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 state politicians VOTE 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 all the damages its actions caused. Behind the scenes, through ALEC, corporations have "both a VOICE and a VOTE" in specific changes to the law that are then proposed in state legislatures. Do you?
To read the list of individual bills before opening them, click here.
WHO Is Behind ALEC?
Corporations and politicians on ALEC's Task Force, such as X (details here)
Businesses and legislators on ALEC's leadership boards (details here)
Managers, staff, and "experts" of ALEC (details here)
Related ALEC Exposed Articles
ALEC funding and spending
ALEC connections to David and Charles Koch, the oil billionaires
Proposals to change the rules for people injured on the job, along with union rights
Efforts to limit the liability of health insurance companies or HMOs as well as doctors
Other industry-specific agendas, like asbestos, tobacco, and oil and gas
How YOU Can Expose ALEC & Share What You Learn
SPREAD THE WORD. Share the information and articles on this page through FACEBOOK, EMAIL AND TWITTER. Concerned groups and individuals in every state need to have this information to start their own investigations.
EXPOSE ALEC LEGISLATORS. It boasts of 2,000 state legislators, but ALEC's membership list is a secret. Demand the truth from state ethics officials or use your state’s open records law to find out if your tax dollars are being used by politicians to pay annual dues to ALEC. See if your elected representatives are accepting “scholarships” or reimbursement from ALEC's corporate-funded coffers for fancy ALEC conventions.
EXPOSE ALEC BILLS IN YOUR STATE HOUSE. Download these ALEC bills and start to cross check them with bill of the same name or similar bills in your state legislature. Ask your local media to report on what you have found or write a letter to the paper to share what you learned.
SHARE YOUR DISCOVERIES. Tell us what about what you uncovered! Tweet what you learn with the hashtag #ALECExposed, post a comment in the "community page" of this website or email us a confidential tip via tipline AT sourcewatch.org. With over 7,000 state legislators in the United States and thousands of bills in each state house every year, it will take a team of people in every state to expose the full array of the corporate agenda.
Take action today to help your family, friends and fellow Americans better understand how global corporations are trying to rewrite your rights.
Learn MORE about the "Model Bills" that Help Limit the Liability of Corporations Accused of Injuring or Killing Americans
The Center for Media and Democracy has annotated the "model legislation" politicians and corporations voted on, and we will be adding our analysis to this page and other publications, such as our sister sites, PRWatch and SourceWatch. New links on the tort bills will also be added here. Please bookmark this page and check the boxes below for updates on analysis and information on how people are responding to corporations' efforts to change the law for Americans injured or killed by corporate decisions.
Ways Corporations Tried to Rewrite the Law
The bills corporations and their politician allies VOTED on behind closed doors through ALEC try to change American's rights 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" procedures which strengthen their negotiating power; Making it more difficult to introduce new scientific research in injury cases through expert witnesses; Limiting the liability of corporations by changing the rules for apportioning fault and thus limiting recover; Limiting the ability of Americans to sue for injuries where the cause or effect was not known until much 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 defective products if a product is approved by the government (even though many regulatory agencies have been captured through the revolving door between government and the industries being regulated, many of the same industries pushing these bills); 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 in personal injury cases.
Other Helpful Resources
Here are links to some of the public interest organizations that have been challenging the ALEC corporate agenda:
The Center for Media and Democracy: SourceWatch (link) and PRWatch (link)
Add link to other organization
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(CMD is not affiliated with these other organizations. If you would like your organization to be listed here, please contact us.) Here are links to additional information that has been compiled about ALEC and related issues:
PRWatch article on ALEC and the corporate agenda to rewrite personal injury law
Ghostwriting article
NRDC Article
PFAW Article
Did You Know about these Bills?
Some of this Corporate Agenda Has Become Law
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Limiting Damages for the Loss of Your Child or Spouse
One of the corporate-politician proposals of 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 any damages for pain and suffering due to the death of a child, spouse, or parent would be limited to an amount equal to their loved one's lost earnings and medical expenses. These kind of corporate provisions try 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 instead of you and your family?
Barring Corporate Liability for Killing Your Dog or Cat
In addition to limiting the rights of people injured by corporations, under the guise of limiting "frivolous" litigation one of the proposals 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. If passed in your state, ALEC's corporation-backed proposal would make it very difficult for YOU to recover any damages for the loss of your beloved animal companion due to corporate negligence or misconduct in manufacturing food for Americans' pets.
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.
