Politics matter. Your choices matter, from the President to the members of your school board. These elected officials decide what our government will do, or the implement the policies handed down to them by others within the government. Every time you step into a polling booth, you choose the direction of the country, your state and your community. To those who say, “My vote does not mean anything – I am only one person,” I say in response that this is the exact attitude those who have been running our country want you to have. They know an apathetic electorate is the key to government by the few who always vote.
Many of you have had extremely good fortune, and you have never been a plaintiff. You have never suffered an injury due to the negligence of others. You have never lost a loved one to a malfunctioning or defectively designed product. You have never been the victim of medical malpractice. I sincerely wish you a life free from these troubles, for I can tell you from 28 years of fighting for victims, it is a miserable experience.
However, tragedy may be just around the corner. Virtually all of my clients tell me, “I never thought it would happen to me.” So much of life is that way. We don’t see how precarious our health and the lives of our loved ones are until they are taken from us.
People who are in a position of being sued are just as likely to be victims as anyone else. Many of my clients are what people would refer to as “white collar” workers – professionals, business owners, executives. They are truly stunned when they discover that the Republican politicians they have been electing for years have been committed to denying people – particularly people with legitimate claims – access to the courts. My “blue collar” clients are more familiar with the inequities of our society, where so much opportunity and wealth is monopolized by so few people. Working class people seem to take the news that a right to sue has been taken away from them with a fatalistic attitude, as if it was just one more thing. Wealthier people assume the only difference between now and the years before “tort reform” is that frivolous lawsuits have been nipped in the bud.
Nothing could be further from the truth. And this is why politics matter.
Tort law has made our country safer. Virtually all of the modifications to products that you see in the marketplace, from air bags on cars to flame-retardant child pajamas, were put in place in response to lawsuits or the threat of lawsuits. If we lose the right to pursue a meaningful remedy, meaning one that will economically hurt those companies that engage in dangerous behavior, what will keep those companies from acting unsafely? The government? Please, spare all of us the fantasy that our government has the time, money or will to keep corporations in line.
Our President has the power to influence legislation, and to veto bills that are not in the best interests of Americans. The “tort reform” lobby has been pressing for limits on lawsuits against doctors and hospitals, drug companies, product manufacturers, insurance companies and many other types of businesses. Understand that these efforts do not seek to quash frivolous lawsuits. Despite what you are led to believe, frivolous lawsuits are a tiny problem, and since most lawyers who represent victims work on a contingent fee basis (meaning, we do not get paid unless we win), it is bad business for lawyers to prosecute frivolous lawsuits. The market takes care of most of these cases, and good judges – including good Democratic judges – take care of the rest.
Your US Senators and Congressmen have two extremely important jobs that directly affect potential victims of dangerous behavior. First, Congress can pass laws that either promote safety or ignore safety. When Congress interferes withe the rights of people to sue in court, it promotes a culture of danger. We need our Congressional Representatives and Senators to be on the side of consumers, patients, workers and other individuals. Corporations have legions of lawyers, accountants and other experts to help them fight for corporate rights.
Congress also has the ability to investigate and expose dangerous practices, by holding hearings and subpoenaing witnesses and documents.
State Senators and Representatives perform the same function on the state level. Most of the rights that have been taken away from you have been lost on the floor of the Texas legislature, where corporate money has bought undue influence. The Texas Republican Party, and the legislators it has placed in office, have kowtowed to the special interests that want shoddy homebuilders, dangerous doctors, careless corporations and drunk drivers to escape liability.
Our Supreme Court of Texas – which is also elected – has similarly done the bidding of the “tort reformers,” deciding in case after case that people who win at trial should lose on appeal. Judicial activism – where judges substitute their beliefs for those of the legislature or a jury – is alive and well in Texas, and none of it has been to your benefit. The Republican imbalance on our Supreme Court cannot be cured in one election, but there are three spots open this time, and it is important that working people and consumers have a voice on the Supreme Court. The Democrats running for these positions will make sure you have a voice on the Court.
Local judges, including judges on the courts of appeals and the district and county courts, also affect the administration of justice. Our judiciary in Harris County is 100% Republican. There are some good judges who are running for reelection as Republicans. The one thing keeping me from voting “straight ticket” Democratic was my respect for some of the sitting judges. However, I recently saw an advertisement where all the Republican judges stood in their robes on the steps of the courthouse. We were encouraged to keep our Republican judges. It was then I decided to vote straight ticket – Democratic. If the good judges are going to stand with the bad judges (and believe me, they know who the bad judges are), they deserve to be treated equally.
Perhaps you disagree with me and believe the Republican Party and its candidates have your best interests at heart. It appears to me that many people have, particularly in the past eight years, been encouraged to vote against their personal and financial interests because of issues that are often referred to as “wedge issues.” One thing an economic downturn does is focus all our attention on the central issue of the day – the economy. The contempt for regulation that has been Republican dogma for decades is now coming home to roost, and we are seeing the disastrous effects of that approach in our economy. The same folks who gave us Enron and Bear Stearns by encouraging deregulation and discouraging oversight of our economic actors are the same folks who have brought you tort reform. For a while, it made them richer and most of you poorer. Instead of having a courthouse that was a place where the smallest person could take on the richest and most powerful with a fair set of laws and rules, walls have been erected by our legislature and Supreme Court that block victims from reaching the courthouse door.
You may not be a plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit now. In fact, you may never be a victim. However, someone you, or someone you know and love, is more likely than not going to need a lawyer some day. If you want to make sure there is a legal system that will be a forum where you can seek a full and fair remedy, remember that politics matter.
Steve Waldman – swaldman@gwlawyers.com
