Make-A-Statement Commentary Blog

When asked about what this column is about, I usually respond with … ‘oh, it’s a humor column…kind of satire…’ something along that line. I was thinking that this week I could write a light piece about something humorous, but no, not going to happen this week.

In Texas, when you hire an attorney to do some work for you, I’ll bet you didn’t know that attorneys are not required to carry malpractice insurance for their practices. At least half of those practicing in Texas do not carry the coverage. Now, we all know that doctors carry malpractice in case they cut off the wrong leg or do something equally tragic to cause any of us injury. I don’t know that I would do business with a doctor who wasn’t insured. I’m not certain if insurance is required for doctors, but you certainly hear more about them than you do attorneys. Read on a little further.


Anyway, here in the great old Lone Star state, if an attorney screws up your case, and has no insurance, the most you can hope for is a settlement from something called the Texas Bar Client Security Fund which allows for the payment of a maximum of $30,000 for any mistakes made by the attorney on your behalf. Last year, the fund settled 74 cases for an average of $5,900 a case.

Wow…..I’m impressed.

The story I read goes on to tell about a guy whose attorney failed to file his patent agreements on time. The guy sued and won a 10 million dollar judgment, but the attorney claims he has no assets… so about the only way any recovery can be made is through this fund. Thirty grand isn’t much when compared to the ten million is it?

There isn’t any hard and fast rule requiring practicing attorneys to make any contributions to the fund on an annual basis. Currently the amount paid out equals to $5.66 for each practicing lawyer in Texas. The fund pays out benefits from the interest it generates from an endowment of about 3 million dollars. If they paid out $437,000 last year, that must mean there are over 70,000 attorneys in Texas. Way too many if you ask me.

It gets worse…in order to even file for any type of claim under the rules of the fund; the injured party must first file a grievance with the state bar. A hearing on this matter might take anywhere from a year to two years to be heard. Then, if the attorney gets reprimanded, a claim for damages can be filed. The system must find that the lawyer violated some rules of professional conduct. Remember a maximum of $30,000 is all that could be paid in any event.

The Texas Supreme Court authorized a committee to look at whether or not attorneys should be forced to disclose if they had malpractice insurance or not. Last month, by a vote of 6 to 5, they voted that notice should not be required. Texas is only one of three states to vote against such a measure. Twenty three states require disclosure.

So, what does all of this mean? Well, it’s simple. It’s a little like going to Las Vegas, you pays your money and you takes your chances. Not much comfort in the system is there? Doesn’t exactly warm your old heart.

Here we have another clear cut case of self dealing. The attorneys make the laws as well as enforce the laws as well as interpret the laws. Don’t think for a minute it’s going to change because it isn’t. You and me are going to be in the dark and forced to stumble through life like blind mice in a maze. The attorneys make the rules for us to follow, but not for them. All of us in business have to carry insurance on our various enterprises, but the people we should be able to trust to help us with legal guidance do not have to follow this rule. What a crock, if you ask me.

I’m certain there are plenty of attorneys out there who do look after the best interests of their clients and who do carry liability insurance in case someone in their firm makes a costly mistake.

You would think it would be those who are abiding by the rules, who would be the ones leading the charge to require all of their colleagues to do the same, wouldn’t you?  One bad apple spoils the barrel.

Or in this case, should I say half the bad apples spoil the entire barrel?

Comments go to pperry@austin.rr.com

Posted by hillpehle at 06:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think I've heard it said that some things are better left alone.
Here's the deal, up in Kansas at something called the Kansas Underground Salt Museum they've discovered an organism about 250 million years old. And that's not all; they've succeeded in getting it to reawaken. As in bringing it back to life. You got it; they have located some species of bacteria that has been locked inside of a Kansas salt cavern for those 250 million years.
Better still, they think they might have found some other strains of the stuff that could be 275 million years old. They said all of the bacteria that has been found is older than the dinosaurs.
Let's think about this for a moment.

The dinosaurs and a lot of other species died off sometime long ago, right? I mean we don't see a lot of prehistoric animals or reptiles running around the planet except in the movies. So what killed them off? Who knows? There are all kinds of theories, such as some giant asteroid or comet having hit the earth and blocking out the sun for a thousand years and so on. We certainly don't have any written records left over from that time frame to research and talk about, do we? I mean Uglue the European Neanderthal didn't look around one day and notice that a lot of the animals had just disappeared and then went back to his cave and jotted down a few notes expressing his concern and thoughts on this subject.

Nope, Uglue was probably out chasing some dinner for the little woman who needed some more skins to cover the holes in their new dwelling. She also needed more meat since her brothers and their wives had just moved in with them. She also wanted Uglue to start bringing in more firewood each day since her mother was coming to live with them as well and she needed the fire going due to her arthritis. Of course Uglue didn't know to call his mother in laws condition arthritis.... he just called it ... the old woman's condition. Actually he didn't even say this out loud since his wife or mother in law had a tendency to hit him rather sharply over the head with a large femur left over from a previous feast.

