Most of us remember the bizarre court case of Judge Roy Pearson versus the Korean dry cleaners who were sued for $67 million for a lost pair of pants. That case was finally thrown out earlier this year with the Chung’s winning , but not before they’d almost lost everything they’d worked for their entire lives due to their legal costs. Judge Pearson would later lose his job, in part because “his suit against Mr Chung demonstrated a lack of “judicial temperament.” The Chungs withdrew their motion to recover their own costs and impose sanctions when they recovered their money through fund-raising efforts by benefactors.
But now the so-called “Institute for Legal Reform” (ahem) and their website http://iamlawsuitabuse.org/, an offshoot of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is using this case to push a pro-corporation Republican agenda.
The key to all this is the administration of justice, justice for all. And, the purported fair sounding name of a political action special interest group such as the Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) does not mask its real intention of protecting insurance and big business, period.
The Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform has unveiled a slick new PR campaign to convince Americans that the little guy, and not, say, the enormous corporations that fund the campaign, is at risk of personal disaster at the hands of a greedy trial lawyer.
While the medium is new for the Chamber, the new lawsuit abuse videos consist of the same old corporate propaganda bashing the civil justice system, and most of it is highly misleading. One of the segments features a “victim” that was actually a plaintiff in a lawsuit. Particularly egregious is a video of a Georgia professor who specializes in studying “play.” She sweetly contends lawsuits are making children obese because they’ve taken dangerous playground equipment out of the school yard. The junk food companies that fund the Chamber should be especially pleased with that one. Read more….
Filed Under: Ethics, Lobbies, Scandals
Tags: propaganda, Republicans, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
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At this point, we are all already working for the coporations.
We need a new Teddy Roosevelt. Every politician failed us, even before Bush.
Welcome to the U.S.A.
The greediest nation in the world.
We’ll kill your dog for a nickel.
This is a pressing suit.
Edwards is the only one clearly signalling an intent to fight coporate greed.
Can’t imagine he’ll be successful if given the chance, since every ass in Congress is basically a lobbyist. He’ll need a lot of help from new, blue reps.
Can’t see any other chance on the horizon.
the repubs only want the wealthy to be able to sue. John Mccain was shown on C Span today talking about “malpractice reform” This is the strategy of the neo-gilded ageists
Minority-on-minority affront. Its not just black-on-black anymore (not being racist, I am a minority). It seems this a “pecking order.” I have seen it, and it is established as history in my state as influx of minorities. Again, my state has never had a white majority, as this is the 50th state. There is a history of influx of minorities in this country, its called immigration. We are all immigrants. As our past reveals, much to our distaste, we oppress those who have come after and behind us, “elevating” our own cultures. It is the history of our country. This action by a a black judge, against an asian business speaks volumes as to the culture, the future, the direction of our country. This American, litigious culture of ours is our undoing. With each underling we step-on, we elevate those “above” us, those like Cheney, Bush, and other self-acclaimed and (freakin’ republican) supported voters. Why is it that those who ned the protections of the constitution the most, (southerners, underprivileged, etc.) vote the “elevated” into office. It boggles the mind.
I find it difficult to believe that the business owner did not have liability insurance that would have at the very least paid for the defense of the lawsuit. If the insurance company didn’t provide the defense, the Chungs should sue them for Bad Faith, they’ll win. On the off chance they didn’t have liability insurance, they should sue the plaintiff for malicious prosecution. His Homeowner carrier will pick it up. Unlike the Chungs, the off chance that CORPORATIONS won’t have insurance is just crap. Once again, the business community is going after tort reform in order to keep their insurance rates low while they sell dangerous products and treat their business invitees like criminals if they dare get injured on their property or by their products.
This is sad, but I wish that people would stop referring to the USA as “America”. The country is called the United States of America, America being the continent. GeeeZzzz!!
Can all the Americans who have lost their pants in the Reagan-Bush economic era sue?
How about those who have lost legs that fit into the pants they could once wear due to the Bush/Cheney oil war, can they sue?
Can the former Enron employees sue? I think they lost their pants too.
Oh, my, what are the odds, that the ILR has concocted this recipe and is preparing to serve their dish just as Edwards is finally hitting his stride. Those evil, greedy trial lawyers! There’s the new Swiftboating theme.
Canuknotusa @ 8:
The seven continents are: Africa, Asia, Antarctica, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America.
Shall we refer to ourselves as the United States of North America? :)
Straight Shooter @ 11:
Sure. If you want.
But as I said, I’m also happy with “The United States of America’.
The point being, all nations in North or South America have Americans as their citizens.
