Edwards's career tied to jury award debate

The Boston Globe ^ | September 15, 2003 | Wendy Davis

[Tamzee]

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Senator John Edwards, the North Carolina lawyer running for president, built a career out of winning historic jury awards for children who suffered birth defects allegedly because doctors mishandled their deliveries -- from a record $6.5 million in 1985 to a new record of $23 million in his last trial in 1997.

[Tamzee]

I guess he isn't backing Bush's tort reform...

[henbane]

"I have to tell you right now -- I didn't plan to talk about this -- right now I feel her, I feel her presence," [Edwards] said in his record-setting 1985 lawsuit on behalf of Jennifer Campbell, born brain-damaged after being deprived of oxygen during labor. "She's inside me and she's talking to you. . . ."

This cheap "channeling" trick is particularly loathsome.

No doubt some of the weepers on the jury thought he was connected in some way with the Jon Edwards of Crossing Over.

This guy is one slick kewpie doll of a con-man.

[Yaelle]

These kinds of lawsuits make me sick. So many good OBs don't even want to practice any more because of these horrible suits. Birth is difficult. There should be a sign on the delivery room door (like there is at my ice rink) that if you enter, you are taking upon yourself the inherent risks in the activity.

Not that there is never gross malpractice, but it is rarer than lawsuits by distraught parents of newborns with problems. In a difficult birth, a doctor may have a couple of choices and seconds to make them. In many cases, it is the parents themselves, trying NOT to have a C-section. It is unfair to sue doctors for millions because they made a decision based on the best knowledge and experience they have, and then something goes or is wrong with the baby!

[Tamzee]

I know what you mean, I live in PA and we are going through a bit of a medical crisis here with doctors leaving to practice in other states.

[Tamzee]

If Edwards wins the White House it could change our entire justice system... "A man is innocent until proven broke"

[ElephantMan]

Yeah, watch this guy really closely next time c-span carries one of his campaign speeches. His entire rap is about how bad life is for the common folk in America under Bush, it's class warfare of the worst kind.

The Breck Girl, as Limbaugh calls him, may have been one of the sleaziest lawyers of all time--now he's one of the sleaziest politicians of all time.

And the nerve, too. Less than one Senate term and he thinks he's Presidential material? Put 50 million in a guy's bank account and, I guess, they throw in the hubris for free.

But why wouldn't he be delusional? I mean, he didn't have to work for anything--he used his ample BS techniques to trick people into making him rich. Then he used that wealth and his cunning to convince people that he deserved a Senate seat. Can he use that position and that wealth and that cunning to pull off the royal scam?

I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up on the Democrat 2004 Ticket--probably as VP. Although his southern appeal is debatable, according to some polls, even his home folks in NC aren't too keen of him anymore.

But again, listen to his divisive rhetoric. It's hard not to laugh because it's such an unsophisticated ruse. But it's scary to think that people actually buy the act!

[The Duke]

I hear that Edwards suffers from a recurring nightmare that has him driving down the road in pursuit of a speeding ambulance. No matter how fast he drives he never catches up.

[woofer]

So many good OBs don't even want to practice any more because of these horrible suits.

My niece is finishing her OB/GYN residency this year. While her husband has one more year of his neurologist residency and a research fellowship to follow, she plans to, and these are her words, go to Law School and do an Edwards. Further, she explained to me, why pay half her earnings to an insurance company for malpractice coverage when taking courses not even half as stringent as 4 years of Medical School and a bar exam less than a tenth as difficult as medical boards will mean she'll earn as much as 3 times more without the day to day complexity of her medical practice and without the $100,000 insurance premiums.

In my opinion, she'll do it and do it well. She was summa cum laude in two majors in college, fifth in her medical school class.

[Rebelbase]

""channeling""

Shirley McClain will be Edwards VP canditate.

[mewzilla]

I guess he isn't backing Bush's tort reform...

Neither is the Boston Globe :) But the Breck Girl's not their candidate, is he?

[b9]

What a telling find. Thanks so much for posting this.

Edward's snakelike appeal is just what got Clinton elected. But much has changed since 9/11 and hopefully the electorate has grown up enough not to let that happen again.