Personal responsibility?
You can type these words into Google and get a list of web sites all talking about how corporations are being attacked by lawsuits filed by people who refuse to take personal responsibility for their safety. Some groups, like the Chamber of Commerce, are nothing but fronts for large multi-national corporations and the neo-con Republicans who want to see corporate rule of the world. Other groups are people who, because of mental illness or a lack of information, truly believe that people who file lawsuits lack personal responsibility. Regardless of the reasons, these groups, and a few very wealthy individuals, distribute more attacks on our country’s judicial system than you can imagine.
Actually, these attacks are really focused on you ...yeah, you. Actually, these attacks are really focused on you ...yeah, you. Anyone who has or could serve on a jury is the “problem” these groups seek to exterminate.
First a little history: The founders of our republic had unique insight into oppression (Just read any book by renowned historian Leonard Levy). They set up a system where issues are decided by a jury of everyday citizens. They were so convinced that our way of life depended upon this that they enacted Amendment 7, guaranteeing the right to a jury trial as part of the Bill of Rights. As with all human endeavors the system occasionally has a strange result, but by and large, on a day-to-day basis it works for people regardless of color, religion, class status or personal beliefs.
Past U.S. Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, who is loved by the people who hate America’s judicial system because of his rather bizarre legal views, recently fell at the Yale Club and suffered an injury requiring surgery. Did Bork practice what he preaches and issue a statement saying he was taking personal responsibility for his failure to walk without injuring himself? Hell no, Bork filed a lawsuit seeking ,000,000.00 plus punitive damages. Yep, according to Bork you and I shouldn’t be able to open the courthouse doors if someone injures us. However, he should receive one million dollars plus punitive damages. Do your own Google search for “Bork lawsuit” and you’ll see the actual pleadings Bork filed in court.
he Chamber of Commerce and the other far right nutty groups all love to keep repeating that lawsuits drive up the cost of products. After all, it cannot be the record corporate profits, golden parachutes and expense accounts used to fund million dollar parties, right? No, they claim it’s lawsuits. In 2005 Republican operative Frank Luntz wrote a 160 page playbook which, in part, advised to all Republican neocons that they must keep repeating that lawsuit abuse is driving up the cost of healthcare. Of course, Luntz knew that was a lie. Everyone did.
On February 22, 2005 the New York Times printed the following:
For all the worry over higher medical expenses, legal costs do not seem to be at the root of the recent increase in malpractice insurance premiums. Government and industry data show only a modest rise in malpractice claims over the last decade. And last year, the trend in payments for malpractice claims against doctors and other medical professionals turned sharply downward, falling 8.9 percent, to a nationwide total of .6 billion, according to data compiled by the Health and Human Services Department.
Those attacking the judicial system must have watched the movie “Wag the Dog” and decided they could completely ignore reality and, if they had enough money, they could create their own reality. Now we have the Neocon web sites, such as Fox News and many others who simply make stuff up.
So what is personal responsibility’s role in the legal system? I, like any other lawyer who pursues justice for injured people, will tell you that if the plaintiff has done anything wrong you admit it. Juries aren’t dumb and they will punish anyone who misleads them (just look at recent verdicts against GM and others who play fast and loose with the facts in court). If my client failed to act responsibly in some manner I simply admit that to jury. All good lawyers do. Jurors understand people are human and they forgive mistakes if you admit to them. Jurors also understand being lied to and they punish that. Look at almost every large verdict and you’ll see a corporate lie, or a dozen, exposed.
Personal responsibility should include GM admitting that they have known the C-K line of their vehicles have weak roofs that can crush in the simplest rollover killing the occupants; Firestone admitting they had a bad run of tires that killed people; Phillip Morris admitting they knew they were lying to consumers and that their lie was killing Americans and actually driving up the cost of health care; Exxon admitting it was the cause of the largest, most harmful oil spill in history and actually performing the clean up work it previously agreed to do. This list could go on and on.
When you stop to examine the issue of personal responsibility you see the same recurring theme. Corporations continue to put products on the market knowing they will injur or kill someone. They actually perform analysis to determine if it’s cheaper to make a safe product or pay the verdicts (another reason these same groups want caps on verdicts). Then when the defective product they knowingly put on the market injures or kills someone they accuse the victim of not using personal responsibility. As a good citizen it’s your personal responsibility to research the actual facts and make your own determination about the value of our legal system. Once you do this, the Neocons, the Chamber of Commerce and other corporate lackies are in real trouble.