ALEC's Efforts to Limit the Rights and Remedies of Americans Injured or Killed by Corporations
Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and local politicians VOTED BEHIND CLOSED DOORS to change the laws to limit the rights and remedies of Americans injured or killed by corporations.
These so-called "model bills," advanced by corporations, erode the rights of an injured person, or that person's family, who files a complaint alleging that a corporation caused injury or death and should be held responsible for the damages its actions caused.
According to bills the Center for Media and Democracy has helped reveal through ALEC Exposed, corporations had "both a VOICE and a VOTE" in the specific changes to the law that were then proposed in legislatures across the country. DID YOU?
Numerous corporations and trade groups have VOTED FOR changes to personal injury laws through ALEC's "Civil Justice Task Force" along with politicians. As of 2011, (FILL and link) and (FILL and link) (and FILL and link, if needed) were the co-chairs of this task force. Victor Schwartz is a partner at the law firm of Shook Hardy, which represented the Big Tobacco companies in their opposition to personal injury claims by people killed by carcinogens in smoking tobacco.
See the full list of for-profit businesses, non-profit corporations, and individuals that have been part of the ALEC Civil Justice Task Force here (add LINK). This page includes links to background information about them.
You can also find the list and background information on the corporations and people that have leaders of ALEC through its boards here (add LINK).
Ways YOU Can Help ALEC Exposed
You can help your fellow Americans understand ALEC's corporate-politician agenda by creating or adding to articles on which of these bills was introduced in your state's legislature and by which politicians. You can also help by documenting the corporations that donated to those politicians as well as the corporate- or CEO-funded "non-profit" groups that run so-called "issue" ads in your state during elections to support those politicians.
Link to list of bills goes here.
Link to states goes here.
Link to politicians who introduced or sponsored any of these bills goes here.
Link to names of other politicians involved in ALEC goes here.
Ways Corporations Tried to Rewrite the Law
The bills VOTED on by corporations and their politician allies through ALEC try to change the law by:
Making it easier for corporations to get a judge to dismiss an injured American's case before it gets to a jury;
Making it harder for injured people to use "class action" rules to strengthen injured Americans' negotiating power and cut costs;
Making it more difficult to introduce new scientific research in injury cases through expert witnesses;
Limiting the liability of corporations by changing the rules about apportioning who is at fault;
Limiting the ability of Americans to sue for injuries where the cause or effect was not known until later; and
Changing the rules about where an injured American can sue and the process for appealing a ruling;
ALEC corporations and politicians also VOTED to change the legal rules by:
Limiting liability for injuries or death to Americans from corporate products if a product is approved by the government (many regulatory agencies have been captured through the revolving door between government and the industries being regulated);
Limiting the power of Congress to create national rules to protect Americans, no matter their state residence, if injured by defective corporate products distributed nationally; and, among other things,
Limiting the power of courts to issue certain kinds of rulings in personal injury cases;
ALEC also advanced the agenda for particularly industries through its tort "reform" legislation. For example, its corporate-politician groups VOTED for:
Limiting litigation over cancer and other deadly diseases caused by exposure to asbestos;
Limiting the power of state Attorneys General to protect dying Americans in tobacco litigation and other cases; and
Limiting the liability of health insurance companies and doctors by changing the rules for suing for medical malpractice, when a doctor's negligence causes injury or death, and changing the rules for injured Americans who have health insurance through an HMO.
The role of these three industries -- the asbestos industry, Big Tobacco, and the health care industry -- are addressed in more detail here (link), here (link), and here (link), respectively.
ALEC also sought to change personal injury law for people injured on the job. Its "model" legislation to change the rules in workers compensation cases is discussed in the article about ALEC's efforts to limit or eliminate workers' rights (including the right to unionize), which is discussed here (link).
PLACEHOLDER for information about the Civil Justice "Academy" in the states and ALEC's "Disorder in the Courts" PR campaign.
Did You Know about these Bills?
Limiting Recovery to Economic Damages versus Emotional Damages
One of the corporate-politician approved bills via ALEC would limit the ability of a family to recover for emotional damages due to the death or injury of a loved one. This type of legislation basically makes working class or poor people's lives worth less to their families since they would be limited primarily to recovering the cost of lost earnings and medical care and not able to recover for the emotional damages caused by a traumatic injury or loss. These kind of provisions seek to prevent a jury of your peers from awarding you damages for all you have lost or suffered as a result of corporate negligence, malfeasance, or greed. Is a politician elected to represent and protect you actually protecting corporate profits through such legislation?
Limiting Liability for Killing or Injuring Your Beloved Pets
In addition to limiting the rights of people injured by corporations, under the guise of limiting "frivolous" litigation one of the proposed bills would make it harder for you to obtain any compensation from a company whose negligence killed your family pet. In 2009, Americans learned that many U.S. pet food companies had shipped the production of food for their four-legged companions overseas and that Chinese contractors had contaminated the pet food with melamine in order to increase profit margins, resulting in the death and serious injuries of numerous dogs and cats in the U.S. ALEC's corporate-politician bills would make it very difficult for a person to recover any damages for the loss of their beloved pet due to negligence in safely manufacturing pet food.
Helpful Information on the Tort "Reform" Agenda
link
Add information about corporate ghostwriting here.
Related ALEC Exposed Articles
Add links to workers compensation and industry loopholes here
Here are some of the other substantive issues VOTED on by corporations via ALEC that affect the rights of injured people:
our article on workers comp changes is linked here,
our article on other corporate loopholes goes here.
What's Wrong with Rewriting the Law to Help Corporations that Injure Americans??
Here's what people are saying about ALEC's agenda
Add select quotes here or swap in different section.
Placeholder text: You can also share the link to this page on Facebook, Twitter, or via email to help your family and friends better understand how global corporations are working to rewrite your rights under the guise of supposed "conservative" ideals. There is nothing genuinely conservative about re-writing long-settled laws that were created to compensate ordinary people who are injured by the negligence of corporations or other defendants or by greed-based disregard for the safety of consumers. There is nothing in the founding principles of our nation that justifies elected officials in our democracy serving as handmaidens to global corporations rather than serving the citizens who elected them to "establish justice" and "promote the general welfare" of We the People, not the corporations.
ALEC Exposed is a project of the Center for Media and Democracy. CMD does NOT accept donations from for-profit corporations or government agencies. You can contact the publisher of ALEC Exposed, CMD's Executive Director, Lisa Graves, via editor AT prwatch.org.
