In Defense of the Legal Profession

* OK, I won’t sue Ted Rall over his article on the value of attorneys and litigation (Commentary, May 5). In fact, it wasn’t until I read Rall’s commentary that I began to feel a genuine appreciation for the place attorneys have in our lives. Lawyers really are our only system of checks and balances in an arena of recklessness and irresponsibility, something we are all guilty of to varying degrees. Also, attorneys are startlingly representative of us, their clients, from the sincere to the depraved.

So, until we evolve into more advanced beings and create a better world for ourselves, lawyers will always be there to remind us of who we still are.

ARTHUR G. SAGINIAN

Northridge

* I would like to remind Rall of a few things:

The folks bringing the legal actions from the corporations are also attorneys. Properly executed tort reform will also control those “frivolous as well as well-funded” lawsuits you encounter in response to your cartoons. A company’s stupidity didn’t burn Granny. The company in question was answering the desires of the 99.9999% of their customers who want their coffee to be somewhat above lukewarm by the time it gets to the car, and have enough sense not to hold that coffee between their legs while driving.

EARL EAGER ALBERT

Temple City

*

Hurray for Rall and his defense of the legal profession.

The lawsuit filed against Los Angeles County’s plans to pour even more concrete around the Los Angeles River has persuaded even Gerald Caton, city manager of Downey and leader of those who support this expensively misguided idea, to agree to a study of alternative flood control strategies (letter, May 5). Only as a response to a lawsuit have officials in the county even considered a multipurpose watershed management approach to resolving this serious problem.

God bless our legal profession and our attorney in this lawsuit.

DOROTHY GREEN

Founding President Heal the Bay, Los Angeles

* Rall says that his job as a political cartoonist is to offend as many rich and powerful people as possible. Moreover, he admires lawyers who sue the pants off of wealthy corporations.

Well, OK, it’s a popular liberal bent. But hold on. He also says that he was so happy when Mom’s divorce lawyer sued cheap Dad for big bucks. Sounds less like political idealism and more like personal vendetta.

MICHAEL V. ZUNDELL

Los Angeles