We are, of course, amazed that our readers occasionally disagree with our brilliant and witty essays. In fact, sometimes quite a few readers think that The Outrage editors are wrong, misanthropic, idiotic, selfish, deluded, or all of the above.

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Read the 2nd set of comments about this Outrage!

Only two words need be used to describe our nation's legal system: IT SUCKS!

It stinks

Well, well. It's clever to be the editor and publicly post a reply to a private response to what was thought to have been a private message, without posting the initial response. I'm learning. My response was:

For your information, Bob Bellott's life's work was taken from him for his refusal to cave in to State Farm's compulsion for control. The termination wasn't about any real contract violation; it was about Bellott's refusal to fall into line, the company line. I will repeat for you: The contract does not specify sole or exclusive occupation, it says principal occupation, and the office is not State Farm's office.

For your further information, $2.7 million was a fair (barely) compensatory award for the loss of future income Bob Bellott would have derived from the agency he built. He was one of State Farm's leading producers and an ethical man by every measurement accepted by our society. When large corporations determine to gain absolute control of independent contractors (Bellott was not an employee) the very essense of the contract State Farm intself wrote, has been violated.

$150 million will never be paid, but nevertheless a jury has declared, "You will not treat people this way!" State Farm will now have to deal with that and if they want to avoid similar instances in the future, maybe they should consider stopping the abuse of the very people who built the most successful enterprise of its kind and in that process, created the CEO's job as well as all the other employee jobs at State Farm.

You see, the CEO of State Farm is much more dependent for his job security on the likes of Bob Bellott, than Bob Bellott is dependent on the CEO. A founding executive of State Farm said, "At State Farm, nothing happens until an agent sells a policy.: That means there are no jobs unless agents sell policies and service their customers.

State Farm is a mutual company, meaning it is owned by its policyholders. There are no stockholders. I agree it's outrageous (I recently wrote an article about it) that policyholders' funds must be committed to such proceedings. In a stockholder held company, there would be a stockholder uprising and a management bloodletting. Too bad the executives responsible for the unethical behavior weren't ordered to pay; nor will they be taken to any sort of serious task for their actions. No matter. They will have to at least stop and think bofore continuing their corporate bullying.

I'm for fair and good faith dealing in all aspects of business. If you find that irrational and emotional, that's just going to have to be your problem.

The fact that large businesses can be attacked the way they are in today's legal system is completely our fault. We don't educate ourselves enough to know anything more than what a lawyer tells us. Think about it this way. If a lawyer stands to make 50 million from a court case he doesn't care about right wrong, truth or lies. He's thinking about the new house he's going to buy. This is the true motivation behind class action suits. Forget fair and unfair and think about our morality as a people. After all the lawyers don't decide the verdict randomly picked jurys do.

What happened in Bob Bellott's case in Alaska is totally appropriate. Big companies like State Farm need to realize that they cannot continue to steal the livliehhod from a long term agent without paying a price. There undoubtedly will be more of these lawsuits and until they learn that they have a duty to be fair in their dealings with contract agents.

The post by Joe above is a classic example of irrationality and emotionalism. Tell us again exactly why an agent should make 1,000 times more by going to court than he would in the normal course of business? Or why an attorney bringing these totally bogus cases should become wealthier than people that invent products or produce real wealth?

The thinking that damages need to be massive to affect corporate behavior is silly. Does that mean that every agent who is "mistreated" is entitled to some percentage of State Farm's net worth? And tell us again why an agent going to court and his lawyer are entitled to make several hundred times the annual salary of the chairman of State Farm? These cases are motivated by one thing and one thing only - rapacious greed on the part of attorney's and their clients.

Speaking of irresponsibility, how about reporting conclusively with only a smattering of facts, plus a huge portion of 1990s glib?

Bob Bellott and dozens of other insurance agents have been terminated during recent years because insurance companies are reneging on their agents' contracts' provision that their agents are independent contractors. The companies want them to be independent contractors for taxation and benefits purposes, but de facto employees for purposes of control.

The contract says State Farm insurance must be the agent's principal occupation; it does not specify sole or exclusive occupation.

The office is not State Farm's office; it is entirely the agent's office to the extent of 100% of all operating expenses and 100% responsibility for the purchase or lease of the facility.

The Alaska court has refused to support the contract's requiring the agent to engage in unethical practice, and has demanded, "You will not treat people this way" in response to State Farm's firing their agent for refusing to practice unethically.

