Fw: Public Citizen's Products Liability Update Texas

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FYI! TX Ladies, take note!

Martha Murdock, Director

National Silicone Implant Foundation | Dallas Headquarters

" Supporting Survivors of Medical Implant Devices "

4416 Willow Lane

Dallas, TX 75244-7537

----- Original Message -----

From: " Congress Watchdog " <CONGRESSWATCHDOG@...>

Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2003 2:02 PM

Subject: Public Citizen's Products Liability Update Texas

> For Immediate Release: April 14, 2003

>

>

> Sweeping Civil Justice Legislation Is Anti-Consumer, Should Be

> Rejected

>

> Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook Testifies Today Before Texas

> Lawmakers

>

> AUSTIN - A bill pending before the Texas legislature would severely

> curtail the rights of consumers while giving an enormous handout to

> corporations, including product manufacturers, Public Citizen

> representatives said today.

>

> Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook, who is scheduled to testify

> today before Texas lawmakers, denounced H.B. 4, calling it anti-consumer

> and warning that it would dramatically undermine the legal landscape in

> Texas. Claybrook is a longtime consumer advocate and auto safety expert.

> From 1977 to 1981, she was administrator of the National Highway Traffic

> Safety Administration.

>

> " This bill reads like a corporate bean counter's wish list, " she said.

> " Each provision will facilitate practices ranging from corner-cutting to

> outright scams. The sponsors appear to have accepted in their entirety

> the suggestions of business lobbyists without any attempt to balance the

> concerns of business with the safety and health interests of

> consumers. "

>

> Added Tom " Smitty " , director of Public Citizen's Texas office,

> " This is draconian legislation that would do untold harm to the people

> of Texas. The fact that the bill is chock full of everything industry

> wants is a testament to the influence of industry lobbyists. We hope

> lawmakers see the dangers of this bill and soundly reject it. "

>

> In her testimony, Claybrook focused on a portion of the bill that would

> change state product liability law to the detriment of consumers by

> limiting manufacturers' liability for products that injure or kill

> people if those products comply with federal safety standards. But

> regulatory standards alone are not sufficient to guarantee the

> manufacture of safe products, Claybrook said.

>

> Federal safety rules set minimum thresholds and often remain unchanged

> for long periods, thereby becoming outdated. They don't reflect the

> capability of a manufacturer to make a product safer because they apply

> industry-wide. Further, federal rules don't regulate the safety of

> products over their foreseeable lifetime, but rather apply only at the

> time of manufacture. Also, they are often a function of political

> legislative decisions, which frequently are influenced by the industries

> that will be affected.

>

> " Broad government performance standards are not a reliable predictor of

> defective designs and should not be a shield behind which companies can

> hide to avoid liability for their negligent or intentionally unsafe

> products, " Claybrook said.

>

> Consider the Ford-Firestone debacle, which involved defective Firestone

> tires that were prone to tread separations, leading to catastrophic

> crashes, many of them rollovers. More than 200 people were killed and

> 700 people injured seriously in crashes involving the tires. The tires

> passed the antiquated, 30-year-old federal tire safety standard, but the

> U.S. Department of Transportation found them to be defective and

> required them to be recalled. Under H.B. 4, Firestone wouldn't be liable

> for injuries or deaths caused by the defect because the tires met the

> federal safety standards.

>

> Consider also that numerous people, particularly police officers, have

> been killed or burned by explosions of the gas tanks of Ford Crown

> s when the vehicle is rear-ended at highway speeds. The car

> meets the federal gas tank standard, which has not kept up with

> technology improvements since it was set in 1974. Common law rightly

> requires manufacturers to take this information into account and be

> responsible for design flaws. But under H.B. 4, the manufacturer

> wouldn't be liable for those killed and injured in Crown gas

> tank explosions even if the government were to rule that the vehicle is

> unreasonably dangerous.

>

> Making manufacturers liable for harmful products is important not only

> because consumers deserve to be compensated for injuries caused by the

> products, but because manufacturers need incentives to incorporate

> state-of-the-art safety elements into product designs, Claybrook said.

> Liability also provides incentive for victims, survivors and their

> attorneys to investigate whether a product is unreasonably dangerous.

>

> " Time after time, lawsuits have exposed dangerous products, forced

> manufacturers to make them safer, compensated injured victims, and

> alerted the public and federal agencies to safety defects and hazards, "

> Claybrook said. " Legal action was critical to consumers injured by the

> Dalkon shield intrauterine device, the Ford Pinto that exploded in

> rear-end crashes, super-absorbency tampons that caused toxic-shock

> syndrome in some women, and Redux, a drug that was frequently part of

> the weight loss combination Fen-Phen, was recalled from the market after

> widespread reports it was related to primary pulmonary hypertension,

> heart valve problems, and neuropsychological damage to the brain. "

>

> Claybrook and blasted several other provisions of the bill:

> - It would put class action lawsuits in jeopardy if a state agency has

> jurisdiction over the subject matter.

> - It called for a losing plaintiff (usually the consumer) to pay the

> attorney fees of the defendant (usually a corporation), but if a

> defendant loses, it need not pay the plaintiff's attorney fees.

> - It would immunize retailers from liability for defective products,

> which is particularly unfair with large sellers such as Wal-Mart, which

> for example, imports toys from foreign companies that are hard to sue.

>

> For a copy of the testimony go to:

> http://www.citizen.org/hot_issues/issue.cfm?ID=527

>

> ###

>

> Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization

> based in Washington, D.C., with an office in Austin. For more

> information, please visit www.citizen.org.

>

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