"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" - Shakespeare, Henry VI
It's a different Will in today's NY Post, CASINO 'JUSTICE' :

In the casino that tort law has become, wild wagers are becoming routine. A family sues the Weather Channel for not forecasting the storm during which a family member on a fishing trip drowned. A man sues six bars and liquor stores and the electricity company because of injuries he sustained when, while drunk, he climbed over a fence with a locked gate and scaled an electrical tower. And then there is Mississippi.

Our non-USA readers may be puzzled by the reference to the US state of Mississippi. Well they've come up with a new industry there, particularly Jefferson County.

Mississippi juries have awarded plaintiffs $1.8 billion since 1995. The Mississippi law that allows plaintiffs to combine their cases with others nationwide, along with a notoriously pro-plaintiff local judge, has made Jefferson County (population 9,695) the wonder of the legal world: Between 1995 and 2000, some 21,000 plaintiffs sued there.

Of course there are consequences:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's recent warning that its members should avoid doing business there was not "big business" picking on the poor. Ninety-six percent of the chamber's member businesses have fewer than 100 employees and 75 percent have fewer than 10. And Mississippi needs business more than any other state. It ranks 50th among the states in per capita income ($21,750 - half of Connecticut's top-ranking $42,435). ...

A recent study found that the system costs Mississippi 7,500 jobs a year. ...

No wonder Mississippi's insurance commissioner says 71 insurance companies have stopped doing business in the state. ...

Most Mississippi cities with populations smaller than 20,000 no longer have obstetricians.

But it's not just Mississippi - it's a nationwide plague. Here's a hint as to why it continues.

Jeffrey Birnbaum of Fortune says lawyers' and law firms' political contributions in the last two years ($50 million) almost equal organized labor's. In the 1999-2000 election cycle, lawyers contributed more than labor. In this 2001-2002 cycle, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America is the largest single contributor to federal candidates, with most of its $2.3 million going to Democrats.

George suggests supporting tort reform candidates in the upcoming election. Me too.

They'll be right on most other things as well.