Our man Uglue spent his days out in the forests and woods trying to stay alive. He had no money, no currency of any kind and no government, which in hindsight was a blessing he wasn't even aware of. Their voting process was fairly simple; the guy with the biggest stick usually was the leader. Oil and tar bubbled up freely from the ground and Uglue thought of it as a nuisance and wished he had more water. What good was this black stuff anyway? The concept of land ownership had not been invented so Uglue did not have the ability to stake out his claim for future generations. If he had done so, his family would have been much better off today and could quit their jobs in the cheese factory.

But here we are some 250 million years later. I probably don't have my time lines correct, but who cares ... I'm making this up anyway. And now we have some people in Kansas who have brought some ancient bacteria back to life.

My question is, how do they know this stuff is safe to bring back to life? Maybe this is the very thing that did in the dinosaurs. How would they know? What would they do if it escaped and got into the air and started killing off everyone? I'm all for science, but I've always been afraid of rockets from the moon and Mars bringing back strange stuff that could kill us all. It could happen, couldn't it? I suppose if a large number of people up in Kansas start dying off, then we should start to be concerned. I'll try to keep tabs on that in the coming weeks. Let me know if you hear anything.
Anyway, I suppose old Uglue had more to worry about than something such as a virus or bacteria or even the dinosaurs. His significant other just told him that her father had decided to come back home and life with them.  He heard they had a nice cave, plenty of food and a good warm fire.
Uglue is looking forward to the day when beer gets invented.

Comments go to pperry@austin.rr.com

Posted by hillpehle at 06:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Let’s see….the word ….illegal, what was the meaning of that word again?

Oh, yes….as I recall it means something is against the law. I think the key word here is …against. This means the opposite of for the law…it’s against the law…seems like it should be very clear.

However up in the great city of Dallas, Texas, there seems to be a heated discussion going on at this time over whether or not persons driving motor vehicles should be required to have liability insurance or not. It seems some silly old mean council person drafted a ordinance that allows the police to tow your car or truck if you don’t have a valid insurance policy for that vehicle.

You’d think this was a no brainer wouldn’t you?

Apparently not in Dallas, Texas.

Nope, the ordinance was opposed by several council members who felt that having insurance would place an undue hardship on those who cannot afford any more expenses. The ordinance was opposed on the basis that poor people should not have to choose between food, shelter, clothing and insurance. One member of the council stated their opinion by saying that they wanted the police to be ‘enforcing the law and fighting crime….not writing tickets to the poor in our society who cannot afford to buy car insurance’.


I’m sorry, but I thought driving without insurance was already a crime in this state. Just because it’s somewhat inconvenient and places a financial burden upon others, is that a reason to allow members of our society to drive anywhere they want, have wrecks and get off free because they could not afford to buy insurance?

I don’t think so.

If we use that analogy, then why lock people up for theft or selling drugs? After all, these people are just stealing or selling drugs because they’re broke and don’t have the money to pay their bills. Why enforce the law at all? In fact why even have any laws of any kind at all? You and I know that there are some laws out there that are not going to make everyone happy, so why have any at all?

Why not just let people observe whatever laws they want to observe and skip the rest if it isn’t convenient to them?

I don’t like red lights and speed limits, so why should I bother? Why not just drive as fast as I want and run every light I come to at every intersection?

Because there is a law that says I must obey these laws in a civilized society.
The burden of financial distress for allowing uninsured drivers works both ways. If an uninsured driver hits some person, then that person is forced to fix the damage out of their own pocket or file on their own insurance which will probably make their own rates go up when it comes time for renewal. Go one step further, let’s say a woman is walking across the street to go to work and some uninsured driver hits her. The driver could not afford insurance because he is paying for his food, shelter and other things, remember? So, who pays for the lady’s injuries if not the driver?

I’ll tell you who. You and me…that’s who.

Perhaps we should set up some program to pay for everyone who can’t afford insurance on their car. Remember driving is a privilege, not a right. But let’s forget about that for a moment and just say that our society should establish a fund to pay for everyone who can’t afford something in order to meet the requirement of the law.

I’ll go for that as long as they establish a fund to pay for the traffic tickets I’ll get for speeding and running red lights.

Why should I have to pay for something I can’t afford? Why can one person consciously violate the law and others can’t? Why have laws on the books if they are not going to be enforced? You probably are saying something like… ‘boy are you cold hearted. …those poor people need help.’

I’m concerned over the poor in our society, but let’s be real….the more we hand out, the more that gets expected to be handed out. A gift today is a due tomorrow. We need better education and more job opportunities to push people up in our society not keep them forced down by winks and nods at the law. A practice that allows them to skirt common sense as well as societal responsibilities does nothing but harm all elements of our country.

All of us, at all levels of society, not just the poor.

Comments go to pperry@austin.rr.com

Posted by hillpehle at 06:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)