Bush laughed as he signed the "tort reform" bill to hurt the injured..

[Eric J in MN]

Bush signing bill Feb. 18, 2005 to keep multi-state class action lawsuits out of state courts.

The New York Times notes that "Experts say many cases will wind up not being brought because federal judges have been constrained by a series of legal precedents from considering large class actions that involve varying laws of different states" (("Senate Approves Measure to Curb Big Class Actions" by Stephen Labaton, Feb. 11, 2005):

This will make it harder for injured people to get justice.

It will encourage corporations to shrug off the dangers of their products, knowing that the public will have less recourse when people are injured or killed by them.

Imagine what an ideal government would do about this issue; imagine having a government which asks:

How can we make it easier for people who have been injured to get compensated?

Instead of one which asks:

How can we make it more difficult for people who have been injured to get compensated?


More at:
http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2005_02_14_greed_gone_wild_tort_reform_victory_for_george_w._bush_defeat_for_ordinary_americans_re_class_action_lawsuits.asp

[barbaraann]

1. Dodd was laughing, too.

Words escape me...

[Eric J in MN]

4. Chris Dodd is also a champion of paperless voting.

Connecticut should try to get some better Dems for representation.

[punpirate]

5. Words escape from me...

... and they aren't nice, at all....

[Yupster]

14. I'm not sure

I've been in three class action settlements. One I thought had merit. The other two were complete nonsense.

The good one had to do with me changing companies a year ago. I felt my old company changed the way they did business in an unfair way to me. As a highly paid sales person I just jumped to another company and took most of my customers with me.

Some other guys started a class action suit though. I just got my settlement check aboutthree weeks ago, and it surprised me. It was for $ 4,800. I felt vindicated.

The second one was about that same company. About five years ago they were sued because they left something out of the prospectis that some investors thought should have been included.

The settlement given was $ 1,200 of accidental death and dismemberment insurance good for one year.

That was absolute nonsense and the only one who made anything on it was the lawyer bringing the case.

The third one was a suit claiming that my former mortgage company was keeping too much money in extra escrow money. I thought it was fine with me. If they don't use it this year, they'll use it nest year and they need to keep some extra in case taxes are raised during the year which they often are.

The settle ment there was about $ 1.30. Complete nonsense in my opinion. Again, only the lawyer bringing the case benefitted from it.

So, in short, I see where class action suits are abused and where they are important.

[punpirate]

15. In many cases, it's not a matter of...

... the size of the individual award distributed--it's often about a penalty sufficient to make a company change its bad business practices.

Greg Palast relates a case from twenty or so years ago, where defective examples of a heart valve they had made in the Caribbean were knowingly altered to make them look properly made. A number of them failed and resulted in the death of a high percentage of people with them installed. Pfizer tried to limit the suit to those who had actually died, but the lawyers pressed for pain and suffering for those who had to live with the knowledge that they could die unexpectedly due to the defect.

That raised the total award considerably--enough so that Pfizer will not likely do that same thing again (although they will certainly try it with other items, big corporations being what they are).

The only instance where I would wonder about the attorneys' motives are in cases where they don't press hard enough to make the judgment painful, and close a case early and take their fees and run. I'm sure there are lawyers out there doing that. In such cases, I would expect there's a complacent judge involved, as well.

What bothers me most about this is the rank political motives of this legislation and the other tort reform bills pending. It's pandering to large corporations, first of all. Second, Rove has implied that this is a means of taking money out of the pockets of lawyers who donate to the Democratic Party.

There are relatively few class-action suits in the country. The number of instances of corporations suing other corporations is much larger, but corporate law is mostly a haven for lawyers who are Republican donors. I see no attempts to control corporations' suits against each other.

Last, injured consumers lose clout with this law, especially if they are spread out all over the country (the most common case today). Forcing such cases into the federal system brings those cases, increasingly and necessarily, into the courts of judges who are Republican appointees. Some may judge independently of their political inclinations, but many do not. Since Nixon's time, those judges have been picked because of their biases toward the rights of businesses (Lewis Powell is an excellent example--before he was selected by Nixon, he'd been a corporate lawyer, whose clients included GM).

