Say No To Tort Reform: What this blog is about

Say No To Tort Reform

Tort Reform - sounds like something good, huh? Well, in most cases, its not. At least not good for 99% of American citizens. Who does tort reform benefit? Corporations and the 1% elite.

Tort reform is the systematic dismantling of the jury system through the use of changes to the justice system that favor defendants to lawsuits and eliminate the rights of consumers. Types of tort reform measures include caps on damages, which eliminate your Constitutional right to due process, as well as attempts to make the loser of the lawsuit pay for all of the winner's attorneys' fees, regardless of whether the loser had a valid claim. Other attempts at tort reform take the form of requirements that must be met before an injured party can file a lawsuit.

The corporations and other pro tort reform entities use the general disdain of "frivolous" lawsuits to have tort reform measures passed. However, the vast majority of these measures do not limit the filing of frivolous lawsuits but instead allow corporate defendants to avoid fully compensating those they so callously injure.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

What this blog is about

Tort reform ... or tort deform as I like to call it ... is apparently a never ending battle across the United States. I first became aware of the tort reform battle early on in my legal career, when the U.S. Chamber of Congress poured millions of dollars into Mississippi in an effort to get massive tort reform laws passed to separate citizens of Mississippi with their Constitutional right to obtain due process in courthouses across the state.

Proponents of tort reform claim such so called "protections" such as caps on damages and limits on where and when lawsuits can be filed were needed to reduce the filing of frivolous lawsuits. While the reduction of the filing of frivolous lawsuits is an admirable goal, this was merely a smoke screen used to get the public's support behind laws that do nothing but hurt the members of that public. Damage caps do not prevent the filing of a frivolous lawsuit. Damage caps by their very definition only affect the lawsuits that require large damage awards to properly compensate a plaintiff for grievous or catastrophic injuries. Damage caps hurt those actually injured, but does not stop or even discourage the filing of frivolous lawsuits. The only parties that damage caps and other tort reform measures protect are the ones that deserve the least protection, those entities that are negligently and/or willfully injuring others, often times for purely selfish motives such as increased profits.

The public needs to know about the dangers of tort reform and the propaganda spewed by the peddlers of these dangerous and anti consumer laws. So that is why I started this blog ... to hopefully educate the public about the dangers of tort reform and identify those politicians who are stabbing their own constituents in the back by supporting such terrible laws.

So come back often (and tell your friends) and educate yourself about the evils of tort reform because legislative attempts at tort deform will be coming your way before you know it, if its not already happening in your state.

Say No To Tort Reform