Both of my wives (god bless each, in turn) are lawyers, so I realize they are folks society needs, just like journalists, members of Congress, and morticians, who often are also targets of disdain. But sometimes your mouth is open in unbelievable wonder at the audacity of the legal profession.
The Desert Dispatch, of Barstow, Calif., provides the text for today’s sermon, and I thank Bill Baird’s Tortoise Tattler (go here to sign up for his weekday feed and here for the original story) for the alert.
The people of Barstow, a BNSF Railway hub for almost a century and a half, are being peppered by flyers in their mailboxes and on the windshield wipers of their vehicles. They urge people to sign up for the great class-action suit against BNSF involving anyone who lives within 3,000 feet of the railroad. The flyers promise profits of up to $250,000 from the lawsuit to follow. The newspaper reports that representatives of the law firm are collecting soil samples.
The newspaper quotes BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent as saying the flyers are being sent by a person who tried the same stunt in Needles, Calif., another BNSF crew-change hub, so far to no affect. Kent says this person claimed to be associated with Erin Brockovich, made famous by a movie for her push back against Pacific Gas & Electric over water contamination, but Brockovich denies any involvement in the suit.
The flyers say the forthcoming lawsuit will seek damages for “smoke/nose,” so my first request is that the class-action lawyers be given remedial lessons in spelling. My second wish is that the lawsuit (should it ever be filed) be dismissed out of hand, because there would be no Barstow without BNSF predecessor Santa Fe Railway. But this is California, where courts are notoriously unpredictable. So mark this development as the eighth wonder of the modern world. — Fred W. Frailey
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