Why We Need the Civil Justice System
Who’s at fault for driverless car crashes?
Driverless cars are on the road right now, and their numbers will skyrocket as manufacturers like General Motors, Tesla, and Uber compete to own the market. At the same time, well-funded industry proponents are pushing for immunity schemes like no-fault insurance, industry self-regulation, and preemption of state laws. The evolving legal landscape will have enormous ramifications for your practice. You need to be ready. Are humans or robots safer at the wheel? If there's a collision, who's to blame?
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The History of Women's exposure to dangerous drugs and devices
From Accutane to Zonite: A History of Dangerous Drugs & Devices Marketed to Women profiles some of the most harmful medical products that have been marketed to women and highlights the important role the civil justice system has played as a backstop to enhance safety standards when regulations and all other safeguards fail.
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Forced Arbitration: How Corporations use the fine print to bully Americans
Buried in your credit card agreement, your employment contract, or in the click through agreement in your online purchase, is almost certainly a forced arbitration clause designed to trick you out of your constitutional rights. In forced arbitration, there is no right to go to court, no right to a jury, no right to a written record, no right to discovery, no legal precedents to follow, no opportunity for group actions when it would be too difficult or costly to file a claim alone, no guarantee of an adjudicator with legal expertise, and no meaningful judicial review.
Without such checks and balances, the deck is stacked heavily against consumers. And that’s the point. The use of forced arbitration clauses has soared as corporations realize it allows them to circumvent courts and avoid accountability — what some state judges have described as the equivalent of a “Get out of Jail Free” card.
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There are many laws and regulations aimed at protecting seniors, yet government agencies, non-profit watchdogs and media organizations consistently report that serious problems exist in our nation’s nursing homes. The same is true of insurance companies that mislead and defraud vulnerable seniors. Insurance industry regulators protest that they can do nothing. Even when they do raise their hands, they more often than not strike deals to keep fines to a minimum and settlements secret.
With the regulatory and legislative bodies unable to cope with a groundswell of neglect and abuse, the civil justice system has stepped into the breach. Attorneys who represent our nation’s seniors, and their families, play a critical role in uncovering abuse and neglect, and are the most effective force to compel corporate nursing homes to fix their conduct.
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Trial attorneys have long been on the front lines of the environmental movement, opposing corporate plans to wipe out forests, cut down mountain tops, and destroy entire ecosystems. When corporate acts have resulted in devastation for ecosystems and communities, the initial outcry of politicians and regulators has often died out as time has gone by. However, the attorneys seeking justice for such acts fight on, sometimes over decades and against the most powerful corporations on the planet.
When the environmental movement was born in the 1960s and 1970s, a slew of laws were passed to protect the outdoors. But lax enforcement left corporations little incentive to comply. Ultimately, trial attorneys sought justice for communities destroyed by corporate polluters. The BP oil spill will undoubtedly result in long-term devastation. Given the history of corporate behavior in the wake of such disasters, it is clear trial attorneys and the civil justice system will play a vital role in holding BP accountable and helping to return the Gulf to the state it once was.
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In the wake of Toyota’s sudden acceleration scandal, automobile safety is once again a hot-button issue. After internal documents showed Toyota knew about potential defects, hid them from regulators, and even bragged about saving money from limiting its recalls, Toyota received the largest fine ever levied against an auto manufacturer. After 50 deaths and 8.5 million recalled cars, this saga is yet another example of regulation as an incomplete safeguard and manufacturers that put profits over safety. Unfortunately, this scenario has been repeating itself for decades.
In the 1960s, court cases began highlighting the dangers of car design and the willful negligence of manufacturers in designing cars that they knew to be unsafe. Since then the civil justice system has worked hand-in-hand with regulation to protect Americans, while spurring generations of safety innovations. Litigation will ultimately play a key role in identifying what went wrong with Toyota. These findings will aid regulators and legislators in protecting the American public in the future. By holding manufacturers accountable, the civil justice system will continue to spur safety innovations, as it has done for half a century.
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