'Judicial hellhole' is junk journalism
Mikal Watts
I note the Dec. 19 publication of Mary Ann Cavazos' story "South Texas called a judicial hellhole for 6th straight year." Most reputable papers have stopped printing this garbage. It is strictly a spin document, released with little or no research, and is designed solely to influence future members of juries to vote for corporate and insurance interests, who fund the publishing of the document.
During this year, where the Rio Grande Valley and Texas Gulf Coast earned the second spot of judicial hellholes across the entire country, can you point me to a single eight-figure verdict in Corpus Christi or the Rio Grande Valley?
While I spent much of the year in a Senate race, and thus am not completely up to speed on the issue, I can find no one who can point me to a single million-dollar verdict this year in Corpus Christi. I can find no one who can point me to more than two such verdicts in the Valley this year.
There are more than 1.5 million people in the area covered by the silver medalist in this report. Instead of printing junk fiction pumped out by the PR machines of the American Tort Reform Association, perhaps the Caller-Times should focus its efforts on the good work that earnest, hardworking lawyers across South Texas are doing to protect the constitutional rights and safety of our citizens.
Ford Pintos exploding upon impact, Firestone tires falling apart in the Texas heat, Chrysler minivans ejecting belted children due to poor door latches, hundreds killed and injured at a BP refinery due to gross neglect by corporate chieftans, countless bad drugs pulled from the market because of no effective regulatory controls at the FDA and pharmaceutical companies decisions to place profits over patient's lives (Rezulin, Baycol, Fen-Phen, Vioxx), old ladies subjected to unnecessary second surgeries to replace tainted hip implants. The list goes on and on.
The citizens of the Valley and Gulf Coast have been victimized by poor decisions in corporate boardrooms, favoring greed over safety. Citizens serving on juries in Rio Grande Valley and Texas Gulf Coast have done their constitutional duty, and in doing this most honorable service, have protected their fellow citizens from the unkind actions of others, and have made our country a safer place.
Mass publication of the American Tort Reform Association's garbage is nothing but a veiled campaign by its funders -- large corporations and insurance companies -- to distort and deny common citizens of their right to an impartial trial by jury. This has grave constitutional implications, and discredits those great Americans and Texans who came before us.
In colonial America, the right of colonists to a trial by jury was abrogated by King George in the Stamp Act and the Navigation Act. Our forefathers rose up to secure this and other critical rights of citizenship. The denial of a right to trial by jury is the second grievance in our Declaration of Independence, second only to "taxation without representation." The right to a trial by jury, constantly under attack by the American Tort Reform Association, was fought for by George Washington and our constitutional founders.
It is demeaning to their legacies to print this garbage year after year after year, while ignoring the fine work our fellow citizens do every time they appear to fulfill their constitutional right and duty to serve on a jury in civil cases. When they listen to all the evidence in a court of law, their verdict should be respected and applauded. Instead, the verdict of 12 impartial citizens is slandered by monied interests in this country, who can count on corporate-owned newspaper chains to blindly print their garbage year after year after year. Shame on them and on the Caller Times for consistently agreeing to participate in carrying their water.
Mikal Watts, a native of Corpus Christi, is a trial attorney. His firm, the Watts Law Firm, has offices in Corpus Christi, Edinburg, San Antonio, Austin and Houston.
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Post 1 December 21, 2007 at 6:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
What a crock! "The citizens of the Valley and Gulf Coast have been victimized by poor decisions in corporate boardrooms, favoring greed over safety. Citizens serving on juries in Rio Grande Valley and Texas Gulf Coast have done their constitutional duty, and in doing this most honorable service, have protected their fellow citizens from the unkind actions of others, and have made our country a safer place."
"Greed over safety"? Pot calling kettle black comes to mind, sheesh!
Leave it to a Corpus attorney of such questionable character to blame the corporations for the greedy nature of local attorneys and the populace. Everyone in this community is trying to hit the lotto, witness the thousands of fraudalent claims as such broken foundations and mold, and no, I am not a member of any organization, just not easily taken by a bunch of lies.