Capiche?
The only things that in any way restrain corporations are criminal prosecutions, regulatory agencies, and the prospect of being sued. The corporatists have been successful in controlling the Justice Department, writing the regulatory and criminal laws Congress enacts, and virtually manning nearly all Federal regulatory machinery. So called “ambulance chasers” are our final line of defense.
The majority of the limited information we have about crimes such as NSA warrantless spying on Americans, torture, lead in toys, melamine in pet food, intelligence fixing (including outing Valerie Wilson), and countless other vitally important national issues has come (or will only come) through civil lawsuits and discovery.
Once civil immunity or “tort reform” type limits on liability are enacted, the third and final check on corporate power will be eliminated.
Canuknotusa @ 8:
This is such a non-issue. We’re all residents of planet earth. stay on subject.
What we need to be most concerned about is the Reagan, Bush Sr, Bush Jr Debt Bomb ticking ticking away.
This sad case has nothing to do with Corporations running amock… this has to do with frivolous lawsuits.. plain & simple. This Roy Pearson is doing more harm to the juducial system by showing everyone how the judicial system can be abused.
There has to be judicial reform, where plantiffs need to have a risk factor tied to bringing up lawsuits, by imposing strict penalties if one brings up a frivolous lawsuit, people will think twice about suing. I hope Roy Pearson regrets ever pursuing this case. Another case has hit the news, where a man (50 or 60Yrs old) is suing a 11 year’s family for $97K for a skiing accident. What a sad situation, I hope this gentleman realize he is only asking for trouble. When ever anybody gets on the slopes, everyone takes a risk… this man should act like a man and take care of his medical issues thru his own insurance and leave the kid and his family alone…
The outcome, I imagine ski slopes may or may not see a impact to visitors, who may be afraid to get on the slopes because of not knowing is some AOLE is out there who is suit prone
MS @ 14:
True, but it goes to the core of the matter that “Americans” see themselves as superior to everyone else - be they Korean dry-cleaners or Iraqi insurgents.
The use of the term “American” is particularly insulting for the dozens of other countries on this continent, including Canada, which do not want to be associated with the US, the USA, the States, or the so-called Americans.
Canuknotusa @ 12:
Capisce. But think how silly it would be to sing “God bless the United States of America, land that I love, stand beside her, and guide her, blah blah blah …” or maybe, “United States of America, United States of America, God shed his grace on thee, blah blah blah.”
Canadians are in North America and refer to themselves as Canadians, not Americans, do they not? As long as we’re going by continents, that is. And those who live in Mexico, let’s see ….
I can’t format worth squat on C&L. Back to work. Toodles!
Canuknotusa @ 17:
Hmmm. I am an American. Born in America. I live on American soil. Yet, I don’t live in North America. Where do I fit in? Please do not generalize about Americans. I don’t support Bush policies, I don’t always agree with American culture. If I was to generalize I would say that all Canadians only eat what they kill and don’t tip.
When your communications company faces litigation for breaking the law…
When your pharmaceutical company faces litigation for poisoning children…
you throw the baby out with the bath water.
But boy those corproations are quick to file lawsuits if someone infringes on their markets or tradename!
Pete @ 16:
There are significant penalties for bringing a genuinely frivolous lawsuit; there have been for quite some time. In the federal system severe penalties can be sought under Rule 11 of the Federal Code of Civil Procedure and every state I am aware of has similar provisions.
But the corporations and insurance companies aren’t interested in protections from genuinely frivolous suits. Believe it or not, multi-billion dollar entities are quite capable of protecting themselves in a legal system they heavily influence. What they define as “frivolous” is any suit they’d rather not pay (or answer in discovery). Guess what? Thats all of ‘em.
Cry me a river but make it the Nile because its nothing but crocodile tears. Roy Pearson is a radical right wing judge who strongly favors “tort reform.”
MS @6-
WTF? This isn’t about race at all. This post is about corporate America using people, who were brought to court under illegitimate circumstances, to reform the legal code so that the corporations themselves can fend off legitimate lawsuits.
The Chung case was about a man who should have known better- a judge!- bringing an outrageously frivolous lawsuit against the operators of a dry cleaning establishment. Unless you have a link that proves- or even speculates- it was about an African-American suing Koreans based only on the ethnicity of either the plaintiff or defendants, I’ve got to question the motivation behind your comment.
MS @ 19:
Where do you fit in? Probably in Puerto Rico or Guam. Who gives a crap? I’m pleased you don’t support your president’s policies, but do you realize his policies aren’t much different from any other US president?
