While people focus their outrage on big ticket offenses by the Executive branch, Congress is quietly destroying multiple public protections. We did not send politicians to Washington to rig the civil courts against everyday Americans, or to strip away legal rights guaranteed by state and local governments. Yet last month, the House Judiciary Committee finished up a day-long session, which it began and ended by voting out two bills that would do just that: demolish plaintiffs' rights. And for the next two weeks, the House will be voting on these bills, hoping to remain under the radar.
As consumer advocate Joanne Doroshow eloquently put it, the House Judiciary Committee
"...voted out two anti-civil justice bills that no voters asked them to pass. Even small businesses have made it repeatedly clear that these are non-issues for them. They appear to be important only to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and paid business lobbyists, and a small number of the Chambers' super-rich industry members who have liability exposure for harming the public and who pay the Chamber millions of dollars to lobby for them."
The Committee cites a medical malpractice crisis that industry experts say does not line up to reality. They rushed these bills through the Committee without a single hearing. No testimony was heard from anyone impacted by any of these bills. As many consumer, labor, and legal groups explains, one of these bills (H.R. 985),
"would annihilate class action suits in America. ...Class action suits are among the most important tools to enable harmed, cheated, and violated individuals and small businesses to hold large corporations and institutions accountable and deter future misconduct. H.R. 985 would eliminate that tool."
Politicians who are in the pockets of large corporations and insurance companies have devised a plan specifically aimed at destroying our right to hold those in power accountable for their misdeeds. Their plan is to enact laws that will all but destroy your right to use the judicial system to protect yourself. They have introduced bills which, if passed, will enact arbitrary changes to courts all across the country, including:
- Limiting compensation for injuries caused by medical professionals (doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, and medical device manufacturers) to $250,000 regardless of how much that injury devastated your life or the extent of malfeasance by the medical professional or company.
- Eliminating Individual States Law regarding lawsuits adn forcing all cases to Federal Court, which is more expensive for plaintiffs and places more burdens on plaintiffs.
- Allowing insurance companies to make "payments" rather than paying full compensation.
It's pretty simple: big corporations that injure, defraud, violate, and otherwise harm people, do not want to be held accountable in court. But you, as consumers and potential plaintiffs, must push back to protect your rights. You must represent to your members of Congress the public's strong belief that large companies would cut corners and risk the public's safety and economic security if corporate liability and accountability were weakened, as each of these bills would do.
Wilson Law, P.A. has been protecting citizens of North Carolina by demanding that everyone is treated fairly, regardless of gender, race, or economic status. Please join us in demanding that Congress do the same. We must ban together and contact our representatives to demand they say NO to these outrageous attacks on our rights. Go to each link below and tell them NO!
- Class Action Lawsuits: http://www.takejusticeback.com/StopHR985
- Medical Malpractice: http://www.takejusticeback.com/ProtectPatients
AAJ has built a website that will help engage you to fight back against Lawsuit Abuse week. This site has an online tool that will allow you to automatically write or call your members of Congress, and provides talking points that will help you explain why your representatives should strongly oppose this bill: www.takejusticeback.com/ProtectMyRightToFight.