Collision verdict

• Author: Valerie Briggs Bargas
• Pages: 8-8

Student loan balances

“Tackling the Debt Crisis,” Decem-

ber-January, page 6, ignores important

background facts while proffering only

governmental solutions. Specically, for

the last two decades or so, law schools

in the U.S. have graduated twice as

many lawyers than are actually needed.

I suspect this trend will continue for

another two decades. Many other fac-

tors are in place, including the fact that

there are too many law schools.

As just one example, from the time

I attended law school (1981-84) until

today, the number of law schools in

my home state of Florida has more

than doubled.

Second, gone are the days where

rst-years were assembled on their rst

day of law school and told “look to

your left, and look to your right; one of

the three of you will not graduate.”

Third, law school is the only grad-

uate school that I am aware of that

allows one to attend regardless of the

person’s undergraduate major.

Fourth, young people are no longer

taught life lessons. For instance, my

father, who never attended college,

told me his practical rule: “Never play

another person’s game.” Sadly, recent

students of all majors and graduate

degrees are playing the colleges’ present

games. The fact that students no longer

live frugally exacerbates the problem.

Lastly, the fact that the federal gov-

ernment has taken over the proprietary

role of lending, with the schools not

having any skin/risk in the game, is yet

another substantial factor in the cre-

ation of the so-called student debt crisis.

James R. Brewster

Tallahassee, Florida

Collision verdict

I’ve been an ABA member for 20 years.

I do enjoy reading the ABA Journal and

appreciate the wealth of information.

As a civil defense attorney, I was in-

terested in reading “Costly Collisions”

(October-November, page 40) referenc-

ing a personal injury case that was to

send a powerful message to the trucking

industry.

Much to my chagrin, the substance

of the article proled a one-sided case

tried against a defendant that was

unrepresented at trial after its lawyers

withdrew and a sanction ruling by the

trial court found the party liable for the

collision.

Thus, the only issue to be tried to

the six-pack jury was damages. In a

damage trial where only the defendant

is unrepresented, the plaintiff’s counsel

would have gone 100% unchecked by

objections or rules of evidence.

I fail to see how any verdict reached

under such circumstances would send a

message to the legal profession or a par-

ticular clientele. This is a verdict that we

refer to as a misnomer, not an indicator

of future juror behavior.

Let’s do better proling multiple cas-

es that are fairly litigated with members

of the bar on both sides of the fence,

which may in fact show a trend.

Valerie Briggs Bargas

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Voting upset

While items published in the ABA

Journal “do not reect the views of the

ABA,” you are still responsible for the

items you choose to publish.

“This Is Us” (October-November,

page 9) is troublesome on many levels.

First, it is mostly a lot of name-calling

(“fearmongering,” “coordinated disin-

formation,” “insidious tactics”) with-

out much evidence. The only alleged

wrongdoing nally appears deep in the

article and includes voter purges, limits

on early voting and burdensome ID

requirements.

Voter purges of dead or moved

voters are required by federal law,

which limits how those purges can be

done. Many states have never had early

voting at all. I’ve voted in California for

many years, and up until a few years

ago, the rule for voting was in-person

on Election Day (with limited absen-

tee ballots). Democracy did not die.

The “burdensome” voter ID story has

always been false. The opponents of

voter ID have failed time and time again

to present any evidence that such laws

are discriminatory or place any extra

burdens on minorities. The most recent

case is Greater Birmingham Ministries

v. Secretary of State for the State of

Alabama (2021), but the failed cases

go back over a decade to Crawford v.

Photo © Joe Rondone – USA TODAY NETWORK

ON

THE

WEB

Personal injury f‌irm

sets up shop

in the metaverse

ABAJournal.com/

metaverse

James Patterson

writes book on

New York criminal

defense lawyer

ABAJournal.com/

Patterson

For these stories and

more, visit our website:

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“Costly Collisions” from the

October-November 2021 issue.

ABA JOURNAL | FEBRUARY–MARCH 2022

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