In this weeks edition of Voices of the Law, I was a guest with Attorney Jan Schlichtmann discussing the topic of Tort Reform and the 2008 election.
As the token conservative Republican on my network I am always struck by the complete agreement I have with my trial lawyer friends and associates on the issue of tort reform. Honestly, I don't even like writing that phrase as it is a media created term that bears virtually no relationship to the truth. We do not have tort reform in this country, we have the systematic and cynical stripping of citizens rights to access the courts, federal pre-preemption of state laws and courts and now a blatant program to buy judges all over America.
Tort reform in my opinion is the single biggest lie foisted on the American public and small business people by the corporatist who seized control of the Republican party and realized they could raise literally billions of dollars in campaign and lobbyt money on this issue. Along the way it became a political tool to destroy the trial lawyers, and as I had a good friend remind me, we are seeing the fruit of that this week on Wall Street.
When the ability of trial lawyers to litigate security cases was sharply curtailed and the watch dog over the excesses and corruption of securities firms was left to their industry influenced arbitration boards there were no controls at all to rein in these rogue firms. Hopefully one of the first "reforms" for our financial system will be to get rid of arbitration and bring back the fear of civil law suits against these thieves.
Agree or disagree, but listen in to this weeks Voices of the Law to start talking about one of the key issues of this years election campaign, the fight to turn back tort reform.
