Corp Reform - Not Tort Reform

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I am blogging from a smartphone. dangerous stuff. I also just took a pic and blogged it.

State Farm Acknowledges The Efficiency Of The Tort System

State Farm is dropping its rates in Colorado because they've returned to the "Pottery Barn" rule of "you break it, you bought it." 

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., the largest auto insurer in Colorado, on Monday announced it is lowering overall insurance rates by 7.2 percent. The change becomes effective July 16.

The insurer estimates that the change will save its Colorado customers a combined $38.8 million per year. This marks the ninth rate decrease for State Farm since July 2003.

The company credited the premium decline, at least in part, to Colorado's change from "no-fault" auto insurance - where injuries in car accidents were paid regardless of fault - to a tort-liability system, where at-fault drivers are responsible for all the damages.

Source: The Denver Post - State Farm slates rate cut, citing tort-system savings

Odd that the evil, bad, inefficient tort system is saving consumers money, isn't it?

Technorati tags: State Farm, Colorado, Insurance cartel, tort system, tort reform

Have John Engler and the National Association of Manufacturers been naughty?

Technorati tags: John Engler, NAM, ATRA, ATRAF, tort reform, illegal contributions, Grover Norquist, bad guys

I haven't fact checked any of this, but one blogger points out the possibility that the NAM is illegally funneling money to other tort reform groups.

In 2005, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) funneled $870k through the American Justice Partnership (AJP) to American Tort Reform, according to the 2005 AJP 990.  Another $451k went to pay a "service fee". Total AJP expenditures were only $1.7 milllion.

Was AJP set up in 2005 to facilitate NAM's contribution to American Tort Reform? Is NAM legally prohibited from contributing directly to American Tort Reform?

The answer could, in part,  depend on which American Tort Reform received the $870k, the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) which is a 501(c)(6) or the American Tort Reform Foundation (ATRAF), a 501(c)(3).

This is not the first time that I have suspected NAM of disguising illegal contributions. Last year, I speculated here in the TPM Cafe about whether the 2004 $650k grant made by Grover Norquist's Americans For Tax Reform to the National Alliance for Worker and Employer Rights (NAWER) was funded by NAM. NAM is prohibited from contributing directly to NAWER by law

Source: American Justice Partnership, Another NAM Scam | TPMCafe

I'll do a little digging and keep my eyes open for more about this story.

Remember, it's ok if healthcare bucks go to support lavish corporate expenditures...

Just as long as we make sure injured patients don't see a dime.

Check out the photos in this blog... nice place.

EPIC makes a big deal about being a small company with only a handful of clients - 140 hospitals (or hospital systems), according to their website. If that many clients can support the money not just for EPIC's brand new headquarters (next door, and they're obviously just as grand) but also for this training center, then it just further illustrates some of the places our healthcare dollars are going that won't be curbed by tort reform bills.

Source: jupo42: Money to spare

Perhaps the best way to guarantee medical experts aren't biased

Walter Olson at Point of Law quotes an AMA article about an expert witness who wants to make sure his testimony is correct:

When New York dermatopathologist A. Bernard Ackerman, MD, is called to testify as a medical expert witness, he refuses to know which side the lawyer represents.

It is his way of remaining objective when he evaluates a case. In addition, the academic clinician typically previews his presentation of the facts and his opinion for a student audience, as a way of holding himself accountable.

"I want to let the facts speak for themselves," said Dr. Ackerman, who has testified equally for the defense and the plaintiff in medical liability cases and in other cases where medical expertise is needed, such as criminal cases. Sticking to the facts, he says, prevents a cross-examining lawyer from tripping him up about his opinion being consistent.

Source: PointofLaw.com | PointOfLaw Forum: The scrupulous expert witness

I can't think of any better way to make sure doctors aren't biasing their testimony for one side or the other than to require them to be hired blindly.  Unfortunately, I'm sure all sides of the litigation debate would have some objections to this, as would the doctors who make a (good) living testifying exclusively for plaintiffs or defendants.