$150 million is barely over 1/3 of 1 percent of State Farm's net worth and is equal to about one week's increase in net worth. Hardly crippling; in fact, some wonder if it's enough even to slow their recent ruthless behavior toward their agents. It is afterall, the agents, not home office executives, who have built the company to the most successful enterprise of its kind.

I think the legal system is totally screwed up, if the president can commit adultery and purjury and get away with it what does that show about the US court system? Also letting murderers and rapists go on parole????? What happened to an eye for an eye? In my opinion I say let them critters fry, and not let them walk out of prison with just a slap on the wrist....

I have long contended that we have a "legal" system but no "justice" system. It is the Achilles heel of our government and may well destroy the American dream.

Mans Law

This is law based on what's right and wrong at any given moment. Mans law changes to suit the need of the influential, the people of a special majority or minority, the special interest, the ones with a need that could only be satisfied by taking from others what they themselves think is harmful or wrong. Mans law in many ways can never satisfy everyone, it may help and destroy all at the same time. It takes two to interact with a law, the ones that obey it and the ones that defy it. In the case of the latter, man often has to create new laws and penalties to enforce and prevent circumvention of the original law. This often introduces new restrictions on those that the original law may never have even applied to. If you go further with this concept a gradual deterioration of rights and freedoms is inevitable and man is judged not by what he is, but by who he is and by those who judge themselves as better than he. This is very dangerous for everyone because, the value of human life then becomes cheap. This is where a foundation of unchangeable laws and absolute truths must come into existence. Let's bring God back into this country and teach our children of him and they will become our new leaders, judges, lawyers, teacher etc...

If this country brought back absolute truths and feared God we would'nt be in this mess. As Jesus Christ said: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

I do believe that our laws are for the most part okay but when posing as a juror in a mock courtroom scene I was ask to decide a most difficult case: An open bottle of liquor in the back floor of a car that belonged to a father. His 16 year old son jumped in the car for a quick trip to town when the father arrived home. On the way to town he was stopped for speeding and the officer spotted the open bottle. The law says "no open container" so he was arrested. Is this fair? What would you decide? But when it comes to classic cases like O.J. Simpson I feel the defense lawyers made a mockery of our judicial system. I could go on and on starting with Richard Jewell and the FBI, I am so disgusted with all the mess with the President of our great country and found it very refreshing to hear Charleton Hestons great speech he gave at Harvard Law school. I am wondering...can we ever get it back?

I think the legal system stinks!! You can't do anything without a lawyer - even if you have court papers already. In July my 14 year old son went to visit his father in Florida, he said he has more fun and freedom there and didn't come back. Even though I have full custody papers from our divorce, I was told that I had to get a lawyer. The lawers around here want a $1500 retainer fee and $120 - $130 an hour. I explained that I can't afford it - there was nothing anyone could do.

My friends son broke his back and is entitled to disability. When he went to take care of it he was told that he had to get a lawyer! Why? He has all the paperwork from the doctors and the hospital - the lawyers want 25% of what he gets!!! Legal Aid won't handle it.

our legal system has gone amuck!. Most judges do not judge, nor do they keep attorneys in line or to the standard of decency. Most attorneys are blood sucking animals. their fees are outrageous. We need tort reform, but how do we get it when they control the very system through which change could occur.

I think if you have enough money you can buy the best legal help that money can buy....

The first step to reforming the justice system AND reducing crime is to take the men convicted in the dragging death in Texas, chain them up to a pickup, and drag them to their deaths..LIVE on network television. Immediately after the dragging, with cameras focused on the criminals battered, lifeless bodies we inform the rest of the slimy criminals watching that from this day forward, justice will be inflicted on them in precicely the same exact manner in which they terrorized their victims. Their punishment will be chosen by them the minute they commit the crime. What could be fairer then being able to choose your punishment (are you listening ACLU?). I guarantee after watching a few of these, those snot nosed, up and coming young delinquents will stop cold in their tracks. This policy will inflict the notion of consequences for ones actions that their parents obviously couldn't bring themselves to introduce into their childs lives (we don't wan't to damage their self-esteem, you know). The "do what feels good, ignore authority, flower children of the 60's have growwn up, procreated, and are passing their lack of personal responsibility on to the next generation...aren't we lucky? Damn I'm glad I wasn't born until 1967 and missed all that crap!

The plug on expecting the right thing to occur was pulled long ago. So, be ye not surprised at injustice, but be ye surprised when the right thing is done.

The way I see it is that we are the victims and most lawyers are the perpetrators. The perpetrator has an obvious advantage so beware and practice preventive life. Inform yourselves and watch your back side at all times.

