Common Law develops with the cumulative individual court decisions of the judiciary body, and it coexists with the Statutory Law. What is happening today is that big multinational corporations have been increasing their power to such an extent that governments have abdicated their responsibilities to service their citizens and instead they are serving themselves(3) along with the vested interests of the big multinational corporations.

Ralph Nader has pictured the big multinational corporations as private parliaments where business is conducted through one-sided pre-printed contracts and where the other side, the consumers, sign on the dotted line. The big multinational corporations are not limiting themselves to behave as private parliaments, they are now taking over the governments and through their lobbying, junk researches, bribes, expensive propaganda and economic power are usurping the traditional Common Law sphere of competence and influence governments to enact Tort Reform, that is legislation which includes no-fault provisions and which takes away the individual right to sue for the perceived wrong of another person or business.

These big multinational corporations have controlled our media and influenced the public and juries to believe that litigations have gone out of control, and that we have now "a litigation explosion, a lawsuit crisis, a liability crisis, an insurance crisis, skyrocketing jury awards, unscrupulous attorneys, and on, and on(4)." Tort reforms are in practice no-fault legislative provisions which take away the individual rights of people to sue and go to court.

I remember when David Milgaard got some $10 million dollars as compensation for the wrong of being put in jail for twenty-three years for a crime he didn't commit(5). Was this settlement too big for a political wrong which destroyed the life of Milgaard and the lives of his mother, father, sisters and brother(6)?

We hear from time to time of huge of compensation settlements or judgements on behalf of individuals, but the truth is that most of the litigations are between businesses(7), and in this regard we can refer to the continuous and voluminous lawsuits experienced by high tech business in Silicon Valley. It is wrong to have no fault legislation against the interests of individual consumers, and it is more wrong in Saskatchewan where there is no provision for class actions, where legal contingency fees are prohibited, and where human rights are not protected(8).

Last week, Bridgestone/Firestone has voluntarily recalled some 6.5 million tires which have been linked to the death of about fifty people(9). And you know why they have been recalling these tires? It is because lawyers for the families of the victims have been suing Bridgestone/Firestone for the defects of their tires.

Think about no fault and you realize that it means no responsibility. And talking on Saskatchewan no-fault insurance, Ralph Nader has stated "they had an arcane few lines that immunized municipalities who did not repair highways which lead to crashes and injuries. They are virtually immune from lawsuits. And guess what? You have also immunized General Motors and Toyota and other auto companies and repair companies from liability, unless you're rich and you can tweak them for a few bucks, about $50,000... They must have been clicking champagne glasses in Detroit, figuring, 'Boy, they have trouble with the English language in Saskatchewan' They swept us right in with the immunity crowd(10)."

iSaskatchewan's no fault insurance constitutes a further erosion of individual rights and now that this government has been trying to sell this no-fault insurance scheme through the deviant research of Dr. David Cassidy(11) we must fight it at any cost. And let us recall that our individual freedom has a price much higher than no-fault insurance, and that individual freedom, contrary to what big multinational corporations say and what this government says, is at the core of our social and economic progress, and it is fundamental for our justice system and constitution of our laws.

Endnotes

1. Improving the American Legal System: The Economic Benefits of Tort Reform http://www.house.gov/jec/tort/tort/tort.htm

2. The History of the Common Law of England by Matthew Hale 1713 http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/econ/hale01.htm

3. Governments must stop serving themselves and their friends, by Mario deSantis, February 13, 2000

4. Civil juries and the politics of reform, by Stephen Daniels & Joanne Martin ix-x (1995). Refer to Tort Reform 1999: a building without a foundation, by Robert S. Peck, Richard Marshall, Kenneth D. Kranz http://www.law.fsu.edu/journals/lawreview/downloads/272/Peck.pdf

5. Milgaard's $10 million compensation: covering up the personal assets of our policing Saskatchewan Government, by Mario deSantis, June 24, 1999

6. On Milgaard's Compensation of $10 Million, by Mario deSantis, June 14, 1999

7. Refer to Jury: Disney owes $240M for stealing ideas, USATODAY.com Daily Briefing, Mon, 14 Aug 2000 02:13:04 MDT

8. A case for Legal Class Actions and Contingency Fees against Saskatchewan's No-Fault Government, by Mario deSantis and reviewed by James deSantis, June 28, 2000

9. Firestone Recalls Millions of Tires. Move Comes as Officials Check Possible Link to Highway Deaths August 10, 2000 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/firestone-recall000809.html

10.Ralph Nader speaks out against No-Fault in Saskatchewan...Transcripts from 1998, University of Regina, Saskatchewan, May 19, 1998 http://www.angelfire.com/nf/coalitionagainstnf/Ralph_Nador.htm

11. The incredible abuse of Saskatchewan No-Fault insurance (Part 1), by Mario deSantis, May 28, 2000 and reviewed by James deSantis