Posted On: March 20, 2006, 2:03 pm CST

Posted By: Linda Fermoyle Rice

Jacqueline: I don't claim to be better educated or smarter than anyone else. In fact, I know lots of people who I think are a lot smarter than I am. If I was so bright, I wouldn't be handling medical negligence cases 31 years after the $250,000 MICRA cap was enacted by the State Legislature at the behest of the insurance industry and medical associations. Clearly, $250,000 in 1975 was worth a whole lot more then than it is now. In fact, it would have been possible to buy a mansion in Beverly Hills for that amount back then; it wouldn't purchase a median-priced home anywhere in the City today. Since 1975, the costs associated with litigation have skyrocketed, so it doesn't make a whole lot of financial sense to be representing people who have been injured by preventable medical mistakes - at least in California.

So, I'm not claiming to be smarter than you are. I'm just suggesting that, perhaps, attorneys are not the root of all evil, as you seem to suggest.

Certainly, there are people who take advantage of insurance - or try to. Anyone who defrauds an insurance company, should be held accountable for that. We can certainly agree on that.

If you don't think some insurance companies sometimes take advantage of their position of power to the economic disadvantage of their insureds, then we shall have to agree to disagree on that.

Not all lawyers are rich and/or greedy. Many of us do the work we do because it is enormously satisfying to help someone who is almost invariably at a disadvantage in the legal system. Helping others is what I do in my work and is why I also have been active in community service organizations for almost 20 years.