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Show 22A 1 lie Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday, Miruary IMWi Common Carrier There Is No Insurance Crisis in Utah By R Clayton Huntsman Much has been said about the "insurance crisis in Utah We are told wt are a people, and that verthe "proliferation of dicts makes it impossible for doctors, "sue-happy- " sky-hig- manufacturers, ski-lif- t operators, and ottiers to do business " While many consumers increasingly refuse to be victimized by dangerous or defective products or by incompetently performed services, we arc hardly "sue happy " According to Jury Verdict Research Inc., Utah Edition, 1985. only five verdicts of $1 million or more have been reported from Utah courts erer. Like since 1847 to 1986. One occurred in 1985, when a jury awarded the parents of a little girl $1 million when a physician, after assuring the parents there was no cause for alarm, allowed a cancerous growth to develop between the spinal cord and vertebrae. The child suffered paralysis as a result of the later surgery I don t believe the doctor was a bad man. But what relief is there for the girl and her parents when the medical system failed them, and it could have been helped? We pay dearly for our medical care, and wait long hours in noisy, uncomfortable, waiting rooms for it. We don't expect - T-- 5 The Public Forum Tribune Readers1 Opinions Don't Ax Wasatch Dick Bass is fortunate that he has the financial resources enough to buy his wilderness experiences, i.e., the summit of Everest. Not all of us are that fortunate so we must satisfy our backcountry needs in the Wasatch. Unfortunately, the number of places available for such experiences is rapidly dwindling thanks, in part, to those same financial resources of Dick Bass. It was especially irritating to read in The Tribune. Jan. 31. that Mr. Bass is promoting his own interests by stating the blatant untruth that Little Cottonwood Canyon is too steep for safe backcountry travel and is suitable only for lift skiing. In fact. White Pine Canyon (the major area earmarked by Mr. Bass for Snowbird's expansion) has some of the best e terrain still available for touring in the Wasatch I have heard that Mr. Bass has sought approval for expansion by stating that more intermediate terrain is needed to attract more tourists to Snowbird! People have losl Snake Creek Pass to Brighton and Point Supreme to Alta. As a result. White Pine is presently heavily used. Continued loss of gentle terrain will force cross country skiers to steeper, less safe areas. The subsequent injuries and even deaths will be the result of the selfish push for development of the few remaining pristine, safe areas. RICHARD STEINER beginner-intermediat- any more. When the clerk tells him he can t take what he doesn't pay for, Norm says, I can't believe it, this always works with the teachers. It has occured to me the Utah legislators are either too incompetent or d to deal with the big too problems that adversely affect all of short-sighte- us. one of these problems is the deteriorating quality of public education. How big are we willing to let classes get! The average is close is 40 students, now. Will we allow 50 or 60 and continue to pay teachers the same relatively low income they're getting now? Will the Norm Breeders of Utah continue to pay the same amount for educating their six or seven kids as their neighbors who have only one or two? It is absolutely irrational for Obviously property owners with small families to continue supporting, through perpetually heavier taxes, the education of large families while watching the opportunity for a good education for all of our children decline. KELLER IIIGBEE Gouged at Gas Pump Gasoline prices in Salt Lake City are criminal. I invite a response from the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General's Office andor the Petroleum Retailers Association. On Jan. 31, regular fuel in Kansas City, Mo., was selling at 86.9 cents a gallon. These prices were even lower in some areas of Kansas. I find it Forum Kules Public Forum letters must be submitted exclusively to The Tribune and bear writers full name, signature and address. Names must be printed on political letters but may be withheld for good reason on others. Writers are limited to one letter every 10 days. Preference will be given to short, typewritten (double spaced) letters permitting use of the writer's true name. All letters are subject to condensation. Mail to the Public Forum, The Salt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110. Selt Belts Make Sense I am a junior high school student and our English class was told to write a letter to a local newspaper on something that interests us. I picked seat belts. I know seat belts save lives. One newspaper article really made me think about this. In the article, a highway patrolman said he had seen a lot of accidents in his life, but never has he had to unstrap a dead man Do we have to have a law to make us strap in? Do we love our family and ourselves enough to do it on our own? It's not just ourselves we by dying, it affects all out friends and family A man dies without insurance leaving Ins wife and four children with no money in the bank Does he just hurl himself? Is your life worth just the few seconds it takes to strap in before you go somewhere? Do parents love their children enough to strap them in? Babies can t decide whether or not they want to strap in. Make the choice for the bet- in. There is no excuse for not strapping in. If you don't have enough seat belts in the car for everybody, use the seat belts you do have! ter, strap PAULA ZIMMERMAN Orem Education Peril to Byron Nielsens witty Republican Parable" (Forum. Jan 27) in which Norm Breeder takes his 12 kids grocery shopping, fills up two or three carts, and then offers the clerk $100 for $700 worth of groceries because, he says he can t aff"rd Amen r nearly impossible to be- lieve that the national average wholesale price for regular gas had fallen to 50 cents a gallon and Utah refiners and retailers