Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘Muzzle the Bar?’
I was pleased to see that you cited my U.S. Tort Liability Index in your July 13 editorial, “Muzzle the Bar?” As you note, New York ranked 48th when comparing the tort systems of all 50 states. Allow me to point out a major cause of New York’s “ambulance chasing” problem.
New York uses pure comparative fault as its negligence standard, meaning that an injured party who is 99% at fault may still sue and recover damages. New York should move to a pure contributory negligence standard so that an injured party that is in any way at fault cannot recover damages.
When you combine New York’s permissive negligence standard with the fact that it lacks monetary caps for non-economic and punitive damages, the result is a litigator’s paradise. Nobody is safe from being bankrupted by a “get-rich-quick” lawsuit where the plaintiff is at fault.
LAWRENCE McQUILLAN
Pacific Research Institute
San Francisco, CA
‘Targeting The Swift Boats’
The “inveterate windbag … Senator Jean-Francoise Kerry” once again surfaces to resume his campaign of deceit and phony posturing, as R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. so well unmasks in “Targeting The Swift Boats” [OpEd, June 29, 2006]. This demagogue lost in 2004 and would again in 2008 if he has the chutzpah to run, preferably with Dean or Pelosi on the ticket. Support is certain from Murtha, Kennedy, Sheehan & Co.
It is one thing to carp at President Bush’s “mistakes,” but we have yet to learn what the Democratic strategy is to successfully extricate us from the war?
JEROME STARR
New York, N.Y.
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