Contact: Mike Vallante
Phone: 626-824-8927
September 3, 2001
This Labor Day, Americans everywhere should take time and
simply be thankful. But not just for their jobs.
This year we should also be thankful for the
elected leaders around the country who protected those jobs. They
stood up against a well-financed special interest that sought
to put untold thousands of jobs in several states in jeopardy,
and they said "no."
I'm speaking of this year's tsunami of legislative
proposals from the nation's special interest lobby of personal
injury lawyers. This group has always sought to pass self-serving
legislation, but this year they mounted a massive campaign in
several states to pass legislation that would make trade secrets
public, encourage more lawsuit abuse, and force our employers
to take their business -- and our jobs -- somewhere else.
In 20 states around the country, the personal
injury lawyers pushed legislation basically designed to eliminate
protective orders in out-of-court settlements. Judges issue these
protective orders when materials presented in the discovery phase
of a trial contain proprietary information (such as trade secrets,
customer information, financial records, etc.) which, if made
public, could ruin a business.
In their wisdom, virtually every state legislature
that was presented with this idea rejected it. Some states are
still kicking it around, but so far enough legislators can see
the writing on the wall and to their credit they will not support
such dangerous pubic policy. Now, with time running out, the personal
injury lawyers are placing incredible pressure on legislators
to change their minds and keep the legislation alive. Unfortunately,
for employers and employees, the lawyers have a lot of leverage.
While comprising a mere fraction of the U.S.
population, personal injury lawyers as a special interest are
one of the largest single donors to political campaigns. It should
come as no surprise that the lawyers are trying to leverage that
"investment" into passing laws that will bring them more money,
which will lead to more and bigger campaign contributions. In
so doing however, this minority is attempting to use its wealth
to dictate the laws of the land, despite what's in the best interest
of working Americans.
In attempting to justify their position, the
personal injury lawyers have been trying to sell the protective
order legislation on its intent, claiming such laws are needed
for public safety. They used to underscore this charade with talk
about a certain tire manufacturer until The New York Times revealed
an embarrassing fact. Apparently, several personal injury lawyers
knew about failures involving Firestone tires as far back as 1996,
but they chose not to report this to any authority. The reason:
they wanted to protect their lawsuits. In other words, they wanted
to protect their incomes.
If the personal injury lawyers were really interested
in public safety instead of fattening their own wallets, they
would agree that more lawsuits that will only clog courts and
jeopardize jobs are not a real answer. And in the case of this
legislation, which would actually create a financial incentive
to abuse the legal system with frivolous lawsuits, we're talking
about nothing more than legalized extortion.
Incredibly, this isn't the first time the personal
injury lawyers have tried this and failed. In previous years,
more than 20 states and the U.S. Congress rejected the idea. California,
one state where the bill is still alive, has rejected twice already,
and still the personal injury lawyers keep bringing it back.
The American worker has never been more than
a pawn in the personal injury lawyers' political agenda. Fortunately
for all of us, and despite the millions of dollars in campaign
contributions, our elected officials have decided almost unanimously
to place the interests of American workers above the special interests
of the lawyers. They have recognized that as our economy slows,
the last thing our nation's employers need is to have another
target painted on their foreheads. They have recognized that the
last thing we need is bad pubic policy that will only push us
over the edge into recession. And they have stood their ground
so that for the time being, most of our jobs are still safe from
the personal injury lawyers.
We can be thankful for that this Labor Day.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you would like a CALA
speaker to address your organization or some information for your
organization's newsletter, let us know today.
Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) is a non-profit,
educational, grassroots organization comprised of small business
and professional people, consumers and others dedicated to the
reform of our civil justice system. If you would like to be added
or deleted from this list, or to request a CALA action kit, please
reply to maryann@maryannmaloney.com.
Feel free to forward this communication and visit our website
at www.losangelescala.org.
