The frustrating economics of aviation

"Philip Sondericker" wrote in message
...
in article , kontiki at
wrote on 7/17/04 10:29 AM:


You need to focus your energy on tort reform... then you'll have
more
money in your pocket so you could afford flying lessons. Litigation
causes us to pay higher prices for everything, not just aviation.

The problem with any discussion of tort reform or "frivolous" lawsuits
is
that nobody is ever willing to get into specifics. No one's willing to
define what "frivolous" actually means (aside, of course, from the
fact that
it's never THEIR lawsuit) , or what percentage of lawsuits they
consider to
be so.

Well, how about it? Anyone willing to submit some actual hard data?
Let's
get specific for once--what percentage of lawsuits are "frivolous"?
And what
are your precise criteria for determining their frivolity? Remember,
no
anecdotes allowed--I don't wanna hear about the McDonald's coffee
lady.
Let's see some numbers.

Forcing people to produce specifics that they have no access to isn't
the way to deal with this issue. The fact is that a definition of
"frivolous" can't actually be determined since it's subject to
individual interpretation. Who's to say what is frivolous and what's
not? That's the beauty of the lawyer's position; a position BTW that you
have presented so deftly here I might add :-)

Besides....I LOVE anecdotes.....and forget about the coffee lady. Hell,
that's only ONE example of the way the system works:-)

Rather than searching for a non existent legal definition for
"frivolous" as you are suggesting, let me put forth for you a slightly
different approach.

Ten people are lined up in front of a man with a machine gun. The man
starts at one end of the line, faces the first person and asks,
"Do you like bananas?"
"No", says number one.
The man with the gun promptly cuts the first guy in half in a rain of
bullets. His bloody body or what's left of it crumples to the ground in
a pool of blood and gore.
Now the man with the machine gun stands in front of number 2.
He asks, "How bout it....do YOU like bananas?
"No", says number two.
The man with the gun promptly cuts HIM in half in a rain of bullets. His
head separates from his body; the eyes are completely shot out; and the
upper cervical gleams snow white in the sun as what's left of number two
crumples to the ground stone cold dead.

You are number three and next in line. The man stands in front of YOU
and asks, "Tell me there number three, what do YOU think about bananas?"
Now tell me the God's honest truth here ole'buddy, just WHAT the living
hell are YOU going to tell this guy about bananas???? :-)))))

This scenario is more than sufficient for anyone with average
intelligence to understand all the "specifics about frivolous lawsuits"
they'll EVER need to understand in one life time!!! :-)))

Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Commercial Pilot/ CFI Retired
For personal email, please replace
the z's with e's.
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