Post 2 December 21, 2007 at 7:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The irony of having a personal injury lawyer write this article just adds to the credibility of this report.
As a professional, non-lawyer who has suffered through jury duty and seen our local court in action, I can't say that Corpus is worse than other areas, but I can say that the judicial system is not about truth or justice, but it is about "winning" and "losing" and is something that angers one with integrity and a sense of moral right.
Post 3 December 21, 2007 at 8:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Of course Mikal Watts would think say "we don't have frivolous lawsuits".
I'll take your challenge Mikal, if you read this look under the comments from the actual article. One of the examples was "gasp" a case won by YOU. That article was right on the money and it doesn't have to be a "million dollar lawsuit" to ruin lives. The words “I’ll sue” seem to be what’s on the tip of everyone’s tongue these days, especially in CC.
By the way, out of the 42 million in that ONE suit how much did you get and how much for the “victim receiving justice”? That’s what I thought. Its lawyers like you with YOUR GREED that are the bigger problem to our judicial system.
By the way, what was the REAL reason you dropped out of the senate race…
Go back in your hole its safer there.
Post 4 December 21, 2007 at 8:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The victims do indeed have an "absolute right" to trial by jury unless they have waived it.
BUT......
Lawyers do not have an absolute right to become millionairs by picking and choosing where they file the suits in hopes of finding sympathetic people that don't understand that when they make big awards for "pain and sufferings" that they are in effect engaging in "taxation without representation". The common ordinary people you "personal injury" lawyers claim you are trying to help and defend,, are actually the ones that end up paying..
All the injured person should be able to get is medical treatment and lost wages unless it can be shown that the injury was the result of willful neglect or malicious intent!!!!
All you lawyers should get is is what you claim you are trying to achieve. Justice for the injured and good reputations for helping the little guy. Your living should come from doing legal work that doesn't cause price inflation and restriction of the availabliity of doctors and medical services.
The framers of the Constitution never intended for the system to be distorted into the monster it now is where a business that uses a part that was made by another business (door latches) can be sued into near bankruptsy by being held financially responsable for the total liability even though they didn't know the part manufacturer was producing defective parts.
The framers of the Constitution certainly never intended for Doctors to be held responsable for injuries that occure during birth when the women had done nothing to ensure that their child would develop properly and in many cases had deliberately engaged in behavious that would result in sickness and/or disease and/or deformities of the child.
I just read an article about how specialist doctors are refusing emergency room calls because of fear of being sued. I don't really blame them.. Who in their right mind would be willing to show up in the middle of the night to do an emergency delivery of a baby for a crack addict knowing that there is a lawyer standing by looking for a target to sue.. How about the neurosurgeon that is called in the middle of the night to do brain surgery on the drunken motorcyclist that was riding without a healmet and again there is a lawyer waiting in the lobby to sue the doctor if the "victim" doesn't emerge good as new.
We need the English system where the loser pays all the court costs and lawyers fees and the defense has complete freedom to present evidence of culpability on the part of the "victim". This would do more to stop frivilous lawsuits that are used to intimidate good businesses and doctors into "settling" simply to avoid the possiblity of venue shopping and jury manipulation that may result in a lawyer buying a new ocean front house than any other reform that can possibly enacted.
openletter2004
Post 5 December 21, 2007 at 9 a.m. (Suggest removal)
best comedy I've seen in a while. thx for the laugh Mr Watts. Since you brought up 8 figure verdicts. It's a rumor your cut from the Firestone/Ford case was 8 figures.
Post 6 December 21, 2007 at 11:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)
"Most reputable papers have stopped printing this garbage"
Are you questioning the Caller-Times reputation and judgement? If so, wouldn't your contribution be suspect and "garbage"?
Post 7 December 21, 2007 at 9:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I find it interesting that not a single post that is anti Watts, gave any thought or admission of the Fact that Corporations do indeed put greed over saftey,
if Doctors did not cover up for incompentent Doctors, if Corporations did in fact care more for the consumer then thier Bottom line, then there would be no need for the Legion of Trial Attorneys in this and every other County,
How about it folks does no one find it interesting that the people against law suits, (I do not use the word Abuse, because like it or not, it is not the lawyers getting the Wins, it is the Juries finding that the Corporations were guilty,)
never ever say " we need for the Corporations or Medical profession to raise the standards on consumer safety
The Standard response is going to be that Juries are led by the nose,
Remember, Juries are made up of people from all walks and professions, the simple minded idiot that they will describe
IS YOU !