What's really sad is that none of the above respondents seem to even understand, much less have addressed, the real issues. The above shouting and pouting is all emotion and no reason.

Here's the trouble: the plaintiff gets both compensatory AND punitive damages from the losing defendant. Punitive damages are supposed to be calculated based on how much money the defendant has -- the idea is to make it enough that the defendant is hurt by it, so that he'll be sure it doesn't happen again.

In the case of a large corporation, this can mean hundreds of millions, or billions of dollars. In the case of a mom & pop store, it could be a hundred dollars. The inequitable result is that the amount of money the plaintiff gets in punitive damages has NOTHING to do with how much the plaintiff "deserves" for being wronged or injured.

Solution: the maximum of the punitive damages that the plaintiff gets should be limited to three times the "real" (compensatory) damages, plus reasonable legal costs -- the balance of the punitive damage penalty should go to the state (and thus to the taxpayers who pay for the courts and the rest of the justice system).

http://www.blueagle.com/

It's way past time for the good people of ths nation to get off their ASSES and take up arms and remove and replace our government.

I think the legal system is out of control. They are taking our rights away without paying attention to our constitution. Most lawyers are blood suckers. Anything to make money and to hell with our rights.

TO ZACH B FROM CRAZY BOB. I'M SAYING VIGILANTES ARE GOOD A THING AND AM IN NO WAY SUPPORTING CRIMINALS, EXCEPT FOR VIGILANTES (THOSE WHO TAKE THE LAW INTO THIER OWN HANDS) BECAUSE OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM DOES NOT WORK. I REALLY ONLY BELIEVE IN VIGILANTES UNDER A COUPLE OF CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH ARE MURDER AND RAPE WHICH IS THE ONLY WAY I COULD TRULY SEE IT JUSTIFIED. RAPISTS AND MURDERERS DON'T DESERVE TO LIVE.

Excuse me, Barry Dentler. I totally agree with your discription of the media and the legal system. However, when I read about "plundering" of American corporations, I was shocked. Don't you relise that the corporations make more money on the crimes they commit than they are fined by the system. This is because the Corps OWN the system. After all, they pay for the polititions who make the laws. They also own the Media almost entirely. Don't you know that he who pays the piper calls the tune?

I appreciate your concern for the the multi-billion dollar corporations who should not be find $150,000,000 dollars out of there $50,000,000,000 pockets for minor crimes such as dumping toxic waste unsafely to save some money that they don't need and having unsafe working conditions that cuase people to be killed. Know the Union Carbide Corporation? They were found guilty IN INTERNATIONAL COURT of negligence that cost over ONE THOUSAND PEOPLE THEIR LIVES in a HUGE chemical plant explosion. Where is your pity to these people, huh? What about their families who had to watch Union Carbide get off with a minor fine, and no one went to prison. Trust me, $150 MILLION is CHICKEN FEED to these people. I can not really get across how little money this is, relative to the size of their pockets. The Justice System is incredibly corrupt, but it is because the corporations own it. Aim your anger at the real criminals, the people that are willing to sacrifice the lives of innocent people cause they just CAN'T GET ENOUGH MONEY. These jerks own the polititions and the courts, and as for that psyco Bob, do you really want a vigilante to blow you away because he thinks (without even making an investigation) that you have commited a crime. OBVIOUSLY that freak Sam should be in a mental instituion for life. However, he can only kill so many. Corporations in the Untited States get away with murder EVERY DAY and no one cares, not even the media, cause they are owned by the corporations. Stop talking about INNOCENT CORPORATIONS, you idiot. THEY'RE the murderers!

the justice system. people[judges,lawyers, jurors,etc.] try hard. the problem is the press who influence people anyway they want.they make people who want to do the right thing feel like they are a racist or a plain out unmerciful person.

The justice system is a joke.Money and racism talk so loud that nothing else can be heard.Hey!! look what happened in the Clinton case.

Yes, I agree that there is a major problem with our legal system. Anyone that doesn't see it as such is not living in this universe. But there is one major reason that this exist today. In my mind this reason could be none other than the blatent refusal and indiffrentism to the fact Jesus Christ Reigns as Christ our King over our judicial system. When we agree to this the other problems will resolve on their own.

thanks

Of course, the legal system is an outrage. What can we expect when we let lawyers make and then interpret the laws? And the system is so complex now that only they can understand how to do any of it, which is the overall plan, anyway. It is incomprehensible that the intelligentsia of this country continues to not only allow this, but support those lawyers by huge contributions. We, as the consumer are the ones that really truly pay.