Cheers.

[Eric J in MN]

17. Maybe that photo can be used in Democratic primary challenge

to Christopher Dodd, whenever he is up for re-election.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. POS!

[whistle]

3. And there is Dr Frist standing at Dubya's left shoulder now...

...ready to go back and practice faith-healing medicine knowing that none of his patients will be able to sue for malpractice

[Eric J in MN]

9. Fortunately, this bill shouldn't affect malpractice suits

against a doctor (unless he engaged in malpractice in multiple states.)

Unfortunately, Bush wants to limit claims for malpractice.

[Clark2008]

22. Frist hasn't practice medicine in the United States in years

Yeah - he does junkets to Africa (and I suppose he does some good there - better than they have), but HCA? Hahahahaha! Like that's a good deal for anyone but the shareholders.
I hope Frist is the nominee.
I really, really, really do!
:evilgrin:

[Bluebear]

6. Ha ha ha ha we fucked America again. nt

[sweetheart]

7. What exactly was screwed up?

I listened to the debate on Cspan, and i was confused as to what
the bill actually does? I was also inspired that DU should keep a
legislative calendar for its members (by members), to show when
various pieces of legislation are up for debate, voting and that
we are prepared and better armed. As i listened to the debate, the
woman Republican from ? who brought up the cocacola and other
frivolous cases made some good points, and as well the democratic
dude from massachussetts, and that intense black lady democrat from
?... but it all seemed like lies and partisan.

They say the bill has been waiting 20 years to pass, and that it is
not covering the serious cases... so what is the truth?

[Eric J in MN]

10. Serious cases will be affected.

The concept of the bill is that when a corporation causes injury in more than one state, the lawsuit by people in the different states can't be brought in state court.

It has to be brought in federal court, where there judge is likely to be a Bush appointee, especially after another 4 years.

[sweetheart]

11. i see

The debate did not make that clear. It seemed that both sides in the
debate clearly explained that there had been some abuses, but that
the existing laws had been well designed.

It seems the new GOP way is to claim that "its broken", and then
to fix it by destroying things. The broadcast decency thing sounds
similarly slanted against the regular common folk.

It is sooo much like the cinema film monsters inc... the GOP comes
busting through my closet door to scare me and capure my screams,
not realizing that laughter is so much more powerful a force.

[Eric J in MN]

16. Are you keeping track of America's legal system from Scotland? nt

nt

[sweetheart]

21. In a way, yes

I'm in oregon as i write this... visiting family... and indeed i'm
mostly in scotland. As the geography of politics increasingly
spreads from the criminals in washington around the world, there
is a deep call to all people the world over to stay vigilant
regarding such things.

I have just spent some time following the pilgrimage of my forefathers
in the american civil war. (as a californian) We played a small role
in the civil war, fighting battles along what is now route 8. I've
driven this route from the imperial valley and all its windmill
disgust, to mesilla (las cruces)... and then towards santafe, where
in civil war times, a much smaller california force defeated a much
larger confederate texan force by capturing their supply lines and
forcing their surrender.

Similarly i believe, after following those footsteps, that the only
way to beat this new generation-invasion of evil "texas truck's" is to exahust
their supply lines.

I spent a meditation near the trinity site and as well in los alamos
by the lab, observing the culture who originally created and USED
WMD's... a culture that claims to be related to myself, yet indeed,
overrun by "texas trucks".

These scumbags must be opposed in every single instance, from
wherever on this tiny planet i set my feet. Scotland, Nevada, New
Mexico, Utah, California, Oregon, Arizona, whatever that place may be.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bluebear]

12. kick

[ultraist]

13. It's all about protecting the bottom line of big corps!

They are laughing all the way to the bank while regular Americans become more disempowered.

[Avalon Sparks]

18. That Muther Fucker!

I loathe that piece of shit.

I wonder if he'll have that same expression on his face when he's rotting in hell.

[bearfan454]

19. We just have to bring several different lawsuits now.

For instance instead of one big lawsuit now it will have to be loss of income, wrongful death, wrongful injury, punitive whatever, disregard of laws, etc, etc, etc.

[Bluebear]

20. ooooh good thinking!