay for the best pilots and maintenance services. Also, higher fares would improve the airlines' return on investment.

Paul M. Green
Cincinnati

Robert Johnson Is Flying on a Wing and a Prayer

Other than the traveling public, the person risking the most money in the American/TWA/United/US Airways/DC Air deal is Black Entertainment Television's Chief Executive Officer, Robert L. Johnson (''The ever-shrinking skies,'' News: Analysis & Commentary, Jan. 22). He will own 51% of an airline that is operated by his competitor. Three years from now, DC Air will be teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, and few people will remember why it was created in the first place. In the same issue, you note that Johnson is selling two-thirds of BET to Viacom Inc. (''The list,'' Up Front). The most valuable advice that can be offered to Mr. Johnson is: ''Don't quit your day job.''

Bart Lander
Hollister, Calif.

''Can bond funds do it again?'' (Mutual Fund Scoreboard, Feb. 5, 2001)

First American Funds' toll-free number was listed incorrectly in ''Can bond funds do it again?'' (Mutual Fund Scoreboard, Feb. 5). The correct number is 800 637-2548.