LAW: Re; Class Action Lawsuits

Cameron Sawyer calls for a reform of the legal profession:
"Mr. Gaudet has no right to defend our rotten tort system by wrapping himself in the mantel of the entire legal profession. We do not have to abolish lawyers to excise this cancerous tumor. What is needed is return to standards of justice and common sense, inherent in our great common law tradition. What is needed even more is a return to standards of restraint and dignity by lawyers themselves, who traditionally and essentially are officers of the court with strong duties to society and to the integrity and majesty of the law. That means declining chances to make money by pursuing cases which are unjust. Where, for example, there is some chance to earn money for oneself and one's client by taking money from a defendant who is innocent according to ordinary standards of justice and common sense.

It will help a lot to put the case law back on course with legislation which corrects the most obvious abuses. First to go should be contingency fees, which were traditionally prohibited by the common law. Contingency fee agreements were considered criminal conspiracies at common law -- this idea should be revived. Plaintiff's lawyers make up a small part of the U.S. bar. Rob Gaudet can easily earn a salary in a more honest and socially useful part of the legal profession. Performing pro bono work is admirable, but for the unscrupulous can easily turn into a public relations tool or a way to assuage one's own conscience, such as giving bread to the poor was for millennia of bloodthirsty tyrants".

RH:
| repeat that Rob Gaudet is a credit to the legal profession. I have a great respect for him.