Why - because of five major organizations that are trying to take YOUR rights away - including ALEC.
If you are a lawyer or know a lawyer who is dedicated to serving the public they should know about this.
If you are a citizen that has had your rights trampled on - they want to hear from you.
This group may have been overlooked if it hadn’t been for
the announcement by a Chicago law firm.
The announcement was made
On Tuesday the American
Association for Justice (AAJ) launched Take Justice Back, a campaign to teach
Americans why they should care about protecting the civil justice system.
SNIP
Take Justice Back aims to protect
consumers from corporations who have lobbied to avoid liability by using
phrases like “tort reform” and “frivolous lawsuits.” Tort reform refers to
proposed changes in the common law civil justice systems that aim to reduce
tort litigation or damages. Frivolous lawsuits refer to corporate allegations
that consumers are making up injuries to try and win large sums of money. There
are several corporate front groups behind these efforts. These groups include
the Institute for Legal Reform, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the
American Tort Reform Association, the Civil Justice Reform Group, and the
Searle Civil Justice Institute..
A webpage has been established to educate everyone on the
dangers of tort reform that is being pushed by special interests.
The webpage:
They have identified the organizations dedicated to
destroying your rights to redress and due process at this webpage.
To learn more about these groups,
and the ways that they use paperwork, money, and political power to prevent
innocent consumers from fighting back against negligent corporations please click here
And they want to hear your stories!!
And yes – they know about ALEC
ALEC and ALEC legislators are one of the five groups
dedicated to taking your rights away from you – for the ALEC corporate profit
sector members.
For example, ALEC has worked on
behalf of:
Oil companies to undermine climate change proponents;
Pharmaceutical manufacturers, arguing that states should be banned from
importing prescription drugs;
Telecom firms to block local authorities from offering cheap or free
municipally-owned broadband;
Insurance companies to prevent state insurance commissioners from
requiring insurers to meet strengthened accounting and auditing rules;
Big banks, recommending that seniors be forced to give up their homes
via reverse mortgages in order to receive Medicaid;
The asbestos industry, trying to shut the courthouse door to Americans
suffering from mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases; and,
Enron to deregulate the utility industries, which eventually caused the U.S.
to lose what the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) estimated as $5
trillion in market value.
SNIP
The
result has been a consistent pipeline of special interest legislation being
funneled into state capitols. Thanks to ALEC, 826 bills were introduced in the
states in 2009 and 115 were enacted into law.
Another example that every day, more Americans are waking up and
fighting back against the destruction being caused by the American Legislative
Exchange Council – destruction of our government and our rights.
History
Little do these lawyers know
that ALEC despises them, really probably hates them – on behalf of their corporate profit
sector members - and has for decades has indoctrinated ALEC legislative members
to despise them also with on-going insidious ALEC written propaganda. ALEC despises lawyers even more than they despise American citizens who think they have the right to due process and redress - through the use of lawyers.
A few examples – just a few –
which don’t paint lawyers in a very good light – and this stuff goes out to
every ALEC member to help them shape their opinions.
In 1992 – HW Bush addressing
an ALEC meeting said this:
People
still turn small squabbles into lawsuits, and they sit in courtrooms listening
to lawyers bicker about problems that should have been solved some way, over a
cup of coffee at home maybe.
In 1993 ALEC wrote in a
healthcare report distributed to all ALEC members
Our
judicial system encourages lawsuits. It influences plaintiffs and their lawyers
to view the tort system as a "lottery" within which huge windfalls
are possible. Without legislation designed to overhaul the system, the number
of lawsuits will continue to grow.
And they don’t mean just any
legislation, they mean ALEC “model legislation”, of course. ALEC pro-corporate legislation.
The ‘‘In 1995, the comments
of
Virginia
Governor George Allen, a former ALEC member, has noted "that this ill conceived
policy only serves the interests of trial lawyers and the federal government. … . I
am even more concerned that these actions are exactly the opposite of where the
states should be heading in terms of tort reform and will only serve to erode
further the principle of personal responsibility."
Again in 1995 you find this statement
in a report issued to all ALEC members
It is
reasonable to expect that other industries will be targeted by the law whenever
the state government -- encouraged by private lawyers in pursuit of a hefty
contingency fee -- believes it is cost effective to do so .
In 2002 ALEC told their
members in their bi-monthly publication that they should be
Empowering
patients and neutering trial lawyers are the paths to that end.
Also in 2002 ALEC told their
members in their bi-monthly publication
The
modern era of “regulation through litigation” began with tobacco. An unusual
alliance of state attorneys general and wealthy personal injury lawyers
facilitated this initiative.
