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Oh please Rob.

Lawyers CREATED private property. We CREATED the concept that a universal reliance interest in not taking the property of others was cheaper than the cost of hiring private security guards to prevent your property from being taken by force or violence.

We CREATED the concept of civil liberties. We distilled from human experience, bloody revolutions and the collective philosophical effort of five thousand years a scheme of ordered liberty that allowed capitalism to flourish.

We CREATED the joint-stock company and the concept of limited liability, which is what allowed capitalism to flourish in the 15th century. We CREATED the concept of equity ownership, which has absolutely been the engine of wealth creation, that has marked the rise of the American Economy to the greatest in human financial history.

We CREATED the rules that hold back the fragile borders of civilization against chaos. We wrote the criminal code and put advocates on both sides to protect the rights of the accused. We also wrote the civil code, that allows people who are harmed to seek legal redress for wrongs, rather than resorting to self-help, which reinforces the "civilized" nature of modern society.

So while I don't disagree that there's wealth redistribution going on, I would point out that unlike things like progressive taxation, which penalize high income taxpayers disproportinately over middle-income taxpayers without a trial or the opportunity to protest, wealth redistribution in the context of tort law isn't such a bad thing.

Seriously, now: XYZ Corporation makes a hazardous product which suffers from a design defect which injures somebody, and we don't think it's OK for the victim to recover?

If you want to talk about Tort Reform and "loser pays" no problem, but such a discussion is way above the typical laywer-bashing thread as it's played out with increasing frequency on the Pelican Board.

Just my .02. . .