Why ‘See you in court’ is a consumer’s best weapon

[Guest guest]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/307175.asp

Standing up for the little guy

Why ‘See you in court’ is a consumer’s best weapon

By Begala

equaltime@...

MSNBC

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 — Hypocrisy, it seems to me, is the essence of modern

conservatism. Being a conservative at the close of the 20th century means

the rules don’t apply to you. Conservatives, for example, like to lecture

everyone about personal responsibility — everyone but themselves. Case in

point: lawsuits.

When I’m ripped off by some giant corporate monster, I want a tough, smart

lawyer fighting for my rights.

NOW, I HATE LAWYERS as much as the next person. (As a member of the bar

myself, I probably dislike lawyers more than the next person.) But I also

know that when I’m ripped off by some giant corporate monster, I want a

tough, smart lawyer fighting for my rights.

And here’s where the hypocrisy comes in. The same folks who love to scold

welfare mothers about personal responsibility scream bloody murder when a

powerful corporation is held accountable for its actions. The same folks who

tell inner-city kids in falling-down schools to pull themselves up by the

bootstraps are running around like Chicken Little because tobacco companies

are getting sued. Puh-leez.

BIG FAT MYTH

Don’t believe the hype. Ollie North and his pals would have you believe a

litigation explosion is threatening our economy. I know they’re a little

slow on the uptake, but the economy is the strongest its ever been. And the

“litigation explosion” is a big, fat myth.

According to the non-partisan National Center for State Courts’ Court

Statistics Project (which is funded by the Department of Justice), the

number of lawsuits filed for injuries is down — that’s right, down - 9

percent since 1986. (So the real litigation explosion was under

Reagan, and has come down under Clinton; yet another example of Clinton

putting right what Reagan did wrong.)

Our courts are clogged, to be sure. But the increase is in criminal cases —

thanks to the Clinton-Gore crime crackdown — which are up 45 percent. The

only thing going up faster are domestic relations cases, which are up an

astonishing 77 percent. Probably from all those family values Republicans

dumping their first wives.

PROTECTING THE LITTLE GUY

America’s tough product safety laws — some of which are the result of

lawsuits — actually make American products more competitive and appealing

overseas.

The Court Statistics Project, after examining all the data, concluded: “The

bottom line is that there is no evidence of a tort litigation ‘explosion.’ ”

But having no evidence has never stopped the conservatives. Not when they’ve

got a chance to tear away at one of the few protections the Little Guy has

against corporate power.

But what about the harm that litigation does to companies? One survey said

total liability costs were equal to 0.255 percent of total revenue. That’s

about one-quarter of one-percent of revenues — 25 cents on every $100.

Hardly enough to cripple corporate America. And insurance costs for business

have declined each year since Bill Clinton and Al Gore took office,

according to a Tillinhast-Towers Perrin study.

In fact, America’s tough product safety laws — some of which are the result

of lawsuits — actually make American products more competitive and appealing

overseas. As Professor Mark Hager of American University has written,

American products, “because of their superior reputation for safety, due in

part to the efforts of product liability…have a superior reputation in the

international marketplace.” Hager thinks “it would be a grave risk to our

international competitiveness to toy with the tort system that helps bring

about that competitive advantage.” The emphasis on safety in American law is

one of the reasons I always try to “Buy American.”

FRIVOLOUS LAWSUITS

To be fair, there are some frivolous lawsuits. (I wonder where Ollie North

and my other friends on the right were when a filed a lawsuit

against President Clinton that a federal judge ruled to be legally

meritless?) The truth is an awful lot of the court-clogging lawsuits come

when one corporation sues another. (Businesses suing businesses account for

nearly half of all federal court cases over a six-year period examined by

the Wall Street Journal.) For example, Hormel foods (the folks who bring us

SPAM) once sued the late Muppetteer Jim Henson to stop Henson from calling a

character in a Muppet movie “Spa’am.” And Paper’s Canadian division

sued Proctor & Gamble, (the makers of Bounty paper towels) because

thought Bounty was overstating things by calling itself “the quicker

picker-upper.”

The heck of it is, these nonsensical business suits would probably be

unaffected by many of the so-called “legal reforms” currently before the

Republican Congress. It seems our courts are one more place the

right-wingers want to rope-off as an private playground for the wealthy and

powerful.

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Begala is former counselor to President Clinton. He is co-host, with

Ollie North, of MSNBC’s “Equal Time,” which airs at 6:30 p.m. ET Monday

through Friday on MSNBC cable.