The Biggest Problem with "Tort Reform"

[Sandpiper]

As any "evil trial lawyer" or lowly law student like myself could tell you, there's a reason why we subject big business to extensive tort liability.

Tort liability is a safeguard for ordinary people against large, deep pocketed business entities. The theory is, if a business knows it's going to pay out the nose for making an unsafe product, it decreases the chances of them making one.

Conversely, if they do make an unsafe product, if liability claims will cost them more than fixing the problem, they will be motivated to move with all possible haste to fix it, which brings us to the problem with tort reform.

The GOP/big business approved plan for tort reform will put caps on damages that companies, doctors, etc. have to pay for the harm that they or their products cause. In other words, it protects the wrong doer and punishes the injured, but that's not the most frightening part.

The really scary part is, caps on damages has the potential to make it economically preferrable for business entities to pay out legal settlements rather than fix the problem. In a case such as this, given the business world's track record of placing profits over people, does anyone really think their conscience or sense of civic duty will win the day?

[PurityOfEssence]

1. Republicanism believes in personal responsibility for YOU

not for me.

Money is god.

Corporations are the font from which all good flows.

Admitting weakness (damage) is a sin against the cocksure macho sensibility that is America; to sue is to admit one's inferiority, and inferiors should be crushed.

Mercantilism is cruel enough, but the monarchy that makes these guys all misty-eyed is as evil as it is unsustainable.

[MotownLew]

2. Oops. I thought you said "TART" reform. I love breakfast. Nevermind.

[Cheswick2.0]

3. yup, you are right and we are going to get it whether we like it or not

because the democratic party will not and can not fight the legislation. You would think, knowing they are going to be dead in the water anyway, that they would have fought for a fairly counted election free of BBV problems.... sigh...but they did not and we have not choice but to watch all social reform of the last 60 years be thrown away.

[Bake]

4. All it does is change the cost/benefit equation.

Tilts it in favor of the corporate bastards.

And I'm a corporate defense lawyer. (We don't want tort reform either!)

Bake

[DrGonzoLives]

5. Congress shall make no law

prohibiting the right of the people to petition the government for the redress of grievances.

There's your challenge. Use it.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

6. Tort reform decimates donations to the Dems by trial lawyers

I don't know what percentage of donations to the Democrats come from trial lawyers, but I would think it is significant.

If you limit tort awards, you've cut into their income and hence into their donations to the Democrats.

It also makes it economically impossible for an attorney to take on a new client. Like any other business, a law office has ongoing expenses for rent, books, employees, etc. Since plaintiff attorneys work on a contingency basis they get their money on the back end of a case. By dragging out cases as long as possible, defense (insurance) lawyers put pressure on trial attorneys to settle for less than a case is worth. When I worked as a trial lawyer, I soon learned that insurance companies wanted to pay as little as possible as late as possible -- if at all.

This is part of an overall plan to starve the Democratic Party of donations. "Right to work" laws effectively make unions impotent by giving an employee the benefits of union membership without being required to pay dues. Likewise, laws which prohibit unions from giving donations to only one party (usually the Dems) are being pushed.

With the Repugs, there's always a hidden agenda.

[Keirsey]

7. hidden agenda?

It's not hidden at all.

Grover Norquist on NPR's Marketplace Monday night said that tort reform was a means to an end. They are going to use tort reform to bust trial lawyers who are among the Democrats biggest campaign donors.

Norquist said the goal is not just to defeat Democrats, but to destroy the Democratic party.