“Tillinghast’s numbers are wrong and are entirely inappropriate for demonstrating either total costs of the U.S. tort system, or cost trends over time.”[1b] J. Robert Hunter, Director of Insurance for the Consumer Federation of America and co-founder of Americans for Insurance Reform

The Economist magazine poses the big question “President George Bush has placed tort reform at the centre of his second-term legislative programme. Ranged against him are the massed ranks of America’s trial lawyers. Who will come out on top?”[2] As I refer to this big question on Tort Reform[3] I think about the big decision makers who make the big decisions because they are paid the big bucks. Bush calls frivolous the lawsuits initiated by people for damages incurred because of defective products and services.[4] Also, he says that all these supposed big awards granted by the courts to the victims of corporative abuse reduce the ability of the corporations to create needed jobs. Therefore, Bush wants to pass Tort Reform legislation to limit the ability of individuals to sue for damages incurred because of medical malpractice[5] or corporative malfeasance. These Tort Reform are distorted as they are against the common law right to seek a remedy for damages incurred. How can we ever ensure that products and services are safe unless individuals have the common law right to sue for damages incurred?

We have many problems associated to Bush’s Tort Reform, and I am thinking now about the distorted role the bigger corporations are playing in our societies. The Economist is a distinguished ‘brand’ magazine as it is a global fixture in all the departments of Economics at any university of our planet. Yet this branded magazine asserts “Most Americans agree that matters have got out of hand. According to figures from Tillinghast-Towers Perrin, an insurance consultancy, tort-system costs amounted to $246 billion in 2003... That represented 2.2% of GDP, compared with just 0.6% in 1950 and 1.3% by 1970. “

However, this Tort system cost of $246 billion is a lie, and in fact we find that Tillinghast’s report states for the first time that “the costs tabulated in this study are not a reflection of litigated claims or of the legal system... Our inclusion of such [insurance administrative] costs has been questioned since those costs are not directly related to the disposition of specific tort claims. We take no position on the efficiency of the insurance industry’s administrative expenses.” Joanne Doroshow, Executive Director for the Center for Justice & Democracy, has remarked “Calling this study ‘U.S. Tort System Costs’ is intellectually dishonest. Tillinghast’s figures are so misleading that they are completely irrelevant to any discussion of the civil justice system.”

The Tort Reform pushed by the Bush administration have no legs to stand on[6] and I find dishonest the rejection of an AD opposing such reform by four major networks.[7] It is the corporations that are guilty of frivolous lawsuits,[8] and not individuals. And in fact, I learn today that a German court has ordered branded Nike Inc., which is expected to be fined $1 million euros, to stop selling a pair of workout pants with two parallel stripes stitched along the seam after rival branded Adidas Inc. complained the design was too similar to its three-stripe logo.’[9] These big corporations are taking over our lives and they are just looking after their unsustainable bigger profits by furthering their mergers and acquisitions[10] at the expense of employees.[11] Tort Reform are nothing else but another facet of privatization on behalf of big corporations and at the expense of people at large.

References

[1a] Buzzflash Is Wal-Mart a Person? Thom Hartmann Tells Why It Is--Kind of--But Not Really http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/05/01/int05004.html http://www.thomhartmann.com/showbio.shtml

[1b] Center for Justice & Democracy TILLINGHAST FINALLY ADMITS TORT SYSTEM COST FIGURES “DO NOT REFLECT COSTS OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM” News Release, January 13, 2005 http://www.centerjd.org/press/release/TillinghastRel.pdf

[2] The Economist The war on tort January 26, 2005 http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3598225

[3] News Batch Tort Reform Updated September 2004 http://www.newsbatch.com/tort.htm

[4] White House President Discusses Lawsuit Abuse at White House Economy Conference December 15, 2004 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/12/20041215-11.html

[5] deSantis, Mario Bush's Tort Reform to Quick-Fix Higher Medical Insurance Premiums: Cap on jury awards, no frivolous lawsuits, limited punitive damages January 19, 2003 Ensign, http://ensign.ftlcomm.com/desantisArticles/2002_700/desantis740/malpractice.html

[6] Public Citizen President Bush Dis-Torts the Truth About Lawsuits’ Impact on Health Care and the Economy http://www.citizen.org/documents/BushDistortionFactSheet12-15-04.pdf

[7] Pear, Robert 4 Networks Reject Ad Opposing Bush on Lawsuits February 1, 2005 The Age, http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/01/25/1106415602488.html

[8] Public Citizen U.S.Businesses File Four Times More Lawsuits Than Private Citizens And Are Sanctioned Much More Often for Frivolous Suits. But Corporate America and Political Allies Bush and Cheney Campaign to Limit Citizens’ Rights to Sue October 4, 2004 http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1799

[9] Associated Press Adidas wins trademark lawsuit against Nike January 26, 2005 http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/01/25/1106415602488.html

[10] McCarthy, Shawn Corporate America's new mantra: Buy, Buy Buy! February 1, 2005 The Globe and Mail, Page B1 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050201/RMERGER01/Business/Idx

[11] Bloomberg SBC to Cut 13,000 Jobs After $16 Bln AT&T Purchase February 1, 2005 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aELEqocLZmGk&refer=us