Copyright 2000 Denver Publishing Company
DENVER
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
September 10, 2000, Sunday
SECTION: Business; Ed. Final; Pg. 2G
LENGTH: 724 words
HEADLINE:
LETTERS
BODY:
Reforming
class-action lawsuits
I was pleased to see the business community
forming a group in an attempt to slow down the insanity so prevalent in consumer
lawsuits. Also, they could not have picked a more able chair than Jake Jabs.
However, I feel they are doomed to hit that stone wall. The national legislative
bodies, at escalating levels, are largely made up of attorneys and they are not
about to "cut off the hand that feeds them" in any objective effort to
reform our consumer and class action
litigation.
There are two simple steps that would go a long way towards
"control with fairness":
1. Loser Pays Winner's Costs. Of course, this
patently equitable concept sends the legal community running first to their
psychiatrist and then to their Political Action Committees. 2. Then the most
egregious folly, i.e., Punitive Damages, could be quite easily brought into
line. Many years ago at a legal seminar on this subject I proposed a simple
approach. It is pretty well accepted that in this the primary purpose of
punitive damages is to punish the wrongdoer, not reward the plaintiff; they are
supposedly solaced by the many categories of actual damages. Therefore, if
punitive damages went to an approved list of secular charities, and the
plaintiff got to select the recipient in his or her case, and attorneys' fee
were limited to 5 percent on the punitive damages you would see a sharp decline
in those noble efforts to punish those big bad corporations. Upon positing these
thoughts I was roundly and soundly booed by the attending lawyers, which was
proof positive I had offered a fair idea.
Donald S. Clarke
Aurora
Coal keeps down heating costs
The Aug.
27th article titled "Heat is on this winter: Natural gas costs jump,"
demonstrated how the increased use of natural gas-fired electric power to meet
rising electricity demand is driving up the cost of natural gas for home heating
this winter.
Yet, few are aware that 85 percent of Colorado's
electricity is generated by coal - our most abundant, domestic energy resource.
Electricity from coal has kept our electric power costs 11 percent below the
national average and has demonstrated remarkable price stability in an age of
skyrocketing gasoline and natural gas prices. In fact, over the past 20 years,
the price of coal increased only 4 percent, compared to a 211 percent increase
in the price of natural gas and a 51 percent increase in the price of crude oil.
Technological advances have and will continue to make electricity from
coal increasingly clean. America's electric utilities that use coal have
invested over $50 billion to make electricity from coal cleaner
and more efficient.
For Colorado's families and businesses electricity
from coal is not only essential, it is affordable and increasingly clean.
Terry Ross
Vice President Western Region,
Center for
Energy and Economic Development
Franktown
Standard practice
for United
On Friday, Aug. 25, I sat in my living room and watched a
commercial with the CEO of United Airlines, Mr. James Goodwin, expressing his
sincere apologies to the American people for the disruption in their travel
plans this year.
I thought to myself that this was a very brave and
forthright approach to the situation and thought United Airlines must really be
trying to make amends. The very next day, I was on a flight to Aspen, CO from
San Diego, CA with any reservations I might have had about your airline behind
me.
Upon my arrival in Denver, I was told that flight attendants weren't
available for the flight and therefore it was being canceled. I thought this was
by far the most outrageous excuse for canceling a flight I have ever heard, but
I now realize that this has become a standard practice for your airline. Flights
are constantly being canceled with very little regard to travelers.
For
my troubles, I would like to be compensated for the following purchases I made
as a result of the "disruption in my travel plans".
Cab Fare to hotel
$10
Toothpaste $.80
Toothbrush
$2.60
Deodorant $4.99
Tampons
$2.50
Total $20.89
I don't
have a receipt for the cab fare, but as I have taken your CEO's word, then you
should take mine.
Angela J. Waldin
San Diego
NOTES:
LETTERS
OPINION PAGE
LOAD-DATE: September 13, 2000
