Re: settlement - ludicrous!

[Robert A Scott <bobscottchp@juno.com>]

On Thu, 6 May 1999 17:52:02 -0500 (CDT) "Sandy Perle"
<sandyfl@earthlink.net> writes:
>What is wrong with our judicial system? 

	Please note that this was a settlement, so it really resulted from
attorneys on the two sides trying to decide what the total cost of
jumping through all the legal hoops would be, vs. what a judge (who may
or may not be biased in one direction or another) and a jury would do in
this case.  It really is a guessing game, and the university probably
decided that the cost of settlement in the long run would be less costly
than all the costs of the case plus associated ramifications to its
public relations.  We never know what goes into those decisions unless we
are part of them.  So essentially the plaintiffs convinced the defendants
that they would 'paper them to death' and bleed dry their resources.  I
guess what I am driving at is that the result is outside the 'judicial
system' from the standpoint of following courtroom rules and procedures.

	I don't support irrational settlements, either, but in this case I would
say that the attorneys were more in tune with costs and public opinion
than with science.

Bob Scott, RPO 
Roger Williams Medical Center
Providence, Rhode Island
bobscottchp@juno.com

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