are still sticking it to the people of Salt Lake City and surrounding areas. This seems to be patent evidence of criminal collusion to charge artificially high prices. MAX E. PARKER sue. They don't like to sit for hours in depositions and trials and be accused of goldbncking because the old spine won't snap back together Injuied people don't like to lose their mobility. their function, their jobs, their families, or their homes because of Big Insurance's b & D ("Stall and Delay") tactics Injured people are not They They are sue-sawould prefer to have Big Insurance, who cancels their policies presto if premiums are not paid, to be fair and pay up at the beginning Injured people don't want to have to sue, but Big Insurance doesn't mind. Thirty-twof every 100 of your premium dollars which are paid out go to insurance lawyers who are well rewarded our illnesses to be aggravated after all that. Nor are our verdicts excessive It should not surprise the reader to learn that Utah verdicts are as conservative, to put it kindly, as are its religion and politics. Salt Lake Councases ty, where most personal-injurare filed, is 16 percent below' the national norm in average personal-injurawards. No wonder plaintiffs who demand some kind of justice are bringing suits against Utahns outside of Utah -- - such as in California -wherever possible. Who can blame a helpless victim if he seeks fundamental justice and human compassion elsewhere? y if they stall, delay, deny and frustrate basic justice. There's the "crisis if it exists. So tell your legislator that Utah does not deserve its reputation for supporting victimizers and victimizing victims. Ask them if the victim should not be afforded the same chance as the victimizer. There is a solution. It is simple. It is Today's Common Carrier author is R. Clayton Huntsman, 444 N. 400 West, St. George, 84770. Mr. Huntsman is a trial lawyer practicing in Utah and California. He received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University in 1 069, and bis Juris doctor a te from the University of Utah Law School in 1977. The views expressed in the article are those of the author. this: Much of the hysteria of late is being stirred up by Big Insurance, which is itself as responsible for the insurance crisis as Big Oil was for the oil crisis a decade ago. Big Insurance hasn't done too well in its col- Dont encourage unsafe products to be sold in Utah. Weed out the few Easements Often Prescribed An easement is a right in the land of another, a right to use the land or travel across it or put something over it. The telephone company may have an easement to run that wire across your backyard, even though the wire never touches the ground. Most easements are usually created by a recorded deed, but some easements are created by years of use. These easements are often called in lawyer talk a prescriptive easement. If the farmer down the road, and his predecessors. have always relied on a road across your property for access to his south 40, you probably cannot cut him off. even if the use of your land has changed It works like this. Dewey Branch had run a dairy herd on land south of town all his life. Although modern machinery has changed the methods used on the farm since Dewey inherited it from his father, the farm is still the same, even though it is now surrounded on three sides by subdivisions. And the farm still runs on water. Water to irrigate the grazing meadow's, to water the stock and to clean the barns. in- - - competent and ruthless doctors. If some ski operator wants to save a few cents and run a lift with rotten cable, make him assume the risk for his own recklessness. Why should cities which are too cheap to put a stoplight at an obviously busy or dangerous intersection, be immune from the inevitable and just compensation demands of injured superiors? If the voters know risk may be accountable to them, then maybe the city fathers will find the courage to assume the pent. And tell your legislators to repent, responsibility for doing what's right, not just what's expedient. Same with too lateral investment schemes, such as building skyscrapers and buying other big companies. They need a bogeyman. Big Oil has its Libyans and Iranians. Big Insurance has the injured and victimized plaintiff to blame for being greedy. Big Insurance also blames the lawyers for the injured and victimized, too, and is spending millions of your premium dollars in state capitals and in Congress to tie their hands. Big Insurance knows that a paraplegic bread winner with a family cannot pay an attorney the $20,000 to $50,000 or in some cases more, required to vigorously prosecute a major-injurcase. They know that while insurance lawyers get paid well and hourly, that the plaintiff's lawyer must take the case on a contingency, usually for about a third of the award, which averages out to about 85 percent of what Big Insurance pays its lawyers at no risk in the same case. Now Big Insurance wants to limit even that. Big Insurance wants to be able to tie up the paraplegic's trial victory for five years in an appeal, resulting in thousands of dollars more in legal costs and fees, with full impunity. Some have even gone so far as to demand legislation requiring the victim to pay Big Insurance for their attorneys' fees. Listen: Injured people don't like to Point of Law d sue-happ- y taverns which serve drinks to obviously drunk patrons who later drive away to kill or maim. Same with truckers who tailgate and speed, Same to ow ners of vicious dugs, and to governments which radiate us and our sheep to death and then lie about it Where is the incentive to be responsible if we can be irresponsible with impunity? Finally, let me ask this. How else can injury be compensated than with money awards? Does prison for the wrongdoer, at $25,000 per year or more, bring back the eyesight or life of a victim? Would it help the victim to take tooth for tooth and eye for the world eye? As Gandhi said would then be toothless and blind.) Would any of you trade your eyesight or fertility or arms or legs or