Also in 2002 ALEC told their
members in their bi-monthly publication
If
public opinion shifts, whether through the force of personal injury lawyers and
their allies or through industry missteps, potentially substantial liability
could move into areas that are now considered ordinary
Also in 2002 ALEC told their
members in a report distributed to all their members
They will
reform the tort system to minimize arbitrary and substantial threats to property
rights from unscrupulous lawyers and runaway juries. Worker compensation should
be completely privatized. The list is almost endless.
In 2004 in a document
encouraging ALEC legislators to get rid of Medicaid for the elderly and
suggesting that the elderly should take out reverse mortgages to fund their old
age care:
Of
course, interest groups like senior advocates—who mistakenly believe the
elderly benefit from the status quo—and Medicaid planners and trial lawyers—for
whom the status quo is a financial bonanza—fight any effort to target Medicaid
long-term care benefits to the needy or to encourage private financing.
In 2005 ALEC states in one of
their reports
However,
the problem of frivolous lawsuits brought by trial lawyers remains.
In May 2007 in an article in
Inside ALEC this is noted
Another
effort to change animal law is legislation to permit non-economic damages in
animal litigation. This type of legislation capitalizes on the feelings people have
for their pets in an attempt to legally declassify pets as “property.” Such
legislation would wrongfully confer to pets, livestock, and other animals
similar legal rights as human beings. This change would increase the size of
potential judgment awards in animal litigation and would thereby make the suits
more profitable and attractive to many trial lawyers.
According to ALEC, if the vet
or your dog/cat food or a sadist kills Fluffy/Fido – too bad – suck it up –
they are just an animal after all.
Another article in July 2007
Inside ALEC
However,
at the time they were adopted, the lawmakers of that era did not anticipate the
litigiousness of modern society and often employed broad language conducive to manipulation
by clever trial lawyers.
In 2007, in an ALEC State
Factor distributed to all ALEC members - in regards to the mesolethemia issue
and Crown Cork (which has had multiple pieces of favorable state legislation
passed in their favor, even though Crown Cork KNEW what they were getting into
when they bought Mundet)
Crown
has been sued in asbestos-related cases solely as a successor to Mundet Cork. … “The
trial lawyers have made Crown Cork & Seal pay dearly for the ninety days it
owned the insulation division of Mundet. . . . They should never have had to pay
a dime to begin with.”
Oh poor Crown Seal – nasty,
nasty lawyers.
In a 2008 California editorial by Amy Kjose
All it
takes is a creative lawyer, a friendly judge and a little luck to abuse our
legal system and bleed America's
wallet dry with frivolous lawsuits.
But
don't lawyers study the law in order to strictly abide by it? It is difficult
to see why some lawyers would be so opposed to legislation that clarifies the
law they study and is in the best interest of their clients and of this nation
... unless they have a vested interest in a flimsy, abuse-ridden legal system. Who
knows?
Let’s see Kjose’s background
includes: interning at ALEC and then working for ALEC.
In the 2009 edition of Rich States
Poor States distributed to all ALEC members.
When
the legal system becomes a system of jackpot justice, with huge awards not
related to the negligence or misbehavior of the company being sued, the biggest
winners are trial lawyers.
Huge award “not related to
negligence”? Come on – give the trial
jury system some love here ALEC. You don’t
think us dumb citizens can make correct decisions?
AND here’s my ABSOLUTE
FAVORITE – a recap of what ALEC’s true intention probably is:
As noted in the Progressive
States Network report “Governing the Nation from the Statehouses:”
Using State Law to Defund the Left: Conservatives increasingly use control of government
to cut off the sources of funding for progressive politics. Shutting down the
tort system cuts off funds to trial lawyers, so-called "paycheck
protection" laws undermine union political action, and privatization
shifts money from public employee activists to conservative corporate actors.
The American Association forJustice's Take Justice Back site provides information about specific instances
of injustice, a range of statistics, and rebuttals to commonly held assumptions
about personal injury litigation in America, including these facts:
- According to the National Center
for State Courts (NCSC), tort cases (personal injury or wrongful death
lawsuits) declined by a quarter over the past decade, and currently make up
only about five percent of civil court caseloads
- Statistics from the U.S.
Department of Justice show that the median award in a tort case is only
$31,000, and awards have decreased in recent years
- Punitive damages are sought by
only about five percent of all successful plaintiffs
- According to the NCSC and the
National Practitioner Databank, medical malpractice payments have dropped
significantly since 2001
Groups like the Institute for
Legal Reform, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the American
Tort Reform Association spend tens of millions of dollars every year lobbying
for changes to the U.S. civil justice system that favor defendants. These
groups provide model legislation to states or file lawsuits against government
regulators in support of the vested interests of the companies that fund them.
No comments:
Post a Comment