Trial Lawyers

Look for drama. Look for Deputy District Attorney Marcia Clark and chief defense attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. to gaze sincerely into the eyes of the jurors. Look for the prosecution to tell a gruesome tale of murder. Look for the defense to mock the evidence.Don't look at your watch.The ideal closing argument, law professors and lawyers say, is punchy and short."A good argument should be like a good joke," said Paul Bergman, a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Marta Mossburg's recent column about pit bull legislation ("Pit bull compromise fails, trial lawyers win," April 9) was full of inaccuracies. As a dog lover, and as someone who witnessed the proceedings first hand, I hope you will correct these errors in print. Sen. Brian Frosh has led the effort to craft a rational state policy on dog attacks in the wake of the Court of Appeals decision in the Solesky case. He brokered several compromises, all of which were fair to victims, pet owners and landlords.

WHO SAID THIS? "I think the president has served the nation in a very ill fashion by saying he's going to veto a very balanced product liability bill. . . Twice when he was governor [of Arkansas] President Clinton voted for uniform standards of product liability. In those days he was a professor of law. I think these days he's become a professor of rather raw politics."Answer: Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Democrat of West Virginia, with an 85 percent support record for administration proposals in 1995.

Despite the General Assembly's failure last week to pass pit bull legislation, there are still ways Maryland voters and animal lovers can show their support for this and similar breeds, which are being turned in at Maryland animal shelters in increasing numbers ("Pit bull compromise fails, trial lawyers win," April 10). On April 21, the Maryland SPCA will host its annual March for the Animals, the organization's biggest fundraiser of the year. All donations go directly to provide care, shelter, food and medical care for the animals in the group's adoption center, which last year placed more than 3,000 pets in loving homes.

Janelle Cousino, a well-known advocate on consumer issues before the state legislature, has resigned as executive director of the Maryland Citizen Action Coalition to become the executive director of the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association.Cousino, 40, has worked for the coalition for the last six years. She represented the group in Annapolis on issues involving insurance, banking, health care, utilities, open government meetings and family leave policies.She also is a member of the Governor's Commission on Insurance, which is studying insurance problems in the state.

Marta Mossburg's recent column about pit bull legislation ("Pit bull compromise fails, trial lawyers win," April 9) was full of inaccuracies. As a dog lover, and as someone who witnessed the proceedings first hand, I hope you will correct these errors in print. Sen. Brian Frosh has led the effort to craft a rational state policy on dog attacks in the wake of the Court of Appeals decision in the Solesky case. He brokered several compromises, all of which were fair to victims, pet owners and landlords.

RECENT news accounts have revealed that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- Washington's largest business lobbying group -- and national Republican Party leaders are about to declare war on trial lawyers.An integral part of the chamber's battle plan is a multimillion-dollar, negative advertising blitz. The GOP leadership plans to launch its own attack. According to a reported Republican source, "We'll unleash an attack on the trial lawyers never seen before."Speaker Newt Gingrich has already informed GOP leaders that attacking trial lawyers is a top priority this election year.

Liability reform is anti-consumer"The Common Sense Products Liability Legal Reform Act of 1996." Don't be fooled by its soothing name. This law will destroy consumer rights for the convenient protection of powerful business interests.In its March 22 editorial The Sun, avoiding all effort to analyze the 70-page Act, summarily announced the proposed legislation "good for America" and necessary to end frivolous product liability suits. It then asserts President Clinton bowed to the power of trial lawyers when he threatened to veto the legislation.

As a law professor, Donald Gifford surely knows that the courts don't legislate ("Court must fix unfair liability rule," Sept. 25). So why is he advocating for that? To expand the trial lawyers' business, that's why. A motorist who edges his vehicle around downed wires and is electrocuted deserves a Darwin Award, not money that drives up everyone else's utility costs. Sorry, Marylanders are not going to fall down and worship every stupid idea lawyers spout that benefits them instead of ordinary citizens.

Your March 22 editorial ''Trial lawyers' president'' was grossly unfair.The writer asserts that the president's promise to veto the bill, as passed by the Senate, was purchased by some donations by trial lawyers.Whatever donations he received from them would be minor compared to the lobbying money and campaign donations spent on Congress by the insurance industry and corporations they insure against liability for products or working conditions which might injure or poison people or their environment.

