Difference between revisions of "Tort Reform, Corporate Liability and the Rights of Injured Americans"

Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians VOTE BEHIND CLOSED DOORS to change the laws to limit the rights and remedies of Americans injured or killed by corporations. These so-called "model bills" erode the rights of an injured person, or that person's family, who files a complaint alleging that a corporation caused injury or death and should be held responsible for all the damages its actions caused. Through ALEC, corporations have "a VOICE and a VOTE" on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in state legislatures. Do you?

Click here for a zip file of bills relating to Tort Reform, Corporate Liability, and the Rights of Injured Americans

For a full list of bills from this section, click here

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For descriptions of some of these bills, scroll down or click here.

The Center for Media and Democracy analyzed the bills ALEC politicians and corporations voted for. More analysis is available below and also at ALEC Exposed's sister sites, PRWatch and SourceWatch.

Limiting Damages for the Loss of Your Child, Spouse, or Parent

One of the corporate-politician proposals of ALEC would limit the ability of a family to recover for emotional damages due to the death or injury of a loved one. (LINK) This type of legislation basically makes working class or poor people's lives--as well as the elderly--worth less to their families because any damages for pain and suffering due to the death of a child, spouse, or parent would be limited to an amount equal to twice their loved one's lost earnings and medical expenses. These kind of corporate provisions try to prevent a jury of YOUR peers from awarding you damages for all you have lost or suffered AFTER a jury finds that your loved one's death was the result of corporate negligence, misconduct, or greed.

Is a local legislator who was elected to represent YOU actually protecting the profits of global corporate wrongdoers through such legislation instead of YOU and YOUR FAMILY?

Barring Corporate Liability for Killing Your Dog or Cat

In addition to limiting the rights of people injured by corporations, under the guise of limiting "frivolous" litigation, one of the proposals from 2006 would make it harder for you to obtain any compensation from a company whose negligence killed your family pet.(LINK) In 2009, Americans learned that many U.S. pet food companies had shipped the production of food for their four-legged companions overseas and that Chinese contractors had contaminated the pet food with melamine in order to increase profit margins, resulting in death and serious injuries to numerous dogs and cats in the U.S.
If passed in your state, ALEC's corporation-backed proposal would make it very difficult for YOU to recover any damages for the loss of your beloved animal companion due to corporate negligence or misconduct in manufacturing pet food.

Some of this Corporate Agenda Has Already Become Law

Wisconsin Governor (and ALEC alum) Scott Walker’s first action upon taking office was to push "tort reform" measures from the ALEC corporate wish list to protect corporations from lawsuits. This bill, Wisconsin Act 2, passed on a party-line vote and was signed into law by Walker in January 2011. It incorporates several "tort reform" bills supported by ALEC corporations. For example, it:

• Adopts parts of the ALEC "Punitive Damage Standards Act," limiting the ability to hold corporations accountable for outrageous acts of negligence or recklessness.
• Draws liberally from the ALEC "Product Liability Act," giving corporations free rein to manufacture shoddy products that can wound or maim so long as the product is approved by a regulatory agency (and even though corporations routinely work to water-down regulatory safety standards), even if the corporation knew the product was dangerous. See also the ALEC "Regulatory Compliance with Liability Act."
• Draws from elements of the "Comparative Fault Act" and "Joint and Several Liability Act" in changing the standards for apportioning fault to corporations.
• Extends liability protections to the nursing home industry (which supported Walker in the election), similar to ALEC bills such as the "Non-Economic Damages Act," limiting awards in cases involving for long-term skilled nursing home providers.
• Adopts the ALEC "Reliability in Expert Testimony Standards Act" verbatim, imposing federal rules corporations favor for determining who can testify as an expert witness in the state court.

After Governor Walker changed the rights of injured Wisconsin residents as ALEC corporations had called for, ALEC publicly applauded Walker's actions.
To see a marked-up version of Wisconsin Act 2 noting the relevant ALEC bills, click here.
To read more about this story, click [(link to Brendan's tort article) here]

• The Attack on Trial Lawyers and Tort Law, Commonweal Institute (Oct 2003)
• Governing the Nation from the Statehouses, Progressive States Network (Feb 2006)

Here are additional reports that critique the overall ALEC corporate agenda:

• The American Legislative Exchange Council, on the Center for Media and Democracy's SourceWatch.org and INSERT PRWATCH ARTICLE LINK HERE by the Center for Media and Democracy's PRWatch.org (March 2011) (PLACEHOLDER)
• Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate America, by the American Association for Justice (May 2010)
• Corporate America's Trojan Horse in the States: The Untold Story Behind the American Legislative Exchange Council, by the Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council (March 2002)
• Governing the Nation from the Statehouses: The Rightwing Agenda in the States and How Progressives Can Fight Back February 2006 Nathan Newman Progressive States Policy Director (Add link)
• ALEC: The Voice of Corporate Special Interests In State Legislatures, by People for the American Way (May 2011)
• Ghostwriting the Law, Mother Jones (placeholder-- http://motherjones.com/politics/2002/09/ghostwriting-law
• Wisconsin's Cronon Affair: The Power of a Simple Fact, by The Nation (March 2011)
• Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, by Common Cause (August 2006)
• Conservative Corporate Advocacy Group ALEC Behind Voter Disenfranchisement Efforts' by the Center for American Progress and Campus Progress (March 2011)