OPINION: WITHOUT LAWYERS, RIGHTS MEAN NOTHING

"As president of El Paso's Bar Association, I am responding to Joe Muench's recent attack on lawyers in his column. Many of our best and brightest go to law school and join an honored profession that provided 24 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. Four of the five men who wrote it were lawyers, including Thomas Jefferson....Writers across the country scoffed at lawyer Belva Lockwood in the late 1800s when she fought for the right of women to vote. Columnists were skeptical when Sarah Hughes, the first woman district judge in Texas, fought for the right of women to serve on juries. Southern newspapers were astounded when lawyers like Thurgood Marshall overturned the discriminatory public-school system in America. Newspapers made fun of the lawyers who first took on the tobacco industry for cigarette- caused injuries. Mr. Muench makes fun of the lawyers who sued over the effects of fast food. Has anyone noticed the quick reaction of the fast-food industry in offering healthier products recently? Mr. Muench has not yet needed a lawyer in a serious situation. It is a good thing the truck driver who hit him did not maim a family member. He is fortunate the company had insurance that would actually pay....Perhaps Mr. Muench thinks it is OK for product sellers to scam consumers by sending unwanted merchandise, billing for it and threatening to report the consumers to credit agencies if they don't pay. There are consumers who care and lawyers who defend their rights to be free from scams. Mr. Muench has obviously never had to file a worker's comp claim in the system Texas has. It provides very little protection for injured workers. He will find, if he ever injures himself writing his negative columns, that he will not get a lawyer in the comp system. Workers lost that right when corporations and insurance companies took control. The number of lawsuits filed per capita is down across the board. For example, although medical malpractice injuries continue unabated, the number of malpractice lawsuits filed is down."

***** Steven C. James, President of the El Paso Bar
Association, 12/13/2004. For complete story, *****