Lawyers Salivating Over Y2K

6--8--1999

There they go again: Congress against the lawyers. Given our representative form of government, one is tempted to label the parties as America against the lawyers - and that would undoubtedly be an expression of truth. Yet it is more than self-confusing in the case of the U.S. Senate. For in fact as with most legislative bodies many of its members are lawyers, and unfortunately many of them seem to consider their legal roots to be of greater significance than those of their citizenship.

Senator John McCain has introduced a bill to limit the liability of businesses for Y2K issues that may arise at the turn of the century. The bill is an attempt at some sanity in response to the salivating legal horde eagerly milling around the century clock with what has been estimated by some to be as much as a one trillion dollar jackpot ringing up in their tort lottery dreams.

Some of the usual senatorial sympathizers for the legal mafia, who (having already sold their own) would sell their own mother's souls to keep trial lawyers in power, are fighting the bill with any tools they can muster. One senator is even filibustering to keep the bill from coming to the floor.

Of course no one knows what actual amount may be lost - translate that as what we the public will pay into the pockets of lawyers via the uniquely American lawyer tax - in litigation judgements against corporations and other businesses as a result of whatever Y2K kinks may actually develop when the calendar ticks over from 1999 to the year 2000. But given the nation's lawyer-sponsored sueing mentality, the total will undoubtedly amount to a handsome sum.

Ah, America, land of the free and home of the legally taxed! And home of the best legal system in the world, yet one so badly prostituted by greedy lawyers and judges and supported by a gullible, lottery-minded public - when will her citizens come to their senses and overthrow the legal rascals?