Technorati tags: medical malpractice, Walter Olson, Point of Law, expert witnesses

Oregon works to protect citizens from toxic mold

Admittedly, I had never even heard of synthetic stucco until I read this article: 

The State of Oregon has taken a huge step in preventing toxic mold in new home construction with House Bill 2112-B by banning the use of synthetic stucco. Synthetic stucco has been the subject of a number of investigations including one by NBC Dateline. Homeowners have claimed the product causes water retention within the walls leading to wood rot which in turn leads to mold contamination.

Source: Bay Area Houston: Toxic Mold. When it Happens to You.

The most interesting fact is that the legislation didn't happen until a Senator's granddaughter got ill from mold...

Technorati tags: mold, toxic mold, synthetic stucco, 2112-B, Oregon

Business is booming in Alabama, despite supposedly poor legal climate

"Reform" groups have a vested interest in engaging in fearmongering over the civil justice system.  The executive directors of most state "reform" groups earn six-figure salaries, which come from donors who believe the civil justice system is broken.  A common charge levied against the tort system is that the legal climate is preventing businesses from coming to an area.  Certainly, the "reform" movement has tried that in Alabama.  Here's a letter to the editor that calls their bluff.

New businesses rain on Alabama:

Alabama may be in the midst of a severe drought as far as rain, but new businesses are raining down on our state. Notwithstanding the claims of some organizations, lawsuits do not seem to be preventing corporations from locating new plants in Alabama.

On May 11, ThyssenKrupp approved a proposed $3.7 billion, 2,700-worker, steel-finishing complex in Mobile County. On June 12, The News reported Magna International Inc. is looking at a northwest Alabama site for a North American vehicle-assembly plant. Hardly the kind of activity you would expect to see from companies fearing the litigation explosion, or is there really such an explosion?

According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, the number of civil trials dropped by 47 percent and tort cases dropped by 31 percent between 1992 and 2001. However, as reported in The News recently, CEO compensation has seen a dramatic rise during this time. Of the companies listed in the Standard & Poor's 500, the CEOs received a combined $4.16 billion in 2006. If the minimum wage had increased at the same pace as CEO pay since 1990, the minimum wage would be $22.61 per hour.

So, business is up, CEO pay is up, minimum wage is stagnant and tort cases have dropped. Hmmm, it does seem like there is a problem here.

Jon E. Lewis

Downtown

Source: Letters, faxes, and e-mail- al.com

Can you imagine the howls if a legislator suggested tying minimum wage to CEO salaries? 

Technorati tags: Alabama, tort Reform, litigation, CEO compensation, minimum wage

Is "trial lawyer" losing its stigma?

The triumph of trial lawyers in the 2006 election might mean just that: 

The days when Republicans can win an election by smearing a candidate as a “trial lawyer” are over.

18 “trial lawyers” ran for Congress in 2006. 14 of them won.

Source: Stop Cornyn » Blog Archive » The Death of a False Right-Wing Talking Point

Then again, it could have been anti-Republican backlash.  The article is also a good read for explaining why the Republicans embrace tort "reform" so much - it puts the screws to the Democrats. 

Technorati tags: Democrats, Republicans, trial lawyers, tort Reform

Live in Michigan? Don't buy cheap crap from China - here's why.

The law firm of Thompson, O'Neil, & VanderVeen in Traverse City, Michigan posted today about what "reform" has done to Michigan. 

These products bear an additional risk for Michigan residents, since after tort "reform" the seller of the product is not legally responsible for defects or injuries they cause.  Further, the Chinese government doesn't allow its industries to be sued (particularly since most are government-owned).  As a result, when a "Thomas" occurs in Michigan, if it causes catastrophic injuries to someone, no one is responsible and has to stand behind it.

Source: TOV Blog: Product injuries and the Flat Earth

So what happens if a person on public assistance gets hurt by say, poisonous toothpaste from China?  Why, the generous taxpayers of Michigan get to pick up the tab for their treatment.  Even if they bought the toothpaste from a wealthy store like Wal-Mart, Target, etc. 

That the "reformers" talk up the supposed "tort tax" but refuse to acknowledge the costs of "reform" to taxpayers speaks volumes as to their dishonesty.

