For every family in America who suffered the loss of a family member or serious injury finding restitution in our courts can be less than successful. Frustrations abound for many who have tried-and failed-at having their needs met in the judicial system of this country. And we can thank organizations funded by big corporations who work day and night to keep these important lawsuits from being heard.
One such organization is called the Institute for Legal Reform. The “Institute” calls itself the “protector” of the legal system. The primary role of the ILR is to “address the country’s litigation explosion, ILR is the only national legal reform advocate to approach reform comprehensively by not only working to change the laws, but also changing the legal climate.” The claim to represent the interests of small business owners, however that does not appear to be the case on closer inspection.
The ILR was created by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spends millions of dollars annually from a virtually bottomless bankroll from large corporations like AIG, WalMart, Firestone and a stack of drug companies. The sole agenda of this organization is to protect the bottom-line of their members by insulating them from lawsuits. The “Institute” LOVES the buzzword “frivolous lawsuits”, however they never describe what that means.
It is extremely expensive to bring a lawsuit in this country. I posted the following in this article on this site:
To bring just one personal injury action requires a tremendous investment of time and resources that act natural barrier to bringing a frivolous lawsuit. The fact is representing injured people is extremely difficult. People do not understand the amount of time, effort and money required to bring a personal injury lawsuit. In the vast majority of cases, the attorney fronts all the costs of the action, paying for the court fees, experts (which can run into the tens of thousands on a complicated case), medical records and staff to organize it all. The attorney must invest all of his time in the hopes of compensation, which is usually not even be a possibility until at least two years after the filing of the lawsuit in most cases. So that is about two years of the attorney bearing all the costs of the lawsuit, with interest charged by a bank. Also, a personal injury attorney knows that if he or she brings a claim that is suspect, a good defense attorney will smell it immediately and take the case all the way to trial to prove a point. That is not to say that frivolous lawsuits do not exist. They do exist however, contrary to Corporate America’s publicity machine, it is the minority of personal injury claims.
Next time you hear the “frivolous lawsuit” buzzword or how people sue to “get rich”, consider how you feel about people who ask for money. It is likely that your own opinion of people who ask for money is negative. Imagine what it would take to convince 6 of you in a jury to compensate someone for an injury. That wouldn’t be a frivolous claim now would it?