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 behind closed doors for changes to personal injury laws through ALEC's "Civil Justice Task Force."
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).
Here is information about ALEC's current and past leaders, staff, and "experts." (add LINK)
Related ALEC Exposed Articles
Here is link to basic information about ALEC, its funding and its activities (LINK).
Here are some of the other substantive issues VOTED on by corporations via ALEC that affect the rights of injured people:
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).
Ways Corporations Tried to Rewrite the Law
The bills VOTED on by corporations and their politician allies through ALEC try to change personal injury 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.
PLACEHOLDER for information about the Civil Justice "Academy" in the states and ALEC's "Disorder in the Courts" PR campaign.
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Add information about corporate ghostwriting here.
Ways YOU Can Help ALEC Exposed
You CAN help:
Share the link to this page through Facebook or email.
Tweet the link to this site along with the phrase #ALECExposed.
Support the Center for Media and Democracy's work building articles about the corporations and people involved in ALEC on ALECExposed's sister site, www.SourceWatch.org.
Build articles about the bills to repeal laws in your state by adding information to pages in ALEC Exposed about the bills or your state.
Ask your representatives if they are part of ALEC and to disclose any bills they supported that were approved by ALEC leaders and to disclose any donations from any past or present corporation or CEO involved in ALEC.
Write a letter to the editor of your local paper about ALEC and corporations voting behind closed doors on bills legislators have introduced to become law without any fair disclosure of these corporate connections.
Submit a tip to tipline AT sourcewatch.org headlined ALEC tip to suggest information to be investigated.
Write a blog or article about ALEC or ALECExposed and post the link to this page, below.
Propose a freelance article for publication on the Center for Media and Democracy's reporting site, www.PRWatch.org, by emailing editor AT PRWatch.org, headlined potential ALEC report.
Look through the list of the corporations involved in ALEC and make a decision about whether to puchase any more of their goods or services and then write the company to tell them your decision.
Help your family, friends and fellow Americans better understand how global corporations are trying to rewrite your rights. You can also start an online discussion of these or related issues in the ALEC Exposed community discussion page.
Helpful Resources
Here are links to organizations that have been working to expose the Wall Street agenda and its affect on ordinary people:
The Center for Media and Democracy: SourceWatch (link) and PRWatch (link)
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Other helpful information on the tort "reform" agenda:
Ghostwriting article
Other articles
Other articles
Did You Know about these Bills?
Here is an example of a bill from ALEC that became law
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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.
What's Wrong with Rewriting the Law to Help Corporations that Injure Americans??
Here's what people are saying about ALEC's agenda
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This is some text analyzing the corporate agenda here. This is some text analyzing the corporate agenda here. This is some text analyzing the corporate agenda here. This is some text analyzing the corporate agenda here. This is some text analyzing the corporate agenda here. This is some text analyzing the corporate agenda here. This is some text analyzing the corporate agenda here. This is some text analyzing the corporate agenda here.
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.
