First Thing, Let's Kill All the Lawyers

Loyal reader RB tells us about a good idea coming from the swamps of New Jersey...

Concerned about high premiums for doctors’ malpractice insurance, New Jersey came up with an answer that is literally at the expense of the state’s lawyers, and the lawyers are not happy about it.

The state enacted a law last year requiring lawyers to pay $75 a year for the next three years to cover the cost of increases in medical malpractice insurance premiums. Doctors and other medical professionals have to pay the fee, too.

The New Jersey Bar Association doesn’t think the state’s 35,000 lawyers should be singled out to help doctors pay their premiums, and is suing to have the law declared unconstitutional. The gist of its suit, filed in Union County Superior Court, is that the law violates the equal protection and due process guarantees of both the state and federal constitutions, amounts to using public money for a private purpose and singles out lawyers in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner.

For the record, despite my chosen profession, I wholeheartedly support the law, at least until state bar associations start supporting meaningful tort reform and medical malpractice caps. I don't have the energy to determine whether such a law is unconstituional, but I'm guessing anything slamming lawyers has enough popular support to allow the amendment of the state constitution if necessary. Perhaps the Lord of Truth should start a petition drive in his home state.