STEVE SMITH -- What’s up?

About 25 years ago, I was a starving college student en route to the

Coliseum in Los Angeles to see one of the best football games ever: USC

vs. Oklahoma.

I was behind the wheel of a car at a stop sign on a side street off of

busy Vermont Avenue. In the passenger seat was my friend, Mike Thomas. A

guy on a 10-speed bicycle was speeding down Vermont and was about to pass

in front of us when a car on Vermont started to make a left turn onto the

side street. To avoid the car, the bike man steered out of control and

ran smack into my driver-side door, denting it.

About two weeks later, I got a call from the bike man’s lawyer, wanting

to know who was representing me.

“Huh?” was my reply.

It seemed that even though I was behind the limit line painted on the

street, even though I had a witness to the accident and even though I had

done absolutely nothing wrong, I was going to be sued. And so, I had to

get a lawyer.

My lawyer described to me how the system worked. It didn’t matter that I

was not at fault -- I had assets.

“But I don’t have any assets,” I said. “I have to borrow money to go to

college!”

“Wrong,” he said. “You have auto insurance. That’s your asset.”

I was about to be sued not because I did anything wrong, but because it

was allowed and because a lawyer thought I had auto insurance --

something for which to sue.

My lawyer told it to me in plain English: lawyers don’t sue people

without assets.

Now we come to the case of a Costa Mesa preschool into which Steven

Abrams is alleged to have deliberately driven his car and killed two

children, Sierra Soto and Brandon Wiener.

In recent days, three readers have taken me to task for my wonder over

the lawsuits filed by the families of both children.

For the record, I have never commented in this space on the lawsuit filed

by Sierra’s mother against the preschool. Not one single word have I

written.

And because I expressed dismay at the lawsuit filed by the Wiener family,

I am labeled by one letter writer as a part of something called the

‘lawsuit redneck” crowd, whatever that is.

My comments of several weeks ago on the Wiener lawsuit included a

not-so-veiled attempt at disgust, should it be true that some or all of

the memorial fund to which I and many others contributed find its way

into the pockets of attorneys hired to press this case. We sent money to

a memorial fund, not a lawsuit fund.

In one letter, someone who presumably knows the source of the lawyer fees

did not address this issue. Another letter contained the line, “Lawsuits

are an important part of the checks and balances that cause our system to

be near perfect.”

Well, I’d like to make the legal system even closer to perfect by

offering one tweak: loser pays.

It’s simple. You want to sue me? Fine. But if you lose, you pay the bills

for my legal services, too.

I grew up watching Ralph Nader take a dangerous car off the street. I saw

other attorneys sue to compensate workers who handled life-threatening

products without proper protection from their employers and who sued to

keep the same damage from happening to others.

There was something nearly noble about those times and those lawsuits and

for a while, I wanted to be a lawyer, to defend and fight for the little

guy.

But it’s different now. The sad consequence of the preschool accident is

that the weapon of choice used by the accused was a car. Had the children

been outside, behind a car-proof fence, it would not have prevented

anyone from hurting the children if he was determined to do so -- with

either a gun or a knife.

There are lawsuits and there are frivolous lawsuits. This case is

neither. I believe these lawsuits fall into a third category called

“misguided” lawsuits.

Yes, a judge may determine that the lawsuits against the preschool are

frivolous or misguided, but the preschool will still be left with legal

bills.

And since the high ground seems to be doing what is just, I suggest we

set an outstanding precedent for the nation right here in town and have

the plaintiffs agree that if the preschool is found not guilty of any

negligence, they’ll pay the school’s legal bills.

But the Back Bay will be a cement slab before that ever happens.

One of the poor choices I made in my young and stupid days was to save

money by not buying auto insurance. After the bike man hit my car, a

letter was sent to his attorney stating this fact and requesting the new

legal status of their pending lawsuit. We never again heard from the bike

man.

* STEVE SMITH is a Costa Mesa resident and freelance writer. He can be

reached via e-mail at o7 dailypilot@latimes.comf7 , or call our Readers

Hotline at (949) 642-6086.