To: The Dallas Morning News
Date: April 20, 2000
Subject: Some lawsuits are legalized extortion
Result: Not printed due to limited space

Dear Editor,

Reading an article in last Sunday's paper (April 16, 2000) under the headline, "Extortion is Rampant in Sierra Leona", I was reminded of America.

Of course, most of the extortion they were talking about in a small, impoverished country like Sierra Leona were of a relatively minor kind. Things like: "Give me a dollar or I'm going to hassle you for a few hours with bureaucratic b.s." Indeed, it's the kind of situation where everybody is so poor, that the victims often have sympathy for the perpetrators, realizing that they are all just trying and struggling to survive.

Whereas, what we have here in America are attorneys who file lawsuits - just because they can and have nothing to lose - and say: "We are going to sue you, based on the flimsiest of claims and tie up your life for months or years and force you to spend many thousands of dollars or more - and then maybe you will have to pay a lot more if we can hoodwink the jury or the judge - which, historically, could happen against all reason and justice. Or, you can 'settle' for a hundred thousand dollars or two, or more, and we will withdraw the lawsuit."

I myself have been the target of just such a ridiculous, greedy, and grossly unfair lawsuit, and such a thing is nothing less than legal extortion.

Thank you, John Vehon