This is regarding Ronald M. Lepinskas’ March 3 commentary on abolishing the civil jury system. I have rarely read such an arrogant or ridiculous opinion.
Lepinskas obviously has little regard for the intelligence of the average jury, or its ability to comprehend complex matters, but I think he is grossly underestimating the public. Most people who are capable of getting up in the morning, going to work, managing their households, paying their taxes and doing all the things required to live successfully in our society are perfectly able to understand the issues involved in the Enron case.
It doesn’t take a CPA to understand that greed, dishonesty and complete lack of ethics led the officers of both Enron and Arthur Andersen to twist the laws around to enable them to hide their unsound business practices and their unethical manipulation of Enron’s stock for their own profit, and to the extreme detriment of their employees and investors.
Lepinskas states that “Civil juries cannot truly digest accounting frauds, complex real estate transactions or abstruse scientific issues.” Well, he may be right. It is a lot to stomach. But the average citizen has no trouble understanding fraud when he or she is confronted with it.
