And so, it appeared, did Fasano. Across the aisle, his expression— though opaque and self-contained—hinted at an intensity which excluded irony or humor. When, before commencing his speech, Hampton accorded the Majority Leader the briefest of nods, Fasano seemed to stare right through him.
* * *
"In the last few days," Hampton told his colleagues with a fleeting smile, "we've heard much about trial lawyers, and guns. As it happens, I used to be a trial lawyer, and I own twenty or so guns. Astonishing as it may seem, I happen to be proud of both.
"Let's take the trial lawyer first. There's been much complaint from my Republican friends about lawyers who accept contingent fees or make 'excessive' requests for punitive damages. I know about these from personal experience, because my biggest case involved both.
"It began with a couple who, until her death, had been the parents of a five-year-old girl—their only child. They had lost her in the most senseless, the most unanticipated, of ways: she had sat on the drain of a public wading pool, and had her intestines suctioned out."
His colleagues, Hampton noted to his satisfaction, were hushed. "Her parents," he told them, "had no money. As much as anything, they came to me looking for an explanation for a tragedy which, to them, seemed inexplicable.
"I conducted some discovery." Pausing, Hampton permitted himself to recall his anger. "The explanation turned out to be simple; the pool company had refused to spend money on a fifty-cent part which would have prevented this child's death. But perhaps the little girl was lucky. It turned out that another victim in another state—a six-year-old boy— would require tube feeding, twelve hours a day, for however long that he might live. All for the lack of a four-bit drain part.
"When I told the parents about all this, they ordered me to turn down any settlement offer—even the last one, for five million dollars. Their charge to me was simple: expose this company, and make sure—
"They never did," Hampton added softly. "Because the jury awarded my clients twenty-five million in punitive damages.
"My esteemed colleague, Senator Palmer, tells us that not all of life's misfortunes have a remedy. To this extent, I agree: my clients would have happily traded their newfound wealth for the child they adored, or even for the surcease of heartache. But they had the satisfaction of knowing that no one else would
Pausing again, he sought out Palmer, who studied his desk with
hooded eyes. "As for me," Hampton added in a throwaway tone, "I stand guilty of taking the case on a contingent fee. I profited from that. Perhaps that makes me less noble than the defense lawyers for the pool drain company and its insurer, who profited by the hour, no matter the outcome for their clients.
"So let's turn to the matter of
The sardonic comment, so personal in nature, so surprising from a senator whose previous image—at least until the Costello murders—had been one of lawyerly temperance, seemed to startle some of his colleagues. But Jack Slezak, Hampton noted, regarded him with an unimpressed half smile which tempered his own satisfaction.
"And what," he continued, "is the nature of this protection? Not merely to limit punitive damages—which, I would note, chiefly benefit nonworking women and children who, because they can't project their future earnings, would otherwise get short shrift. Nor even to limit contingent fees, which serve to prevent plaintiffs of modest means from being reduced to penury by lawyers for the giant corporations who are paid by the proponents' chief patrons, hour by hour, to make suing their clients too expensive to bear. For
Hampton's voice filled with indignation. "The Eagle's Claw bullet, it seems, is more sacred than tires which blow up, gas tanks which explode, diet pills that kill—or a pool drain which sucks the life out of a five-yearold girl. Because like the Lexington P-2, it kills not by accident, but by design. No wonder the proponents' only hope is to ban all lawsuits.
"So much remains for them to do. They've merely gutted the ATF. They've only exempted guns from the laws protecting consumers. They've simply opposed gun laws designed to make us safer." Hampton shook his head in wonder. "The Second Amendment, it seems, is truly a harsh mistress."
* * *
Watching C-SPAN, Kerry laughed softly. Lara took his hand.