We appreciate that 100 percent of Maryland legislators voted for a form of the dog bite legislation that would have eliminated breed discrimination, overturned the court ruling that declared pit bulls to be "inherently dangerous," and removed strict liability for landlords. We believe the majority of legislators did this because our testimony and advocacy efforts over the last year helped them understand what it takes to build a safe and humane community for people and their pets. That's what makes it absolutely unacceptable that a compromise could not be found and no bill was passed ("Pit bull compromise fails, trial lawyers win," April 1)

People say dogs look like their owners. That may not be true, but they certainly look and act like we want them to, as breeds are a construct of generations of culling for certain aesthetic and other traits, including hunting ability, intelligence and, in some cases, viciousness. Which brings us to pit bulls, considered "inherently dangerous" under Maryland law since a 2012 Court of Appeals ruling. Some of the dogs that fall into that general description are ferocious, because humans designed them to be. But so are a lot of other dogs that, for whatever nature or nurture reason, like to bite people - which is why many urged lawmakers to overturn the decision.

At a time when violent crime remains high in Maryland and America's Second Amendment rights are under attack, Maryland's Governor Martin O'Malley has continued to advance his radical, liberal agenda by recently arguing for the abolishment of capital punishment in our state. He contends that it is costly and ineffective. Mr. Governor, capital punishment has been ineffective in Maryland because it is seldom ever implemented. The last execution in Maryland occurred back in 2005. Furthermore, it is costly because of the process of appeals and exorbitant trial lawyers.

As a law professor, Donald Gifford surely knows that the courts don't legislate ("Court must fix unfair liability rule," Sept. 25). So why is he advocating for that? To expand the trial lawyers' business, that's why. A motorist who edges his vehicle around downed wires and is electrocuted deserves a Darwin Award, not money that drives up everyone else's utility costs. Sorry, Marylanders are not going to fall down and worship every stupid idea lawyers spout that benefits them instead of ordinary citizens.

Morton A. Sacks, a retired trial lawyer and former Maryland assistant attorney general, died of heart disease Aug. 29 at Baltimore Washington Medical Center. The Linthicum resident, who lived for 40 years in Bolton Hill, was 74. Born in Baltimore and raised in Lochearn, he met his future wife, Marylou Botten, at Milford Mill Junior High School. "We sat next to each other in the eighth grade," she said. The couple went on to graduate from Milford Mill Senior High School in 1956.

The recent article about the large amount of settlements in malpractice claims reveals the inequities in the medical system and how the trial lawyers continue to be getting favorable treatment while the actual delivery of medical care is controlled ("Doctors, hospitals concerned about hefty malpractice awards," Aug. 4). The Sun article highlights that since 2011 there has been $890 million in settlements paid out. Keep in mind that the trail lawyers receive anywhere from 25-to-33 percent of the settlement.

Medical liability laws should be reformed The selection of Sen. John Edwards as the Democrat vice presidential candidate highlights an issue that needs to be addressed here in Maryland. Edwards is a multimillionaire trial lawyer. Before entering politics, he sued people for a living. Some argue that trial lawyers represent the little guy against the powerful. But how does it help the little guy to drive medical doctors out of business. Where will we take our children when they are sick?

The Maryland Senate voted this morning to raise the minimum liability limits for vehicle owners' auto insurance for the first time in 38 years. The final vote was 27-20, sending the bill to Gov. Martin O'Malley for his signature. The bill was approved after a stiff fight led by the Senate's Republicans, joined by a handful of Democrats. The measure pitted the state's trial lawyers, and some of their clients, against insurance companies and advocates for the poor -- a point repeatedly made by GOP senators.

Calvert Ross Bregel Sr., a renowned trial lawyer and lifelong outdoorsman, died June 19 of complications from Alzheimer's disease at the Presbyterian Home of Maryland in Towson. The Glen Arm resident was 84. The son of an attorney and a homemaker, Mr. Bregel grew up in the Hamilton section of the city and on his family's farm on the Choptank River in Cambridge, where he developed a deep appreciation for the Chesapeake Bay and its environs as well as for boating, fishing and hunting.