The legal system is run by a bunch of liberals that want to blame everything but the true cause of the problem. Look at what states have the fastest diminishing crime stats, they are states that are run by conservitives that are pushing and punishing those convicted. Arkansas as an example, Since the election of Gov. Mike Hukabee more death row inmates have been put to death than in the intire Klinton regime as gov.

What a crock! I am sick and tired of civil suits from every Tom, Dick and Harry that wants a little money from their own stupidity! It all boils down to greedy people and greedier lawyers. Ans as for the criminals that just get a slap on the wrist, send 'em back to do their time! Hell, throw them under the jail and leave them there!!! They are a much bigger menace to society that big business. If criminals knew that there were no second chances, many of them would not commit crimes in the first place. And to all those out there who do stupid things and then look for a civil setlement, HERE'S YOUR SIGN!!!

There needs to be a cap of 1 Million Dollars on ALL judgements, no matter personal or corporate.

The legal system simply stinks.

The version you learned as a kid: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold. Moral: Hard work and thrift pays off.

The modern American version: The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving. CBS, NBC and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can it be that, in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Then a representative of the NAGB (The National Association of Green Bugs) shows up on Nightline and charges the ant with green bias, and makes the case that the grasshopper is the victim of 30 million years of greenism. Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when he sings "It's not easy being green." Bill and Hillary Clinton make a special guest appearance on the CBS Evening News to tell a concerned Dan Rather that they will do everything they can for the grasshopper who has been denied the prosperity he deserves by those who benefited unfairly during the Reagan summers. Richard Gephardt exclaims in an interview with Peter Jennings that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and calls for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share." Finally, the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-Greenism Act," retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal hearing officers that Bill appointed from a list of single-parent welfare moms who can only hear cases on Thursdays between 1:30 and 3 PM. The ant loses the case. The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he's in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him since he doesn't know how to maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow. And on the TV, which the grasshopper bought by selling most of the ant's food, they are showing Bill Clinton standing before a wildly applauding group of Democrats announcing that a new era of "fairness" has dawned in America.

We feel that William Shakespeare was right when he said, "Kill all the Lawyers"

We think that this is an outrage that lawyers can get away with stealing other peoples money.

Dear Rage Again right on the nail head.My big point on the law suits is take a person making $5.00 and hour fliping sort of meat patties at the local buger house.Now he falls down on a floor that has a sign that can plainly be seen and some how this guy gets a jury to give him more money then he could have earned in 40 life times that is unfair take his yearly income times his work years of 40 and that should be more then enough not this making multi millionaires out of boxboys and bugerflippers now that is a crime.My other is the one where and adult who has been on this earth a good many years becomes so stupid as to walk on a slipery floor or put a hot coffee cup between there legs come on now this is a result of people trying to find a way to easystreet without having to work for it.There are people making a living at ripping off trucking companies by taking down truck # and then calling saying he hit there car and what are they going to do about it most don't even look into it .This is a crime and people when ask well that big company won't miss it or they deserve it for being so big and rich everytime you people steal some thing or take a company to court means I and you pay a little more each time we buy some thing please stop and think and live by the golden rule one day we all will be made to pay for these little things I myself feel good at night knowing I live a life without doing anything wrong or against the law.Here is another thing do you know they have had to close schools that teach people how to be dentist and you say why is that lack of students they all want to be lawyers there is not the big bucks in fixing teeth like there is in chasing class action suits.Enough said I will climb down off my soapbox but some times I get so mad seeing people out in out stealing from us and getting away with it.

Using one injustice (an emotional one at that) to condemn or to justify another unrelated injustice is ridiculous, disgusting and irresponsible. You have done it again!

Litiagtors, like doctors, are a necessity. Hell, lawyers made most all of the rules in the first place. What I wonder is where did Bob Bellott get his "seed" money from in the first place to pay for Rick Friedman's initial services (I mean, the whole case did not come to a verdict overnight)? When you need one, you want a good lawyer, and a good lawyers do not come cheap! You get what you pay for in lawyers! So the system stinks. OK. I don't have a clue what system to replace it with. In the mean time, play the lottery or go to Vegas because that is about as close as any of us will ever get to starting/winning a pot of money with the aid of a slick lawyer.

Hello folks Just read the Outrage about Miss Mercy and her friend.As far as I am concerned everyone is entitled to there opinion,but in this case her and people like her as far as I am concerned are just as guilty of the crimes.These same people are the ones that want gun control so no has any protection against them.As far as lawyers go they have become the scum of the earth in my book.Protect the guilty and the hell with the rest.There my feelings in brief.

the justice system SUCKS!

