gsp@ulysses.UUCP (Gary Perlman) (08/26/84)
From all the hoopla about my advertisement of Senator Proxmire's
Golden Fleece awards, I conjured a letter to the senator asking
about some of the charges on the net. What follows is a transcription
of his reply.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Dr. Perlman:
I was in fact sued by a researcher who felt that I impro-
perly represented his work. I did not lose the suit. The
Supreme Court determined that the researcher did have the right
to sue me. The case was settled out of court and I made a payment
of $10,000 to the individual who had sued me for $8 million.
The leadership of the Senate felt that the right to Congressional
immunity was an extremely important one and therefore suggested that
I be represented by a private lawyer whose fees would be paid for by
the Senate. Until the Office of Legal Councel for the Senate was
created, this private lawyer did represent me and his fees totaled
a little more than $100,000.
While I am under no legal obligation to do so, I have submitted
to the Treasury the royalties obtained from the sales of my book,
The Fleecing of America in order to reduce the cost of my represen-
tation by a private attorney in the case.
Finally, no [sic] a penny of federal money was used in paying for my
hair transplants.
Sincerely,
(signed "Bill")
William Proxmire, U. S. S.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To say that making an out of court settlement is not losing strikes me
as playing with words. I have to think that the researcher's costs
well exceeded the amount of the settlement. It may be that the Senate
Counsel was set up BECAUSE the Court allowed the suit. We can only
wonder how much this service costs the taxpayer. As usual, the
big winners in court are lawyers, and the losers are the people paying:
here, primarily the taxpayers.
Gary Perlman
AT&T Bell Labs 5H-106
600 Mountain Ave.
Murray Hill, NJ 07974
(201) 582-3624
uucp: ulysses!gsphawk@oliven.UUCP (Rick) (08/28/84)
>To say that making an out of court settlement is not losing strikes me >as playing with words. Not at all. Defending yourself in a suit may be much more expensive than making the out of court settlement. Immunitity to libel suits for Senators and Representatives is an important issue, even though the immunity is abused at times (Sen. Joe McCarthy, for example). The restriction of this immunity to the floor of the Senate/house is equally important. The immunitity enables Senators to make accusations and have them investigated rather than fearing to investigate for fear of a libel suit. If he says it again off of the floor without adequate proof, however, it's open season on the Senator, and he should be stuck paying for his own defense. yours in awkward sentences, -- rick (Rick Hawkins @ Olivetti ATC) [hplabs|zehntel|fortune|ios|tolerant|allegra|tymix]!oliveb!oliven!hawk