Nice piece of fiction you cited

The idea of "juror rights" would have greater validity IF juries were indeed randomly selected. As it is, the concept of a "jury of one's peers" is a joke

Unfortunately, by the whole jury process is thoroughly polluted by the voir dire process, especially preemptory challenges, which virtually guarantee that a civil gets a jury of anything but his/her peers. The only time successful business people ever seem to make it onto a jury is when they are self-employed so that they face the pressure of losing money while serving on a jury.

I'm not sure exactly what a jury of my peers would be but it wouldn't be 12 people with a high school education or less, half of whom barely speak English. This, however, is the typical composition of a civil jury! I wouldn't object to this sort of jury composition (occasionally) if this truly were random jury, but instead it is a joint effort by defense and (mostly) plaintiff attorneys to "dumb down" the jury.

I think Paul hit an important point. Is it really a jury of peers, for that matter what is a peer? We have complex issues that our tort sytem allows to be determined by those who opposing attorneys feel can be the most swayed. For this reason they try to eliminate those with advanced education or any knowledge of the field that the case is in. A good example would be a patient that is septic in the hospital. We get rid of everybody who knows anything about medicine, limit all decisions to those with a 5th grade education, pick a small number who couldn't figure out how to get out of the decision and them give them a complex list of medications and medical instruments and tell them to go at it. There is one caveat, we get experts with different opinios to tell them what to do.

Would you rather have a team of experienced doctors investigate the case, try to figure out what is going on and then have them procede?

It is all about what you call peers.

Here in Texas, George Bush and his cronies, Ken Lay(of Enron fame), Karl Rove and Governor Perry to name a few pushed through the Tort laws. The tort laws are, as you stated meant to take the decision making away from the populace and place it into the hands of the elite. What I have always had a problwm with is where does George Bush get off ever thinking that he, of all people, of the elite? My God, the man is nothing more than blundering, alcoholic idiot!I find it hard to be able to place that sort of rabble among the elitist ranks.
I have found myself having to stand by and watch as my fiance' is slowly dying as a result of the mis-diagnosis on the part of four charlatans that assume to call themselves doctors. Due to the Tort "Reform" that has taken place in Texas all that has been accomplished is the attraction of nothing more than "Snake Oil Salesman" from other parts of the U.S. who would be brought to justice in their home states, but now due to the wonderful "Tort Reform" championed by Messers Bush and friends, they are free to practice their "sorcery" in Texas without fear of reprisal...
I am watching my fiance' die a slow and agonizing death, and my hands are tied because I am unable to bring these idiots to justice. I have made several appeals to the "Legal System" here in this "great" state only to be told that the expense involved would be so prohibative that I would be totally drained financially by the time any conclusion were reached....the real intention of the "Tort Reform" obviously....
I have always been a "fighter" and a "Survivor" of sorts and I refuse to allow mere dithering idiots like George Bush to have any advantage over me. I have made up my mind that if I cannot find satisfaction through the normal legal channels, than I will have to take matters into my own hands... I have always been a believer in the saying "Where there is a will, there is a way". This than will become rather inconvienent for the four "doctors" in question to say the least. The result will be that they will not have any desire to attempt to practice medicine anywhere anymore....psychological persuasion can be utter hell sometimes!!!

I hope someone is reporting Strassner to the appropriate authorities, and that DMI doesn't encourage the sort of threats of violence he is making (which is a natural consequence of the hate speech DMI prints about the issue). (Ironically, under the wide-open deformed liability system Tort Deform promotes, DMI could be liable for their failure to warn Strassner's doctors of his threats if he follows through on them.)

Arbitrations Atrocites slide right on by...

Articles on the housing debacle seem to purposely leave out, ignore and not mention some of the main reasons for the "sub prime crisis" . Reasons which led to the lenders' chaos. The banks, the hedge funds and the builders cry out for help like something out of Danes' inferno. All the while taking their bonus checks, of our hard money and stuffing them along side what they have already gleaned from us ...with their thrown up, defective housing. Now since the gravy train has derailed they cry out," help us we wanted more.".Yet the cries and wishes of the middle class go unheard.. It is doubly diabolical that we the tax payer should once again be forced to pay the perpetrators. The government thinks they should help the people who cheated and robbed us of our homes. We hear that consumer confidence is down, and the government seems to be baffled as to the why.. Greed, of course, is at the helm of this perfect storm, prefect for everyone except the once, homeowing tax payer.

The general population has been preyed upon by the greed of shoddy construction, and further destroyed by arbitration clauses which hide the builders role in this housing debacle. I am sickened by the articles on arbitration all written by people who have not endured this diabolical process.
My husband and I have been there. And it is not fair or cheaper, but some times you can get screwed a lot faster, they even have a name for it, it is called," fast track arbitration". As we are dragged behind these closed doors, many of us who are not silenced by gag orders,( carefully termed secrecy agreements) tell of the unbelievable goings on . Most of these so called secrecy agreements conveniently cover up what has occurred inside. Inside, where the rules of law no longer apply, where fraud and perjury are standard fare and the arbitrators turn a blind eye because of...greed. The big builder is their constant meal ticket. We the home owner will never financially recover to be subjected again to this incestuous farce. A farce that is touted as being so good for the consumer they made it mandatory. If in fact this privatization of the justice system is so wonderful why is it mandatory?
Arbitration is a sin against the constitution and the general public. One way to get us out of this crisis is to get the arbitration companies to pony up their unbelievable earnings... after all they tout them selves as non -profit facilitator. Non Profit? We know how much they profited off us.Then check the bank accounts of these lenders and builders and make me feel sorry for them. Sorry they have made only 3 million this year instead of the 25 million the year before. These insidous leaches have made millions off us. The builders and lenders are screaming now because their greed became so insasable they have driven this county into a recession. And once again we the people are screwed.
If you would like more on this crisis please google my name Jordan Fogal an read my testimony for the congressional hearing... on the effects of arbitration on the consumer. You may also go to HADD.com or HOBB.org and remember the home you save most likely will be your own.
jfogal281@aol.com

Plaintff lawyers should pay attention to the comments of Paul & Throckmorton. It doesn't matter if they're right or not--their perception and opinions are commonly held. You can show those jurors data, studies, etc. and they will not change their mind. Their "data" is unverified, anecdotal regurgitation of Fox (Faux) News, Limbaugh, Boortz, Hannity, Coulter, and others. They view the civil justice system as fatally flawed. Those folks only change their mind when they find themselves needing to file a lawsuit.

When a juror has a "victim" mentality like that, he/she assumes the injury plaintiff is a liar and he/she believes the plaintiff is trying to pull one over his eyes and he/she is not going to get fooled again. That juror also, oddly, sees an injury plaintiff (who is standing up and fighting to protect his legal rights, getting ridiculed and raked through the coals in the process) as playing the victim--when in fact the opposite is true.