Indiana Serious Injury Attorneys on Defending Tort Law

As you know from our recent talks, we have been taking this time to defend the civil justice system against those who would rather strip the American public of their rights than have to make up for the harm they do.  We, as Americans, have done a poor job defending our right to jury trial.  Our founding fathers thought enough of this right to specifically place it in our constitution.  We should be defending it more vigorously than the gun lobby works to defend the right to bear arms.  We have let the insurance companies and the moneyed interests chip away at our rights over the last 40 years.  These interests have been very effective with ad campaigns and smear tactics to redirect our attention away from our rights so they be taken away from us without us really know or understanding why it is happening.  Imagine, if you are involve in a serious automobile accident or seriously injured in a drunk driving accident, not being able to demand, yes I say demand that the person whose negligence caused your serious injury be required to make up for the harm they cause, to fully make up for the harm they caused.   You may think this is impossible but we are sliding ever closer to this reality.  In Indiana, hundreds of immunities now exist in our law to protect those who cause injury from having to fairly make up for the harm they cause.  We see stories in the papers and on TV telling us another out of control jury has awarded outrageous damages for no injury.  These stories are believed despite the fact that the jury heard all the facts, were controlled by the judge and strict rules of evidence and made their decision based on those facts rather than the inflammatory accusations made by those who stand most to lose by a fair jury, the Insurance companies, and vested interests.  We are barraged by false stories about lawsuits, such as the Stella Awards, and instead of checking the facts, we believe the hype and condemn the system, the very system designed by our founding fathers to protect us.  If guns were assaulted as heavily as our right to a jury trial America would be howling.

For this reason, I want to recommend you watch a new documentary entitled “Hot Coffee.”  It tells the story the jury heard about the McDonalds Hot Coffee case from 20 years ago, and then goes into other examples of “Tort Reform.”  Most important, it explains why the lies have been told for over 20 years about our Tort system, and the corporate interests behind the public relations nightmare.  The documentary is so good that it’s been accepted at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.  Here’s a link to the first official critique of the film:  Sundance Review:  Hot Coffee

I do not ask you to swallow whole what you see in this documentary.  I ask you to think about what you see.  Check the facts and make your decision.  After doing so, I am confident that you will have a renewed respect for jury trials, the civil justice system and your rights.  Pass on what you learn.