fingers for $1 milor your childs life lion? $2 million? $10 million? Of course not. Lawsuits don't really compensate victims fully, but it's the best weve got for those who have no other means of achieving justice. Why is Utah always so slow when it comes to simple humanity and justice? Why are we the first in fraud and the last in racial and religious tolerance? Are we so oriented to Big Business, Big Government, and Big Insurance that the victims don't really matter much after all? Why do we allow ourselves to be so victimized by toxic water, exploding gas tanks, atomic radiation, and fraudulent investment schemes? Why should we now pass laws to encourage recklessness and danger and further shelter the victimizers and further harass their victims'' Let s change our wavs Lets re- Hoiv to Submit Articles Opinions expressed in Common Carrier do nut necessarily reflect those of The Salt Luke Tribune or the Common Carrier Board of Lay Editors. Articles in this department are selected by the lay board of editors which operutes independent of The Tribune editorial and reportorial policies. The Common Carrier board, y representiny a cross section of the community, is composed of Mary Green, a veteran federal employee ; Sancy Cooper, a businesswoman: Allen G Ev- Union, Local 19. and Robert Muldrow, a retired Air Farce colonel. The board seeks articles from all segments of the comma nity. Articles need not be prepared, but should be about three and a half pages of double-spacetyped copy They should pertain to the economic. political or social wellbeing of the Intermountain Area. Articles should be timely, have a basic idea, promote dialogue and be challenging jrofes-sionall- y d, ans. associate state director for Material should handicapped services. Utah Department of Social Services: Common Carrier, Connie Meske. office manager, Tribune, P.O. Box I umbers and SteamJ'itters City, Utah, 84110. be mailed to The Salt Lake 867, Salt Lake I The fabulous JCPenney Spring & Summer Catalog Edward McDonough is a lawyer practicing in Salt Lake City. Plus a s5 certificate W'hen the Country Dales Subdivision began its construction phase upstream from the Branch Dairy Farm, Dewey was immediately concerned about his water. A walk up the side of the irrigation canal confirmed that home lots were staked out without regard for the course of the canal. Dewey pointed this out to Joe Morgan, the subdivision developer. Don't worry, Mr. Branch. Morgan said, "well take care of your So much, for only $4 1 Fil Racism Redefined In response to Hope Bisbing (Forum. Feb. 5) I would first like to thank the Utah legislators for realizing the importance of a bill in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Ms. Bisbing believes the black woman from Ogden who lobbied in favor of the bill is racist and that the Utah legislators groveled under blackmail cries of racism." Perhaps Ms. Bisbing needs to count how many white-meholidays our country celebrates. Maybe then she could the meaning of racism. To include King into a group of already honored men and call it Civil Rights Day degrades him, and is absurd. Almost as absurd as comparing Martin Luther King to Brigham n Young ANNESOUYAI.I. Make Families Pay The dismal situation in state finances could be improved by recognizing that those who use a particular service more should pay more Specifically, funding for public education should be spread equitably, and those families with more children in school pay more for that schooling Society, in its own best interest, should pay for public education, but not to the extent of subsidizing ridiculously large families. deduction for The state income-ta- x after a be should dropped dependents family has three children. The additional taxes should be earmarked for public education, thus spreading the costs a bit more equitably. There will undoubtedly be cries that this punishes large families, but they are the ones who punish the education system the most by overloading it the result should be an improvement in the generally poor Utah public education system WILLIAM LANDRUM ditch even though the title company says you don't have a recorded easement. "I don't care about what's recorded," Dewey replied, so long as I get all the water I'm entitled to from my Slippery Creek water shares. Without water, I'm out of business. Dewey kept a daily watch on the progress of the subdivision, and when he saw Morgan's men unloading nine-incpipe, he went right to the construction office. "You can't run my ditch through nine-incpipe," he told Morgan. It will never handle all the second feet of water I'm entitled to come the spring run off I depend on that to flood irrigate my pasture " JCPenney Catalog Merchandise Certificate h limit h per DOLLARS customer ,!?. , ' ? U' fk A toward any catalog order land "Nine inch is all the project can afford," Morgan said, and more than owe you for your little ditch " Morgan changed his attitude, however, after his lawyer explained to him the substance of a call he had received from Dewey Branch's lawCaruthers. "Even if yer, Judge there was no recorded easement for the irrigation ditch," Morgan's lawyer told him, I'm afraid you can do nothing that would interfere with the flow of water. The ditch was there and clearly visible when you bought the land, and the Branch family had been using it for well over the period required for establishing a prescriptive easement in this state. I would advise you to consult a water engineer to determine what size cul vert you will need to handle all of Mr Branch's water needs " (Taint of La is published for information purposes only, and should not be used as legal advice. You should see .1 our own lawyer for specific legal opinion.) one FIVE b$ MkW.1 ' Just when you need it the most, wc bring you a breath of Spring It s the JCPenney Spring and Summer Catalog with a $5 cortilicato lor ust $4. You'll find page after sizzling page of minute fashions. For all the days of fun ahead, there's our wide array of money-savin- g sporting goods. 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