Tort reform just became a dirty word. The other day in another political science class we viewed the new documentary film "Hot Coffee" directed by Susan Saladoff, a malpractice attorney. It started with the lawsuit against McDonald's but also included the trials of a young woman, Jamie Leigh Jones, who went to Iraq to work for a sub-company of Haliburton and was gang-raped by company employees. The whole documentary was an eye-opener and very shocking. It shows how corporations work to stack the appeals courts with friendly judges and, basically, are corrupting our Seventh Amendment guarantee of our right to a jury trial for for redress of harm caused by another party.Jamie Leigh Jones fought for years to get the right to a trial and even testified before a Congressional subcommittee.
Susan Saladoff explains the concept beautifully on the Colbert show. See the video clip below. The documentary film just became available on November 1.
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/400684/october-25-2011/susan-saladoff
I really enjoyed watching that video, but I felt like that woman was really contradicting herself. She kept saying that the media and the corporate world are putting out these lies that the justice system is broken so that they can then reform it to fit their liking. But directly afterwards, she said that the way the justice system works is that the plaintiff receives money in the lawsuit to cover punitive damages. Now, this money essentially turns into hush money because the plaintiff is put under a gag order, but the corporation is not! However, as she says, there is only a facade that the court system is corrupt. Is the aforementioned example not an instance of corruption in the court system?
ReplyDeleteHer position seems to be this: "The court system isn't broken---the corporate world is just lying to you so they can continue to seek reform to fit their needs."
I think she needs to reevaluate her position. What she should be saying is this: "Yes, the court system is messed up in certain ways. However, it's not messed up in the ways the corporate world is telling you. They seek reform that will best fit their needs. Because they have a history of doing this, the court system is already messed up. But constitutionally, our court system is not broken." I hope this makes sense.