Carter Zerbe commentary

Constitutionally, there are no frivolous lawsuits if the amount in controversy exceeds $ 20 dollars.

Amendment VII

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html#amendmentvii

Law Court Transcripts
These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters who had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.


Q: Are you sexually active?
A: No, I just lie there.
__________________________________
Q: What is your date of birth?
A: July 15
Q: What year?
A: Every year.
______________________________________
Q: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
A: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
______________________________________
Q: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
A: Yes.
Q: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
A: I forget.
Q: You forget? Can you give us an example of something that you have forgotten?
_____________________________________
Q: How old is your son, the one living with you?
A: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which.
Q: How long has he lived with you?
A: Forty-five years.
_____________________________________
Q: What was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke that morning?
A: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
Q: And why did that upset you?
A: My name is Susan.
______________________________________
Q: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo
or the occult?
A: We both do.
Q: Voodoo?
A: We do.
Q: You do?
A: Yes, voodoo.
______________________________________
Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his
sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
A: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
___________________________________
Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
_____________________________________
Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?
______________________________________
Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8?
A: Yes.
Q: And what were you doing at that time?
______________________________________
Q: She had three children, right?
A: Yes.
Q: How many were boys?
A: None.
Q: Were there any girls?
______________________________________
Q: How was your first marriage terminated?
A: By death.
Q: And by whose death was it terminated?
______________________________________
Q: Can you describe the individual?
A: He was about medium height and had a beard.
Q: Was this a male, or a female?
______________________________________
Q: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition
notice which I sent to your attorney?
A: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________
Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
______________________________________
Q: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
A: Oral.
______________________________________
Q: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
A: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
Q: And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?
A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an
autopsy.
______________________________________
Q: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
______________________________________
Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a
pulse?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for blood pressure?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No.
Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you
began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.

Nothing in our constitution gurantees a free lawyer. If our founding fathers were alive today, they would have constitutionally banned contingency fees.

Aaron wrote:1. Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded
$780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her
ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a
furniture store. The owners of the store were
understandably surprised at the verdict, considering
the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's
son.

2. A 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won
$74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran
over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman
apparently didn't notice there was someone at the
wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his
neighbor's hub caps.

3. Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was
leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of
the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to
go up since the automatic door opener was
malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because
the door connecting the house and garage locked when
he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr.
Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight
days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a
large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's
insurance claiming the situation caused him undue
mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of
$500,000.

4. Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was
awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being
bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's
beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's
fenced yard. The award was less than sought because
the jury felt the dog might have been just a little
provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who was shooting
it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

5. A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber
Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she
slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx
(tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms.
Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds
earlier during an argument.

6. Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully
sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city
when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor
and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred
while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak out without
paying her check, awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

7. This year's favorite could easily be Mr. Merv
Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski
purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On
his first trip home, having driven onto the freeway,
he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left
the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself
a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the R.V. left the
road. The owner's manual did not say that he couldn't
actually do this. The jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus
a new motor home. The company actually changed their
manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there
were any other complete morons buying their recreation
vehicles.

You are a sucker for Stella Award true believers, Aaron.

http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp

And you defend all of this garbage.

Aaron wrote:And you defend all of this garbage.

I am not defending it.

You are the one who posted all that crap as though it were honest to godness truth.

Aaron wrote:Nothing in our constitution gurantees a free lawyer. If our founding fathers were alive today, they would have constitutionally banned contingency fees.

If, would, could, should, schmould- the lament of "what might have been" dreamers everywhere.

ziggy wrote:

Aaron wrote:And you defend all of this garbage.

I am not defending it.

You are the one who posted all that crap as though it were honest to godness truth.

Feel free to prove any of the 50 or so I posted wrong.

My personal favorite was the Nebraska lawmaker who sued God.

Aaron wrote:

ziggy wrote:

Aaron wrote:And you defend all of this garbage.

I am not defending it.

You are the one who posted all that crap as though it were honest to godness truth.

Feel free to prove any of the 50 or so I posted wrong.

"All of the entries in this list are fabrications: a search for news stories about each of these cases failed to turn up anything, as did a search for each case law."

http://www.snopes.com/legal/lawsuits.asp

Aaron wrote:Nothing in our constitution gurantees a free lawyer. If our founding fathers were alive today, they would have constitutionally banned contingency fees.

No one is demanding a free lawyer. Contingency fees are a "willing buyer, willing seller" transaction contract- free enterprise at its best.

What about the other 50 or so, including the lawmaker who sued God?

It's all a myth, right Zig!!!

What a oon!!

Well, actually, it appears that lawsuit was not actually consumated:

“Plaintiff, despite reasonable efforts to effectuate personal service upon Defendant ('Come out, come out, wherever you are') has been unable to do so,” the suit says.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/State_Senator_sues_God_for_plagues_0918.html

Aaron wrote:What about the other 50 or so, including the lawmaker who sued God?

It's all a myth, right Zig!!!

What a oon!!

If you were all on the up and up, why did you feel a need to resort to mythical legends- which even a dumb-assed Ziggy could expose as bogus? Your zeal to upstage Ziggy got you into bed with desperate blog characters- once again.

We all know what lawyers are and how they're clogging up our legal system and destroying businsess among other things, your head stuck up your ass not withstanding.

Again, you need to take it up with the Founders- or maybe start a campaign to amend the Constitution.

Amendment VII

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

I don't need to take up anything with anyone. What with the 50 plus cases I posted plus the 4 other ones from your link, I've more then proven my point.

Which was what, exactly?

You certainly have not proven that there is some "burden of proof" established fefore somoene is charged with a crime.

Why should I have to prove what is common knowledge?

You are the one who said you had "proven" something or other. So what have you proven that is not "common knowledge"?

Your right. I agree with you. Lawyers are parasites and frivolous lawsuits are clogging our legal system and changes should be made that lead to less garbage lawsuits being filed.

What kind of changes? So far you have said that the Founders left something about contingency fees and lawyers out of the Constitution that should have been in.

The Constitution provides that civil conflicts involving amounts in excess of $20 have an assured place in the judiciary syatem.

So it seems that your problem is with the Constitution, not with plaintiffs' lawyers.

And you still have not shown that a "burden of proof" exists before people are charged with crimes.