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How dangerous a gamble is Eric Maxwell, lawyer?Tue, 07/11/2006 - 4:58pm
By: Letters to the ...
Another letter from Peter Pfeifer, private citizen who is a county commissioner, not from Peter Pfeifer, county commissioner. What do we know about lawyers and about lawyers as elected officials? We are all too familiar [that] people sue for ridiculous reasons and are successful too often. Some people, typically the tort/trial lawyer, get wealthy doing this. We currently have a trial lawyer running for Fayette County Commission. Eric Maxwell. I don’t know Eric very well personally. I’ve seen him at various events, talked with him a couple of times and that’s about it. What I do know about Eric are his actions in the past and his statements as he runs for office. Let’s look at two. I don’t recall seeing it myself, but there are many witnesses to the personalized license plate he used to have on his Corvette. The plate said, “ILLSUE.” I guess that some might think that’s funny? I don’t. Another thing I know about Eric is that he sued us. I say us because he sued Fayette County, and that is us. The taxpayers. I have a question for Eric and for those of you who support Eric. He sued us, joining with a billboard company. If they had won, we would have unlimited signs everywhere and billboards on our county roads, just like other counties do. Now he’s running for office. If his reason for his lawsuit was truly that he’s “defending his constitutional rights” (where have we heard that before?), why have we not seen one hint of this from his campaign, on his Web site, campaign materials or statements? He has not said, “Fayette County, vote for Eric Maxwell and I will support getting rid of our restrictive sign ordinance and make Fayette County more like other places.” Why not? He has NOT said, “One of the causes of high legal fees for you is lawsuits like mine.” Why not? The democratic way is supposed to be, in our society, make your statement and let the people decide. For others, the way is to get a judge (another lawyer) to decide for us. This is how we get some of the ridiculous rules and laws we have. That, to me, is the antithesis of “the democratic way.” I think that this “rule by judges” is one of the greatest ills in our society. If Eric did things the right way, I would respect him. If he did that, and was successful, I would have to think again, maybe the people really want their sign ordinance changed. And, lest someone blow this into more than I intend, I do not dislike or mistrust all trial lawyers. There are many who are the kind of people I respect, and like and would (and have) voted for. It’s the ones who are like those in the above stories, those who belong to the ACLU, those who want to let convicted sex offenders live next to school bus stops that I have my problems with. Is Eric that kind of lawyer? I don’t want him as one of my elected officials so that I can find out the hard way. Peter Pfeifer |