Post 8 December 22, 2007 at 4:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I am not a lawyer but I would bet any amount of money that any of you would do the same thing if you were smart enough to go law school and pass the bar exam. Well maybe not post 2 since YOU describe yourself as "one with integrity and a sense of moral right." Bunch of hippocrites!
Post 9 December 22, 2007 at 5:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Doctor's are still not policing their own to cut down on medical malpractice - and yes malpractice does exist. Automobile companies and other corporations have proven time and time again that unless the cost os the lawsuits which have been the results of people dying from their errors, outweighs the cost of the recall - they will not recall their products. Whatever evil we like to believe lurks in the chests of our lawyers - they have done a service to millions of people getting corporations to clean up their acts. I think we need to seriously question why it is so many no wish to put the corporations in the drivers seat - and throw out jurisprudence. Do I believe that our legal system should be considered a lottery ticket? No. But I do believe that careful and considerate juries are the answer.
Post 10 December 22, 2007 at 11:18 p.m. (Suggest removal)
There are very important reasons for lawsuits. Have you ever heard of the McWane Corporation? This Birmingham Alabama corporation, which bought Tyler Pipe & Foundry, is a poster child for corporate greed at the expense of employees lives & safety and environmental destruction and pollution.
I will never give up my right to sue, even if the lawyer does benefit. We can't just stupidly follow the "lawsuit abuse" quacks! Pay attention, Americans!
Post 11 December 23, 2007 at 7:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Post 7 - "I find it interesting that not a single post that is anti Watts, gave any thought or admission of the Fact that Corporations do indeed put greed over safety,"
Define "GREED!" If you define it as profit, a good return on their investment, you're right! Next, you need to define "SAFETY!" Some jobs are simply DANGEROUS! People know that when they take those jobs, and take them BECAUSE they're dangerous, because that also means the PAY is higher!
It's easy to use words such as "GREED" but I dare you to show many ANYONE who is in business for the FUN OF IT! It's easy to point to "SAFETY" as a concern, but isn't it HUMAN ERROR that causes most accidents in the work place? Who are those "HUMANS" who make the errors? More often than not, they're the EMPLOYEES of the company, not some stockholder in a boardroom.
What is a CORPORATION? Isn't that a group of people who INVEST THEIR MONEY TOGETHER in some enterprise, hoping it will return a profit so their money will grow? Do YOU work for NO PROFIT? Do you work for EXPENSES ONLY?
Personal injury lawyers (like Mikal Watts) get FILTHY RICH! Isn't that GREED of the highest order? Aren't they getting RICH off the misfortune of the poor, working men and women?
40% of 42 million dollars is more than 16 MILLION DOLLARS! Do you really think he WORKED THAT HARD? How long and how hard would YOU have to work to make 16 MILLION DOLLARS? All your life and still be about 15 MILLION SHORT?
Corporations make a profit, that's what they're supposed to do, then distribute that profit to MILLIONS OF SHAREHOLDERS, a few hundred dollars to each. How many SHAREHOLDERS does Mikal Watts distribute his MILLIONS in profit to?
Invest your extra money instead of spending it on that new car, buy stocks in some MAJOR CORPORATION (like Valero) which turns a profit, so stock value increases, so you can someday retire and LIVE OFF THAT INCOME! That makes you part of one of those GREEDY CORPORATIONS Mikal Watts refers to, without which there would be no JOBS for any of the working people of the world to hold and make a living!
Of course, they wouldn't have many SAFETY concerns since fishing and/or picking wild berries are not usually very dangerous...
muffin
Post 12 December 23, 2007 at 8:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Muffin - stop yelling at us... we get that you are for business, but that doesn't mean it should be without due diligence when it comes to safety, of their employees, of their customers, etc. Sometimes the only way the consumers and employees can drive home their point about those safety issues is through legal channels. It takes balance!
