The Baltimore Examiner letter "Human greed can obliterate human conscience" makes the case for why our society needs trial lawyers. What it doesn't make the case for is our current tort system, which gives trial lawyers latitude to destroy lives and bankrupt companies by filing frivolous lawsuits. The letter also doesn't make the case for the obscene wealth accumulated by folks like John Edwards and Peter Angelos. It's impossible to defend the filing of frivolous lawsuits and the harm they cause. The current system has no safeguards to prevent lawyers from filing frivolous lawsuits in hopes of hitting the lawsuit lottery. Under our current system, individuals and companies, regardless of their guilt or innocence, are often forced to settle with unscrupulous lawyers to avoid expensive legal fees. There are tort systems in place around the globe that deal with the problems we face. First and foremost, trial lawyers must be held accountable for their actions, just as corporations are. Forcing the losing party in a lawsuit to pay the legal fees of the victorious party would be one much-needed step in the right direction. Ideally, in a perfect world, Pediatric Neurosurgeon Benjamin Carson would live in the largest house East of the Mississippi, not notorious personal injury lawyer (and former Senator) John Edwards. And if Edwards' 29,000 square foot house or Peter Angelos' baseball team don't convince readers that something is very wrong with this picture, consider the recent $54,000,000 lawsuit filed by a trial lawyer upset with a dry cleaner who lost his pants. To quote The American Tort Reform Assn., we need to "make it a lot harder for lawsuit extortionists to shake down law-abiding small businesses. Amen to that.