Justice For...All?

You hear a lot in the news about big corporate lawsuits. If you closely followed this week's business news, for example, you may have read about a jury ruling that Microsoft has to pay Alcatel-Lucent $367.4 million for violating patents. Imagine the money that must have gone into lawyers, research and experts -- even the copying bill must have been enormous. And these cases take months to hear.

There were also court rulings about the drug Prevacid, another covering dialysis machines, and many, many others.

All of them big-money corporate cases with millions, even billions of dollars at stake. These big companies have the money to take these cases to court.

But what if you or I need to go to court? Are we on an equal footing?

A recent issue of The Progressive States Network's newsletter, Stateside Dispatch, says,

According to Access to Justice: Opening the Courtroom Door [PDF file] by the Brennan Center, federal funding for legal services in real dollars has declined dramatically over the last 25 years. In 2004, federally-funded programs turned away at least one person seeking help for each person served, leading to approximately one million cases per year being turned away due to lack of funding.

In fact, the Brennan Center report states that "most low-income individuals cannot obtain counsel to represent them in civil matters." On top of that, government-funded legal aid services are now by-and-large prohibited from helping people when they are harmed by corporations.

What do you do if you are a regular person injured by a product, or denied a job because of your age, or defrauded out of money, or any of things that can happen to people? It used to be that a law firm might take the case based on a contingency fee, where they receive a percentage of any award resulting from your case. But more and more these fees are restricted or awards are "capped." So attorneys cannot afford to take your case. Even if you can find an attorney willing to take your case "pro bono" there is still the cost of research, depositions, expert witnesses, etc. to consider.

Is this fair? Is there anything more fundamental to our American concept of democracy than equal justice? Access to the courthouse is an example of democracy leveling the playing field and providing fairness. But we no longer have equal access. And this means we no longer have fairness.

So what can we do about this? First, we need to restore our own understanding of democracy and our individual stake in its preservation. We must all recognize that equal justice is a fundamental requirement of a democratic society. One reason this country was founded was to level the playing field between the rich and the poor. So we all need to demand equal treatment under the law.

We must demand a rollback of the "tort reform" measures that have taken away equal access to the courts and removed a regular person's ability to fight back when harmed by a big company. We must either remove the award "caps" and limits on attorney fees or implement a system of government funding for attorneys who represent regular people.

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Comments

[glitzqueen]

Thanks for pointing out a grave problem, Mr. Johnson, but it's even worse than you said. Besides so-called "tort reform" to protect corporations from big damage awards -- and, not incidentally, to cut into the fees of attorneys who typically support Democratic candidates and causes -- we have a Supreme Court that recently made it harder even for shareholders to sue the corporations they own. And, beyond that, public suits at EVERY level are now compromised by a judicial system packed from top to bottom with pro-business judges.

This I learned to my shock, when I wasn't even allowed my day in court to seek justice for antiques damaged and stolen while stored with a large moving company and insured by a large insurance company. Neither wanted to pay up and the judge (who made international news for refusing to shut down Republican shenanigans during the 2006 election) just dismissed the whole thing during preliminary pleadings. Then he said to me snippily, "You can always appeal" -- knowing full-well that an appeal would cost me about $10,000, far too much to risk on a $50,000 claim that one of his confreres would also shut down before it reached a jury.

That's where we are with justice in America. As far as regular people go, it's F you very much.

[texpine]

I agree Dave.

Justice seems to be for sale.

It's sad that there are people who's only measure of sucess in life is the size of their
Bank Account.

[JacobSinger]

Right on, Dave! A while back I was involved with a Workman's Comp. suit, and luckily for me the attorney representing me actually gave up a considerable percentage of his fee for my benefit--we all know that's a rare occurance.

The justice system in the US--both civil and criminal--is so dysfuctional and generally biased that a serious revamping should be undertaken while the country is in the mood for reforms and re-regulating our broken government.

Halls of Justice Painted Green
Money Talking
Power Wolves Beset Your Door
Hear Them Stalking
Soon You'll Please Their Appetite
They Devour
Hammer of Justice Crushes You
Overpower

--Metallica, ...And Justice for All

[Dem02020]

The Massachusetts State Constitution (which pre-dates the U.S. Constitution by 7 years) begins with a "Declaration of Rights" as its first part, before it describes the form of the Government as its second part (this is different from the U.S. Constitution, which first forms the Government, and then not until its Amendments, does it enumerate People's Rights).

The eleventh People's Right in the Massachusetts Constitution is:

"Article 11. Every subject of the commonwealth ought to find a certain remedy, by having recourse to the laws, for all injuries or wrongs which he may receive in his person, property, or character."

"He ought to obtain right and justice freely, and without being obliged to purchase it; completely, and without any denial; promptly, and without delay; conformably to the laws."


...a Citizen "ought to obtain right and justice freely, and without being obliged to purchase it"


Think about that... think about who in the U.S. can make the Law and the Courts work for them, and who can get Justice, and who can't, in a Judicial system where not only are you required to "purchase" that Justice, but that it's damned expensive also.


We could use an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, similar to the one in Massachusett's Constitution, that makes it a Citizen's Right to get Justice, notwithstanding the fact that you may not be able to afford to "purchase" it.


Justice for All, without consideration for your inability to purchase it.

[Spoons]

Please include HOW (specifically) to do this? Not everyone keeps their congressional contacts at their fingertips. Is there specific legislation that needs to be "rolled back"? Would new legislation need to be written? Would a bunch of letters or signatures all at once be more effective than a bunch of individual notes strung out? What should any note ask for...specifically? What tort reform?