Post 13 December 23, 2007 at 10:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)
and just why did he drop out of the senate race?
Post 14 December 23, 2007 at 12:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Mr. Watts is full of it - just like his dad.
Post 15 December 23, 2007 at 8:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
KUDOS OPENLETTER2004!!!! You rock!!!
Amazing how so many are quick to give blame to doctors..... and believe that many of them deserve that is coming to them for malpractice. Granted there are many situations in which the physician is accountable for their actions due to negligence, but after working in the medical community and after having several dear friends in the medical field, it is apparent that our society is constantly looking for someone to be "accountable" and these ambulance chasers in our community are greedy and take advantage of so many with their ploys.
I have witnessed parents of premature infants, born at 24 weeks with major organ development issues and some that are dependent on drugs or have other issues to do neglect on the part of the mother. They expect the neonatal physicians and staff to perform miracles on these children. Their quality of life, what it may be, is very poor and the outcome is 85% not in favor of what our selfish society would like it to be. They want to "sue" the ob/gyn for not informing them of "something" in advance. They want to "sue" a geneticist for not letting them know of some malformation that may occur. Look at what TJH did..... OR attempted to do. SET UP SHOP ACROSS FROM DCH (Driscoll). He might as well have stood on the sidewalk as preemies were brought in and had a card placed on the isolet next to the child's information. IT IS PATHETIC HOW THEY PREY ON THE WEAK....
Sometimes, the world is just not "perfect".... sometimes things happen..... But in the litigious society of South Texas is wrought with attorneys that specialize in personal injury and medical neglect. Per capita, check out the local phone books if you don't believe, the attorney to resident ratio is out-of-control. It is an ego-centrinic world they reside in and as long as they get their $$$ it doesn't matter how well the individuals fair in the matter..... but then again only a personal injury lawyer would feel comfortable making money off another person's loss. Again... PATHETIC.
Post 16 December 23, 2007 at 8:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Remember this when you are looking to strike it rich with the Nueces County Lottery , if:
You purchase a hot cup of coffee.... IT MIGHT BE HOT..... Go figure! No need for a college education for this no-brainer!
You tresspass on private property and are legal or illegal citizen... YOU MIGHT GET SHOT.... (case in Arizona/New Mexico where illegals sued a rancher for "harming them" while they were stealing from his land) ** Which brings in a whole other scenario that unless you are a legal citizen of a country, you should not be able to take legal action against a citizen of said country.
You don't seek prenatal care for you and your unborn child....there may be complications..... Therefore don't procreate or practice the act of procreation until you are at an age where you are mature enough to understand the responsiblities that go along with it.
The list could go on and on and does @ power-of-attorneys. It is a dot com that list some bizarre lawsuits filed by PI lawyers.... It's a joke folks.... THINGS HAPPEN.... ACCEPT IT AND GO ON... UNLESS IT IS DONE WITH SOME INTENT ON HARMING YOU.... THAT YOU CAN PROVE..... LET IT GO.... You'll spend your life miserable and there is no amount of money to make that go away!
Post 17 December 23, 2007 at 11:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time!
Post 18 December 24, 2007 at 7:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
This is a desperate joke of an article, Mr. Watts. Truth is the coastal bend is a legal hellhole, civil and criminal!
Post 19 December 24, 2007 at 10:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Post 12 - "Sometimes the only way the consumers and employees can drive home their point about those safety issues is through legal channels. It takes balance!"
You're right, it does. The problem is, it's hard to find "balance" in our South Texas legal system.
A hospital gets sued because a Nurse gets kidnapped from their parking lot! That's balanced? No, it's STUPID, DERANGED!
Once upon a time, in the far, dim reaches of past memory, a JUDGE took a look at lawsuits to decide whether or not they had merit, tossed the frivolous ones in "File 13" and chastised the lawyer involved for filing them and wasting the courts time! How often does that happen in our legal system today? Isn't it a FACT that it occurs so rarely it makes big news when it happens? At the same time, lawsuit after lawsuit makes it's way through our courts when a little LOGIC would have short-stopped them before they ever got started.