By the way, you’re right about Canadians. We don’t tip.
Canuknotusa @ 23:
Not correct there again, my North American friend. I’m writing this post as I lay on beautiful Waikiki beach. Have a great winter.
Canuknotusa-
So what do we call ourselves? Unitarians? Taken. Staters? Well doesn’t nearly everyone in the world live in a state of some sort or another?
Geez, I guess it sucks for the rest of the North and South Americans that the first generally recognized independent state(don’t take offense, MS, but I’m arguin’ with European conceits because that’s what Canuknotusa gave me to work with) in the hemisphere decided not to name itself the United States of Vespucciland.
But- and this is much more to the point- you should just get over it.
ps- aAnd quit callin’ your national sport “Hockey”. “Hockey” is played on grass, without skates. It’s “Ice Hockey”! ;)
MS @ 24:
Aren’t you lucky! Happy global warming!
Maybe look for something further up the hill…
lets have our laywers work this one out!
You know they will.
ysbaddaden @ 3:
If that pun was a fart, it would clear Penn Station at busy hour. :)
Canuknotusa @ 26:
And I thought those frozen grapes made sweet ice wines. Guess they’re still sour.
(Sorry folks, I’m in a provocative state of mind, like my North American friend here. Have a great holiday and let’s hope 2008 brings us better tidings.)
gempei-
If ysbadadden’s jokes were flatulence, he’d have cleared out the entire state of Pennsylvania with a few of them! This one had rather pleasant odor, actually.
But I do love him.
You are a him, right, ysbadadden?
MS @ 29:
Your apology is accepted.
Andy K @ 30:
He has snatched the pebble from my hand.
Does it seem to anyone else to be somehow meaningful that the website of the Institute for Law Reform, http://iamlawsuitabuse.org/, reads as “I Am Lawsuit Abuse?”
They are, after all, the ones abusing what lawsuits are and are for….
Funny how the discussion of Fascism is only a few clicks further down the same page…
If this isn’t Corporatism, what is?
It is truly amazing how those on the far right who believe that unfettered capitalism will solve all woes, the same people who have brought us law and economics, don’t believe that such capitalism should apply when it comes to compensating people who have been injured by a corporation. When it comes to taking a dollar out of their own pocket they are the first to give up on the free market system. Truly pathetic.
For your information despite all the multimillion dollars awarded by the Court through the so called “frivolous” lawsuit against multinational corporations, only 5%of the amount was paid and the rest has been on appealed for eternity.
How do we justify which case is frivolous? The 10 million dollars Mc Donald’s coffee spill? If you study that case, you would also realized that it’s a legit case as Mc Donald’s broke the law by serving their hot drinks in a much higher temperature than it is permitted by the law and the 20 million dollars was brought down by the appellate courts to like tens of thousands instead. All these weren’t reported in the news. And it’s the juries who awarded the 10 million dollars.
There are so many more cases like this such as Gore vs BMW and many more but the press just highlight the multimillion dollar judgements but not the facts of the cases themselves. You have to remember that one of the purpose when awarding multimillion dollar judgements is to punish the corporations so that they will change and will not do the wrong things again.
Steven @ 36:
And you should have seen the burns on that woman. I did. Her peesch was fucking toast. Looked like radiation burns. She deserved every fucking penny.
People that bitch about corporations having to pay out over pure negligence have never been trespassed upon by these motherfuckers. What do you think those Dow arseholes are doing for the village and survivors of Bhopal, which was wrecked by Union Carbide’s negligence. Nothing Nada Zip. They say they don’t have to.
The exploding Pintos? Those fucks at Ford KNEW that a 50 cent piece would keep that gas tank from exploding, but did a cost analysis and in the end decided it was cheaper to pay damages than to retrofit the cars. So people were burnt to shit and died, or possibly worse, lived through it. Thank that sanguine POS, Lee Iococca.
Any of these idiots calling personal injury lawsuits frivolous would be OUTRAGED and ENRAGED if this shit happened to them. These corporation are not human, and don’t give a shit for humans. We’re so many units, with statistics following us one way or another with these entities. If you’ve got a case, Sue ‘em to death, I say. Because they sleaze out of shit all the time, don’t pay taxes, settle out-of-court with strict non-disclosure rules and cry like bab ies if someone steps on their corporate toes.
jr @ 5:
Wake up to the fact that the majority of people who sue for negligent causes are people who are in the lower to middle income brackets. People who want money for nothing usually aren’t the people who already have lots of it already. Is that somehow not a simple concept?
Paul @ 38: