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| | Legal hawks hold spirited debate on tort reform
Thursday, Aug 12, 2004 By Wesley Brown Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Attorneys Morgan "Chip" Welch and Philip Howard both sat on the same side of the table at a debate forum here on Wednesday, but their positions on tort reform put then on opposite ends of the legal spectrum. Welch, a well-known Little Rock trial lawyer, and Howard, a nationally recognized corporate lawyer and author, were featured debaters during a spicy hour-long luncheon at the William Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Howard began by telling the audience of more than 100 that "the American legal system is badly flawed and needs a fundamental overhaul." Howard, vice chairman of Wall Street law firm Covington & Burling, said crazy verdicts and legal fear are tearing away at the fabric of American culture. U.S. citizens no longer trust the courts, Howard said, adding that the fear of being sued is having an impact on health care and business costs and disrupting the education system. "The $100 billion that the health care industry spends on defending itself is enough to buy insurance coverage for the 43 million Americans who don't have any," Howard said of frivolous lawsuits. The New York attorney, who is founder of Common Good, a bipartisan nonprofit whose aim is to reform the jury system, explained that doctors are now practicing defensive medicine and teachers are scared to comfort their students out of fear of being sued. "This is a society where none of those people are doing what is right," said Howard, author of The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America. "The reason is because they don't trust the system." But Welch attacked the basis of Howard's argument, saying the legal process already weeds out all but the strongest cases. "Quit fomenting fear," Welch told Howard, adding the "real fear" in the legal system comes from doctors being afraid of their industry companies. "Let's have insurance reform," Welch said, echoing a similar refrain that he made during the marathon tort reform debate during the Arkansas' 84th General Assembly. After 20-minute presentations by Welch and Howard, the debate shifted to more spirited exchanges when they took questions from the audience - mostly local attorneys, doctors, lobbyists and law school students. After hearing Welch denounce statements he has made in books, editorial columns and in national media, Howard called the Little Rock trial attorney's 20-minute argument "so much that was thrown at the wall ... that was not accurate." When an audience member questioned several out of context anecdotes that he made, Howard told the man: "Don't trust my anecdotes or theirs, find your own." The gregarious Welch joked several times about losing the battle at the state Capitol over a tort-limits bill that consumed more than 30 hours of debate in committee hearings last year. Gov. Mike Huckabee signed HB 1038, now known as the Civil Justice Reform Act of 2003, on March 15, 2003. The new law immediately put in place a $1 million cap on punitive and non-economic damages along with joint and several liability and venue reform. In June, the Arkansas Supreme Court threw out a lawsuit by Welch, the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association and labor groups seeking to overturn the new rules limiting jury awards. In answering a question from the audience concerning the fairness of the current system, Welch panned that U.S. courts do a good job "except in the case of what the Legislature did last year." The debate ended with both attorneys, in courtroom fashion, providing closing arguments. Howard told the audience that America needs to restore the foundations of the legal system by shifting the responsibility of who can sue for what back to judges and legislatures. "The (current) legal system helps who is in the wrong, it doesn't help who is in the right," Howard said. Welch closed by telling Howard that the current system is in good shape. "Before we toss it out, we should ask a few more questions," he said. |
