Apropos to the recent lawyer rant thread. Bold italics mine.
http://www.detnews.com/2000/business/0006/04/b01-68127.htm
Auto industry could follow guns, tobacco into courtroom
By Jon Pepper / The Detroit News
MACKINAC ISLAND -- Those in Michigan cheering state assaults on the tobacco industry and gun manufacturers may want to hold their applause.
The only reason automobiles aren't on the list just yet is because they remain too popular, says Victor Schwartz, general counsel to the American Tort Reform Association.
"You can't get courts to change the law until you vilify the defendant, the way tobacco, guns and HMOs were vilified," says Schwartz, who spoke Saturday to the Detroit Regional Chamber's annual policy conference on Mackinac Island.
"But if the plaintiffs' bar is successful in getting the industry vilified, and of changing the law as they did in tobacco, they could spread incredible economic pain to the (automotive) industry."
States, in concert with personal injury lawyers, went after Big Tobacco on the pretext that health problems associated with smoking caused them greater public expense in Medicaid and other costs. It was a flimsy premise since smokers on average die younger than non-smokers, and they pay fat user taxes every step of the way.
Nevertheless, states sued, largely because they could. Tobacco had become so demonized, and individual responsibility in smoking problems so minimized, that the public believed the big pockets of Big Tobacco could be justifiably relieved of anything contained within.
Michigan got $25 billion out of the settlement reached with the tobacco industry. Since it doesn't really need to cover any more costs related to smoking, most of the money will be given away in scholarships or invested in a life-sciences development corridor.
It's been said that the tobacco's liability was an exception in business because it was the only product that could be fatal if used as intended. Schwartz contends, however, that leading personal injury lawyers believe the automobile is more of an illegal product than tobacco, which carries labels that warn it can kill you.
Cars and trucks, on the other hand, have the capacity to drive well beyond the safe legal speed limit. Manufacturers have used a device to limit speed in Arabic countries, but not here.
"Just like everyone knows tobacco is injurious to your health, they know speed kills," Schwartz says. "Personal injury lawyers could find documents inside companies that acknowledge they know speed kills, but they still provide for speed."
The danger to the industry could grow if states join in the fray for the same stated reasons they've gone after tobacco and guns. Rhode Island has gone after manufacturers of lead paint, a product not sold in a generation. Now it's seeking support from other states to attack the latex rubber paint industry because some people are allergic to it.
Business, while challenged, isn't defenseless. It fights back by vilifying trial lawyers in the same way that it's attacked. Some assaults have gone too far, particularly in Michigan, where the state legislature has gone to the extraordinary length of capping damages for product liability and medical malpractice. In its zeal to limit profits for lawyers and protect business, the state has denied just compensation for victims, too.
Even so, states should be careful about joining the plaintiffs' bar for attacks on business. The next industry on the list could be close to home.
Reach Jon Pepper by e-mail at JonLPepper@aol.com
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The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.
http://www.detnews.com/2000/business/0006/04/b01-68127.htm
Auto industry could follow guns, tobacco into courtroom
By Jon Pepper / The Detroit News
MACKINAC ISLAND -- Those in Michigan cheering state assaults on the tobacco industry and gun manufacturers may want to hold their applause.
The only reason automobiles aren't on the list just yet is because they remain too popular, says Victor Schwartz, general counsel to the American Tort Reform Association.
"You can't get courts to change the law until you vilify the defendant, the way tobacco, guns and HMOs were vilified," says Schwartz, who spoke Saturday to the Detroit Regional Chamber's annual policy conference on Mackinac Island.
"But if the plaintiffs' bar is successful in getting the industry vilified, and of changing the law as they did in tobacco, they could spread incredible economic pain to the (automotive) industry."
States, in concert with personal injury lawyers, went after Big Tobacco on the pretext that health problems associated with smoking caused them greater public expense in Medicaid and other costs. It was a flimsy premise since smokers on average die younger than non-smokers, and they pay fat user taxes every step of the way.
Nevertheless, states sued, largely because they could. Tobacco had become so demonized, and individual responsibility in smoking problems so minimized, that the public believed the big pockets of Big Tobacco could be justifiably relieved of anything contained within.
Michigan got $25 billion out of the settlement reached with the tobacco industry. Since it doesn't really need to cover any more costs related to smoking, most of the money will be given away in scholarships or invested in a life-sciences development corridor.
It's been said that the tobacco's liability was an exception in business because it was the only product that could be fatal if used as intended. Schwartz contends, however, that leading personal injury lawyers believe the automobile is more of an illegal product than tobacco, which carries labels that warn it can kill you.
Cars and trucks, on the other hand, have the capacity to drive well beyond the safe legal speed limit. Manufacturers have used a device to limit speed in Arabic countries, but not here.
"Just like everyone knows tobacco is injurious to your health, they know speed kills," Schwartz says. "Personal injury lawyers could find documents inside companies that acknowledge they know speed kills, but they still provide for speed."
The danger to the industry could grow if states join in the fray for the same stated reasons they've gone after tobacco and guns. Rhode Island has gone after manufacturers of lead paint, a product not sold in a generation. Now it's seeking support from other states to attack the latex rubber paint industry because some people are allergic to it.
Business, while challenged, isn't defenseless. It fights back by vilifying trial lawyers in the same way that it's attacked. Some assaults have gone too far, particularly in Michigan, where the state legislature has gone to the extraordinary length of capping damages for product liability and medical malpractice. In its zeal to limit profits for lawyers and protect business, the state has denied just compensation for victims, too.
Even so, states should be careful about joining the plaintiffs' bar for attacks on business. The next industry on the list could be close to home.
Reach Jon Pepper by e-mail at JonLPepper@aol.com
------------------
The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.