Let's Kill All The Lawyers

On Thursday, Feb. 10, the California Supreme Court ruled that retailers asking for a customer's ZIP code during a credit card purchase are violating a California consumer privacy law.

By Tuesday, Feb. 15, over a dozen national retail chains operating in the state have been hit with a flurry of lawsuits.

Among the retail giants facing lawsuits for requesting ZIP code information during the past year are Williams-Sonoma Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Macy's Inc. and Cost Plus Inc.

Regardless of where you stand on the legal issue - and I have a hard time understanding how asking for someone's zip code violates their privacy or increases the risk of identity theft - if there is a perceived risk, then simply halt the practice. And also note that the zip code information was requested, not required.

A gaggle of lawsuits that will inevitably be consolidated into one or more class actions will hurt businesses, won't significantly benefit consumers, and will only enrich sordid ambulance-chasing maggot-infested lawyers.

If you think that description is a tad harsh, stay home sometime and watch daytime TV. The slimy ads of personal injury lawyers trolling for clients is enough to make you take hourly showers in a vain attempt to wash the sleaze off.

All this nonsense brings to mind the famous line from Shakespeare's Henry the Sixth: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

Putting that line in context, the speaker is supporting another character who is proposing a social revolution during the War of the Roses. The premise is that all lawyers do is shuffle parchments back and forth in a systematic attempt to ruin the common people. The line is a summarization of the general populace's desire to simply be left alone.

Some things never change...