Typical liberal pin head thinking and it's just the beginning.

The legal system is obviously under the total control oa greedy, grasping ammoral lawyers. They are totally uncerned with any notions of fairness, equity, presonal responsibility or anything else, except how many $$ they can extract from someone, something, anybody, anything. Just look at the two moral beacons of the legal proffession, Bill & Hillary C. to see what slime lawyers really are.

If I don't pay my taxes, they come after everything I own. Yet, the major oil and mining companies pull oil and minerals off federal land, land owned by all of us, and pay only pennies, thanks to the Congressmen they own.

Corporations put out shoddy products that hurt and maim consumers, and the corporate bleeding hearts scream when the corporation has to pay for the damage it has done. It is cheaper for the corporations to pay lawsuits than to correct the problems, since their mega-lawyers and judgements are tax deductible. Just like the limo's and corporate jets, all tax deductible, but normal Americans can't deduct bus fare or the cost of the commute to work.

Corporations pay top executives millions and hundreds of millions of dollars a year in salaries and bonuses, Disney pays Eisner $500+ million a year. Every cent of that is tax deductible, so it reduces the corporate tax by a percentage of when they pay him and the other multi-million dollar salary "executives." Yet, when the citizens ask the government to force a corporation to clean up an environmental mess they've created, the corporate shyster lawyers whine that it will cost millions and that will force it to raise its prices. BULL! [Cut Eisener's salary in half and the price of tickets at Disney world would be cut in half!!!]

Shedding a tear for corporations that receive all of the benefits of American citizenship and then try to get out of every single responsibility of being an American citizen is absurd. Corporations have worked the tax game to reduce the taxes that they should pay as American businesses, they have worked the legal system -- delaying court cases until the citizens involved run out of money. Corporations run the PR game about how the "shyster" lawyers handle cases against them, but the same corporations hire their own shyster lawyers with millions of tax deductible dollars. It is easier to battle the IRS than it is to try to make a major corporation accountable for its wrong doing!

No, very little pity for the poor corporations. Check out the oil industry. The price per barrel of oil plumments to one third of its prior cost, and months later we see a drop in the price of gasoline. The "reason" it takes so long, is that the higher priced oil was still in the "pipeline." Rumors start about a reduction in the production of oil, and prices go up the next week. The reason that prices go up is that the cost of oil they are buying to replace what they've sold is so much more expensive.

American citizens get screwed, American corporate executives make millions in salaries, American corporate taxes go down, and American citizens get to pay and pay and pay.

I believe that we have made a grievous error in according corporations (mostly) the same legal status as we do individuals. A corporation has no morals, no conscience - nor should we expect it to. With such status the only legal recourse is what I refer to as the A-bomb recourse - nuke 'um into oblivion or leave them be. Nuking them into oblivion (a judgment so large as to cause the corporation to disappear) is a disservice to both the share holders and the recipients of the goods/services that the corporation afforded. Lesser penalties are generally passed on to the consumer (higher prices) or the shareholders (less profitability) or both.

The prevailing theory seems to be that if one nibbles at them enough, then they'll straighten up and fly right. I believe that they will fly in a different direction if the initial tack has proven unprofitable - but that ain't necessarily a "right" direction.

In the meantime (usually) - no individual clearly stands accountable - and large, exceeding wealthy corporations become targets for the symbiots/parasites (lawyers and their clients) that can adapt to the corporate biosphere. Whether the charge is with, or without, merit - despicable or commendable - has little to do with any moral standard, only how the game is played. Asking what I think of any given case - without a lot more detail - is like asking what I think about the smell of an some strangers outhouse in August - of course it has an odor, but the odor doesn't tell me whether the situation is harmful or beneficial.

About 10 years ago we had an unfortunate industrial accident in Alaska. The Exxon Valdez grounded on a reef and spilled several million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound. The corporation (Exxon) was held liable and fined appropriately. The captain of the vessel - Joe Hazelwood - was eventually convicted of what amounts to drunk driving and sentenced to some penalties - among which was a large number of hours of community service.. It is my firm belief that the damages paid by Exxon may have served to make some victims whole (more or less) while the purpose (prevention) of all the legal hassle would have been far better served had every officer of Exxon, and every director of Exxon, been sentenced to pick up highway trash along with Joe Hazelwood - day for day.

So far I've seen little about corporate lawsuits that impresses me - except for the skill the practitioners. Some suits have, no doubt, done some good for the plaintiffs - and some have left plaintiffs suffering in the dirt (just or unjust). Almost all have enriched attorneys.