Tort Reform Is Easy Just Kill the Lawyers and Let the Injured be Damned

Steve Lombardi

Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 335

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... or so that is what we are being lead to believe. Yesterday I wrote about China's 2,000 unlicensed manufacturing plants and the 1,202 drug and medical instrument companies that had their licenses revoked. China is just one example of the end stages of tort deform. Russia is another example but in tort reforming the purpose is always the same, to remove consequences from the tortfeasor, the wrong doer, the one injuring another. You doubt me; then consider the following.

In July of this year I visited Russia and got a firsthand look at some parts of that country. While I didn't visit any factories or hospitals I did get to walk around Moscow and went outside of Moscow to Mineralnye Vody on my way to Cheget. And what I saw left me concerned about where our country is heading. We are heading towards the same destination as China and Russia and will meet them somewhere in the middle, but a lot lower in terms of the quality of life we now enjoy. We've been going through tort reform in this country as if there were no end in sight. This government of ours, yes it's still ours, isn't interested in regulating industry but allowing industry to regulate itself. So what did I see in Russia that still bothers me and why do I draw this analogy?

What I saw was the end result of a society that doesn't regulate its industry. In Russia newly constructed buildings were constantly under construction because they don't know how to set a footing. They were constantly jerry-rigging what had just been built because there are no uniform building standards or work rules. Ceilings and walls cracked, no flashing was being used and stucco was in the process of being applied over cement block where all the mortar between the block had not yet been added. There were walkways with broken concrete and stairways where the steps all had different rises and runs. And there were large buildings with weather stripping hanging off the side of the building. I watch a worker cutting boards and never using a tape measure or square.

At the airport I witnessed six workers standing on the roof in a circle around one worker turning a wrench. The iron workers were uploading re-rod to the roof top of the terminal. Not a single worker wore a hardhat. The iron worker on the ground was moving re-rod and lumber. He wore a jump suit with the legs rolled up allowing me to see the flip flops he wore on his bare feet. He wheeled lumber around nearly striking passengers waiting for taxis. Re-rod being lifted by a crane from a truck was an accident waiting to happen. The re-rod in the sling that hung from the crane was so haphazardly in the sling that I thought for sure it would dump out and come crashing down like pickup sticks. It came to me that what this Russian work force needed is a good union training program that teaches workers construction standards and safe work habits.

Still not convinced? I stood on a bridge and figured they must have started building at both ends and met in the middle. Unfortunately it didn't quite meet in the middle because at the middle they were at least four inches apart. Out came the welding torches.

It's ironic that Russia, a country created for and by the workers, would be so lacking in construction standards and safe work habits. And that's when it struck me; this is where we are going. This is the road we are on. Russian businesses don't bother with safe work habits or good sound construction methods because they know injured people can't sue them. If they do sue good luck proving a case where there are no standards and governmental regulations are slack or lacking. This is where American industry is heading. When our government is through with deregulation and tort deform no business will concern themselves with the financial responsibility of injuring people.

And so that is where we are heading in America. Today our juries take the jury box full of fear and intolerance, prejudiced against the injured before they ever hear a word of evidence. We can see it in their eyes, their arms crossed across their chests and legs crossed. We can hear it in the questions about the McDonald's verdict even though no one on the jury understands the facts of the McDonald's case but everyone uses it as an example that there are too many lawsuits. The facts have become meaningless to the decision making of a typical contemporary civil jury. Prejudice is an easier, faster and cheaper route. They damn the injured because it's just cheaper.

And then ... they come into my office injured and demanding justice! Yes, demanding the law make an exception for their case. Injured insurance adjusters or doctors are the worst offenders of "make me an exception". Sorry folks you can't have it both ways. You wanted tort deform and you got it. Now you need look no father than your comrade in arms at the next voting booth, because he's the same one that sits in the jury box staring out at you, the injured plaintiff.