Blog Home

We all may be familiar with recent stories in the news about corporate America's "attack on the middle class." These stories talk about that attack coming in various forms, whether it be higher taxes on the middle class, cuts in education or lack of economic opportunity. Well, the large corporations and insurance companies have for decades been successfully waging another battle on the middle class- the tort reform battle.

Corporate and insurance America's tort reform battle comes in the form of a two pronged attack. The first is an aggressive, relentless lobby campaign where these corporate and insurance interests try to convince state and federal lawmakers to pass legislation designed to limit the ordinary citizen's rights of access to the courts to bring a lawsuit when they have been injured or wronged. The second front comes in the form of a public relation disinformation campaign designed to demonize lawyers who stand up for the ordinary citizen who may have been injured in an accident or defrauded in some way. Often this campaign is based on propaganda type sound bytes like "money hungry trial lawyers" or "frivolous lawsuits."

Make no mistake. This campaign does not reflect reality and is designed to do one thing and one thing only- maximize the record profits of the large corporations and insurance companies at the expense of the middle class. Tort reform is nothing more than a campaign of fog to prevent the ordinary citizen from making his or her way to the courthouse to seek civil justice. Decades of this tort reform campaign have made this fog thicker and thicker. As a result, representing the injured and wronged has become more and more difficult, and a successful injury lawsuit requires increasingly specialized legal representation.

In the ever thickening tort reform fog corporate and insurance America has placed on the course you have chartered in life, Keefe Bartels has the specialized legal talent you need to be your legal beacon in your accident or injury lawsuit. Don't let them run you aground- contact Keefe Bartels today.

You see, when someone is injured in an accident, more often than not, the person or business who caused the injury will have some kind of insurance to cover the loss. For example, if Jim Smith is severely injured in an auto accident caused by Steve Jones, Smith may be able to bring a lawsuit against Jones to recover compensation for the suffering, injures, medical bills and lost wages. Smith's injuries may keep him out of work and threaten his ability to care for himself or provide for his family. His lawsuit would be called "Smith v. Jones." Often in a case like that, the medical bills alone can be tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. When you factor in trying to come up with a fair amount to compensate Smith for his severe injuries- to "make him whole"- the value of that case can be in the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. Most "Steve Joneses" of the world don't have that kind of money sitting around- that is where the large insurance companies come in.
In most personal injury and accident cases, the person or business who is being sued will have some kind of insurance. That insurance will be required to both pay for the lawyers to represent them, and will pay any settlement or judgment a jury may award up to the applicable policy limits. So for example, in the Smith v. Jones case, let's say Jones has an auto insurance policy written by "XYZ Insurance Company." XYZ Insurance will hire lawyers to represent Jones in the lawsuit and pay any settlement or verdict a jury may award. Thus, while the case will be called "Smith v. Jones," in a certain sense the case is really "Smith v. Jones' Insurance Company, XYZ Insurance."

XYZ Insurance wants to collect Smith's auto insurance premium every month. However, when Smith causes severe injuries to Jones by not paying attention on the road, XYZ does not want to pay Jones any money- this is where corporate and insurance America's tort reform campaign comes in. XYZ, and its friends in the insurance industry, will spends millions of dollars each year lobbying lawmakers to make it more and more difficult for Smith to bring a lawsuit against Jones. And even if Smith can bring the lawsuit, they will do all they can to get laws passed to make it harder and harder for Smith to win his lawsuit, or to place more and more limits on how much Smith can recover in his case.

Even if the lawmakers hold strong and fend off the pressure from the corporate and insurance industry lobbyists, XYZ will not give up. They will proliferate a campaign of disinformation in the print and broadcast media, on talk shows, and countless other places to demonize lawyers who represent the Jim Smith's of the world. They will proliferate a myth about "frivolous lawsuits" to make jurors inherently biased against Smith's lawyer and Smith's case, before they even hear a shred of evidence about the case. A fascinating book which provides an historical account of the tort reform movement and its impact on the rights of ordinary citizens today is Blocking the Courthouse Door by Stephanie Mencimer. The American Association for Justice provides another compelling account of the corporate proliferated frivolous lawsuit myth.

As we explained, most personal injury or accident lawsuits have an insurance company "behind the scenes" calling all the shots- they orchestrate the defense of the litigation and secretly influence how the lawyer assigned to represent Jones handles the case. Insurance is mandatory in many facets of life. For example, when someone is hurt on a construction site, by law the employer has to carry worker's compensation insurance. All construction contractors have to carry at least $500,000 in general liability insurance to cover workplace safety violation and other accident cases. All drivers in New Jersey must carry auto insurance. Mortgage companies require homeowners to carry homeowner's insurance. The list goes on.

The tort reform fog the insurance companies have put in place have made winning the "Smith v. Jones" case more and more difficult. All too often the Jim Smiths of the world are forced to live a life of permanent injury, never to collect a dime from Jones' XYZ Insurance Company because of the various insidious forms of tort reform measures they have put in place. Keefe Bartels is working hard to guide its accident and injury clients through this fog and recover compensation for the Jim Smith's of the world. Contact us today to see if we can help you.

- "Keefe Bartels- your tort reform beacon"

Topics

Defective Drugs
Personal Injury
Workplace Accidents
Wrongful Death

Recent Updates

August 14, 2009
Hudson River Air Accident Claims Nine Lives Between New York and New Jersey

August 07, 2009
New Jersey Wrongful Death Case Ends in $1,750,000 Settlement

August 07, 2009
New Jersey Programmer Awarded $250,000 after Car Accident

July 24, 2009
New Jersey Jury Returns $200,000 Verdict After Car Accident

July 24, 2009
New Jersey Physician's Wife Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit after Husband is Killed in Accident involving SUV

Web Resources

FindLaw
Thomson West
U.S. Courts
Westlaw
United States Chamber of Commerce
FirstGov
Library of Congress
White House
Internal Revenue Service
Yahoo!Legal Blog Directory