In the second place, the mitigating circumstances are statisically off the chart, and profoundly important to the wellbeing of society as a whole. And a few of those factors are these:

1. 500 citizens die while being medically treated, every day of the year. You didn’t hear THAT during the 2-year Health Care Reform chatter, did you?

2. The Nat’l Practitioner Data Bank holds files on 237,000 physicians, considered “Dangerous” or “Questionable.” From murder to child molestation, from rape to drug running to insurance theft, almost exactly 50 doctors are found guilty of agregious misbehavior each week.

3. It is doctors – and no one else in society – who gleefully overprescribe the mind-numbing volume of drugs to the masses, at an ever-increasing rate (Does it concern anyone at all that fully 30% of all Girl Scouts at summer camp are on prescription drugs? Is there any doubt it will rise to 50% at some point in the future?)

4. The watchdog group Public Citizen reports that ‘Med Mal’ lawsuits are, in fact, few & far between. Fewer than 10% of all patients harmed by medical treatment ever bring suit at all. In those cases that are brought to trial, far more than half are won by the physician. Contrary to popular belief, juries tend to side with the medical care provider, unless the injury is practically undisputed. And anyone who thinks it’s a piece of cake to convince an attorney to take on a Med Mal case, well, they just aren’t paying attention.

5. Because of the ‘monster’ million-dollar suits that DO make the headlines, Americans typically suppose these victims are raking in tons of money on zillions of kooky cases. But factually, very, very few patient victories result in much at all.

I am by no means proud of the fact that I live in a country considered “lawsuit crazy” by the rest of the world. But I can say with some confidence that American medical practitioners have brought this plague on themselves.

The only aspect not completely owned by lawyers is the press, but even there, lawyers exert nearly absolute control over what can be printed. So, in terms of balancing, Mr. Kane is correct, in that the any balancing that occurs is in favor of lawyers and their fees. Should any “balancing” occur to or for any other venue, it is entirely accidental and aberrant.

The tort lawyers enjoyed a kind of blossoming of opportunity, starting in the mid to late 1900s (lets say) and now its gotten to the point where they are marauding predators; who will make something out of nothing; and putting every one in a state of panic and anxiety. Eventually this excess will swing back the other way. But ofcourse only after a long war.

The idea that tort law was available to create an adequate response to sad flawed human reality I don’t think existed; when our nation became luxuriant enough to fuel the system; same way cars kept getting bigger even though fuel was an obvious problem; tort law grew to the point where; yes; those lawyers who were really good at it.. yes; they found a way to make a good living. No one except them would say the system makes any sense.

What then to do about it? Keep on fighting the war. Which will last for our lifetime, I’d suppose for sure. (what am I? Surgeon’s spouse; defense attorney because of that that I described above a little) What we are looking for is a statement which describes what Justice would be, for this circumstance. When the war ends; that is when it felt right to me over my 54 years. When vietnam ended. For the time being; we must keep on truckin.. we just must keep on truckin. Requiring that our consent to what we are subjected to, is also heard at least as much as those who claim justice requires recompense when things go sour.

If we were judges; and legislators (and gods) what would we do, to set it all right?

What solutions are there? When will we sleep, like we did before the first lawsuit arrived? Sooner or later the tide will go out. Until so, we need to keep constructing our dyke. The temptation to drop a few bombs remains hard to resist.