Advice to Settle Suit Questionable?

Shame on Robert Bruss for suggesting that innocent home sellers should pay $3,800 to settle a lawsuit “they should win in court!” (“Real Estate Q&A;,” April 14.) That is what the buyers and their lawyer are counting on. Are we all to become victims of legal extortion?

As a business attorney, I have many times forced claimants who have filed frivolous cases against my clients to dismiss their suits. All that is required is some careful lawyering at the early stages of litigation, as well as the threat of a malicious prosecution suit. However, the legal fees involved will often amount to far less than the $3,800 Bruss says should be paid to settle a nuisance suit.

It is time to restore the integrity of the American justice system, not simply hand it over to those who would pervert it.

SCOTT LEE SHABEL

Los Angeles

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I’m angered at the attorney’s advice to settle a frivolous lawsuit for replacing concrete steps in the “sold as-is” case. It may be, as he suggests, “realistic advice,” but only when considering recent liberal permissiveness of the courts, which encourages unscrupulous lawyers to file such lawsuits. His advice, substantiated by columnist Bruss in his answer, simply perpetuates a continuation of similar blackmail type lawsuits. This is another example of our justice system gone haywire.

BOB BALL

Anaheim