From Robert Kuttner:
"The corporate elite and the GOP have three grudges against 'trial lawyers.' First, damage awards cost business money when they uncover corporate practices that swindle, maim, or kill ordinary citizens. And as champions of the little guy, trial lawyers are among the few well-heeled professionals who donate more money to Democrats than Republicans. Break their rice bowl and there will be one less source of money for the opposition party.
"It further galls the right that some small fraction of trial lawyers actually get rich by helping injured people to collect. Notice that when some business mogul becomes a billionaire, the right insists that he earned that money by bettering mankind. But when a talented personal injury lawyer prospers by helping an injury victim, he's a parasitic shyster.
"So the business lobbies and the Republicans have been promoting what they call 'tort reform.' The idea is to make it harder for ordinary people to recover damages and to limit the amount they can collect. But what of the substance of the right's case? Isn't there a real problem here?
"Not really. For starters, the right can blame itself. As more of the economy becomes deregulated, the common-law remedy of going to court is often all that allows victims any redress. The right's war on health, safety, financial, and environmental regulation is substantially responsible for the litigation they now oppose as well.
"Regulation, in this respect, is the ounce of prevention. Litigation sorts out the mess afterwards when regulators could not police corporate conduct in advance, and lawsuits usefully bring ugly facts to light. If the tobacco industry didn't want lawsuits, it shouldn't have hidden evidence that smoking caused cancer....
"Take away the threat of a lawsuit, and unscrupulous businesses will be even freer to do damage....
"The attack on trial lawyers is an attack on the rights of ordinary Americans by the corporate elite. It will be useful to have that reality come to light."
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