A few years ago I wrote a blog about how the civil justice system is what’s called in Economic Theory a pure public good. The theory goes that if there is a road in town that you need to drive on every day to get to work, you want government to take good care of that road, fix the pot holes and remove snow timely during the winter. But if there is a road in town that you never use, you don’t care if government keeps the road in good shape. In fact you might even think it’s a waste of tax payer money to care for the road since you never benefit from it.
Our civil justice system is very similar. If you never need to hire a lawyer and use the justice system, you probably don’t think about it and don’t care how well it works. But, if you are catastrophically injured due to someone’s negligence and can no longer work and/or have huge medical expenses, you desperately want a fair and efficient civil justice system for you to turn to.
Over the past 8 years, you have not heard the cries of tort reformers that our civil justice system is broken, that there is a medical malpractice crisis or that juries provide jackpot justice. The reason you have not heard them is because they are not true and have never been true. In fact, the number of lawsuits being filed has dropped significantly in the past 15 years, malpractice insurance premiums are low and run away verdicts are as rare as hen’s teeth. However, the real reason you have not heard these cries is because the friends of Big Business and Big Pharma were not in a position to control government and get tort reform passed.
But, now we have a Republican controlled Congress. And it’s time to reward the friends of the GOP who have put them in power; Big Business, Big Pharma and Big Insurance. Currently, circulating in the House of Representatives are bills that would impair the rights of senior citizens to use the civil justice system; that would arbitrarily cap compensation no matter how severely injured you were; that would eliminate class action lawsuits and bills that would strip States of the right to determine what civil laws are appropriate for their citizens.
Want to learn more and what you can do about this? Go to the links below and let Congress know how you feel.
- Lawsuit Abuse Week: takejusticeback.com/ProtectMyRightToFight
- Class Actions: takejusticeback.com/StopHR985
- Medical Malpractice: takejusticeback.com/ProtectPatients