 

Technorati tags: tort reform, Michigan, Traverse City, product liability, tort tax, Made in China

How it was in the good old days - before greedy trial lawyers ruined America

The problem with trial lawyers is that they think they have the right to tell business owners how best to run their businesses.  With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, trial lawyers point the finger of blame whenever an unfortunate business makes a prudent, but incorrect decision.

Greedy trial lawyers meddle in virtually every industry and drive up the prices of all our products and services.  Every business decision made has to take into consideration the predatory litigation lobby, and not what's best for the business.  No wonder so many businesses are driven into bankruptcy!

The situation is only as bad as it is because activist judges and politicians in the wallet of the trial bar extended tort doctrines to dubious causes of action.  It didn't used to be this way.  There once was a time when corporations were free to run their businesses as they saw fit, and when entrepreneurs weren't held hostage by trial lawyers. 

If only we had meaningful tort reform, we could return to a time of fairness and efficiency in commerce.  A time perhaps best exemplified by the manner in which White Star Lines handled the tragic loss of the Titanic.  Thanks to a common-sense attitude towards compensating the victims, the management of White Star saved the company from ruin.  Were an identical tragedy to occur today, the company would surely be devoured by ravenous trial lawyers and greedy family members unwilling to accept reasonable compensation.

Let's take a trip back to the good old days and see how White Star Lines handled the crisis:

In 2002, new evidence surfaced, revealing that the Titanic’s owners expected, and in fact demanded fees for the return of bodies.White Star was the Enron of its day; a succession of callous acts without end. Through letters that still survive, historians have long known that Ismay’s line notified the widows of the Titanic’s bandsmen (notwithstanding the fact that their husbands did much to prevent panic on the port side by playing cheery ragtime music) that 75% of the money owed them was being withheld, based on the premise that their husbands had entertained passengers only halfway through one leg of what was to have been a two-way trip. Furthermore, White Star judged that it was only fair to warn the widows that there would be little left over from the remaining 25% because they would have to “settle a bill” for the loss of their husbands’ uniforms.

In February 2002, documentary film-maker Rip Mackenzie sent a dispatch describing a letter demonstrating once and for all time that there was probably no subterranean marsh into which White Star was unwilling to descend.

Written on White Star stationary and dated two weeks after the sinking, the letter was addressed to Sarah Gill of Somerset, England, in reply to her inquiry about the fate of second class passenger John Gill, her childhood sweetheart and husband of two months.

The owners of the Titanic demanded of Sarah a fee of 20 pounds ($1400 in year 2002 dollars), or her husband’s body would “regrettably” have to be buried in Halifax. White Star used this letter as an opportunity to stress that the sinking of the Royal Mail Steamer Titanic was no one’s responsibility . . . as if driving a ship full speed ahead into the night, toward an ice field about which the bridge had been repeatedly warned . . as if . . .

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“The sinking was an unfortunate accident, [for which] we cannot be held responsible. We regret that we do not see our way to bring home the bodies of those recovered free of expense, and in cases where it is desired for this to be done, it can be carried out only if the body was in a fit state to be returned, and upon receiving a deposit of 20 pounds on account of the expenses.”

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Given the precedent of how White Star treated with widows of Wallace Hartley, Jock Hume, and the other bandsmen (whose families found settlement of the “uniform account” doubly difficult after corporate lawyers declared violinists and cellists “not crew, but officially passengers, therefore not covered under the Workmen’s Compensation Act”), the Sarah Gill discovery should bring no sense of surprise. The behavior of J. Bruce Ismay and his legal team at White Star begins to look increasingly analogous to a car thief who manages to get away with billing his victims for the labor of dismantling their cars and selling the parts.

Source: Charles Pellegrino Web Site

Remember White Star Lines the next time some corporate sock puppet tells you we need tort reform.  If it weren't for "greedy trial lawyers" it's entirely possible that airlines would bill the families of dead captains for the cost of their uniforms. 

Technorati tags: trial lawyers, greedy trial lawyers, tort reform, Titanic, White Star Lines, punitive damages, damage caps, predatory lawyers