Quayle on Lawyers

Regarding Vice President Dan Quayle’s remarks on the Administration’s proposal to reform the U.S. legal system (front page, Aug. 14):

The United States legal system is a matter of great humor everywhere outside this country. I lived overseas for a number of years and would see local newspapers articles from the U.S. about robbers hurting themselves while breaking into a house and suing the owners, people suing each other over too-strong of a handshake, etc. Your article, instead of covering the vice president’s proposals, spends more time quoting responses from parties interested in maintaining the status quo. The president of the American Bar Assn. completely distorts the points made by Quayle and exclaims that changes to the system will ruin American life as we know it, and sorely hurt minorities, women and I suppose everyone who is not a white male.

It seems to me that quoting lawyers on the subject of legal reform would be similar to quoting the Ku Klux Klan on civil rights matters; each has a vested interest in maintaining things the way they are.

DOUGLAS J. WICKHAM

Laguna Niguel