South Texas certainly has no corner on stupid lawsuits but we have more than our fair share of them. One primary cause is the modern process is "Jury Selection." I once got called for jury duty where a chemical spill was involved, supposedly causing respiratory problems for a child. As soon as the attorney for the plaintiff learned I had knowledge of the chemical industry, I was dismissed. Why do you suppose that was? For starters, the "chemical" involved was ISOPROPANOL! For anyone who doesn't know, that's RUBBING ALCOHOL in it's pure form, before it's diluted with WATER and bottled for anyone and everyone to buy at the Grocery Store! Not exactly a chemical known for causing respiratory problem, especially not from a leaking drum in a storage building across the alley, especially not when the problem was found the DAY IT OCCURRED and cleaned up in accordance with OSHA standards.
Plaintiff Lawyers try very hard to weed out any juror who might actually understand what they're talking about, rather than having to accept their "SPIN" on some subject. This is counter-productive for a FAIR and HONEST hearing on the issue. It's dirt-common, throughout our legal system, just like "Court Shopping" to find some Judge who might be sympathetic to the plaintiff's cause. BOTH processes are designed to maximize damage awards, rather than to get a "Fair Hearing" on the complaint.
Find me a Nurse or a Doctor on a jury anywhere, involving medical malpractice! You can't! They won't be there because they would UNDERSTAND what happened, and the rest of the jury would LISTEN to them! Not a good situation for the plaintiff in most cases.
The list goes on and on. I could pontificate for HOURS and PAGES but I'll stop now. BALANCE is the last thing Personal Injury Lawyers ever want to find in the courtroom...
muffin
Post 20 December 25, 2007 at 9:27 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Self serving, self righteous pompous horse’s rear. The personification of greed and corruption. Tell us again please why you dropped out of the Senate race. I suspect you will be singing another tune when Mauricio drops the dime.
Post 21 December 25, 2007 at 11:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Post 2 December 21, 2007 at 7:47 a.m.
"... the judicial system is not about truth or justice, but it is about "winning" and "losing" and is something that angers one with integrity and a sense of moral right."
There's no better way to say it!
Tort Reform appears absolutely necessary, and yet already tainted with opposite extremes. The madness that represents our legal system reaches out to every avenue of basic life, and chokes out the understanding of Justice supposedly served. Not very many years ago, lawyers and the courts actually served Justice, and doctors actually practiced health conscious medicine too.
What about the corporate mentality of those two professions? What about the complacency that now occupies their minds to indoctrinate the matters of corporate level preservation into the professions involved? The only way to overcome indoctrinated, and incorporated corruption remains removing the opportunities available. It's been a long time since I have seen a doctor or a lawyer that is not intellectually preoccupied with systematic, cultural, or social stigmas. The professions are both inundated with such to the point of lacking purpose, benefit, and ethical credibility. Neither serves the basic needs assigned, and both appear to have abandoned basic principles.
A man died of asbestos poisoning after YEARS of being called a LIAR by DROVES of corporate minded doctors and lawyers. After his death, and autopsy, the lawyers couldn't wait to settle. Several cases directly related to his had been settled several years before he died. His should have too. Although the benefits to occupational related safety do serve over all justice, these types of trial lawyers and the reasons they exist very obviously do not.
Trial lawyers of these types are a breed created by corporate level preservation, and corruption. To overcome that, all levels of opportunity created by it need to be stopped. Let the corporate cards fall where they may, and when they are guitly as charged - rebuild on the ruins with the knowledge of obviously justified corporate failure. The courts are more than capable of calling corporate level legalities to order, and all levels of extensive, expensive, and repetitive delays need to stop.
A group of men who worked directly together should not have had to wait past the first occupational related death for obviously deserved Justice.
How dare Mr. Watts, or any other such corporately minded lawyer use the purposes of the lives like this man's to feed their own unethically produced legal system egos. May he and those like him take their intellectual stupidity right down to the unemployment office immediately.
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