I hope we all remember the tragedy one year ago yesterday at the Blacksburg campus. As the father of a college student in that idyllic valley, and with another one in waiting, I cannot fathom the senseless loss of innocent life, nor its root cause. Unlike some, I do not blame the easy access to guns here as the prime factor, though I am sure it adds to the problem. I think the sense of alienation I see among today’s youth coupled with the lack of effective mental health screening is the main culprit.

Senseless acts like these sometimes shake my faith in the law which I see as the bulwark against irrational hatred, loathing and violence. With time that feeling usually changes, but in this case it seems to linger on. Perhaps Professor Turley has a better perspective than I since he has the benefit of seeing the flowering of the law on a daily basis.

For me, the melancholy is best expressed by Houseman:

The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

…

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields were glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

…

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl’s.

The hypocricy comes from the conservatives’ view that capping political campaign contributions is considered an attack on free speech, but trying to limit access to legal remedies and/or capping jury awards handed down by juries of one’s peers is not.

Well if you notice the proponent is a Republican from Salem, just outside of Blacksburg. Tom Albro, also cited in the article, is a plaintiff’s lawyer from Charlottesville and he’s skeptical. The med mal cap was only raised because of sheer embarrassment that our legislators felt after the cap was not raised for many years and fell so far behind the national norm. I recall all the fuss about tort reform about 10 years go. I told my friends from other states, it was no big deal to Virginia lawyers, we’ve had it for years. I think the ABA could be of help, but here in Virginia with the regional politics in play, the chasm between the parties ideologically (which is relatively new here by the way)and the disdain of outside influences its role would be severely limited. If the tragedy at Tech couldn’t get restrictions passed on gun show sales, I doubt the legislators will be more enlightened when it comes to compensating victims from the State Treasury.

I hope it passes but I have my doubts. Virginia once had a $25,000 cap on all wrongful death claims, but that has been lifted. We still have a $350,000 cap on all punitive damages. (I am sure that truly worries the Fortune 500 crowd). We also have a 1.95 million dollar cap on all medical malpractice claims regardless of the economic loss involved, which is another case of white collar welfare, shifting the costs of care of the patient from the negligent physician and his/her insurer to the State. Welcome to Virginia, Inc.