Even for a trial lawyer who's never worn tassled loafers, 1992 was a tough year. All along the campaign trail, politicians repeatedly took cheap shots at justice in America.
Some seemed to side with Dick the Butcher, who gleefully proposed in Shakespeare's "Henry VI": "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." Completely ignored was Shakespeare's actual message: for tyranny to prevail, the law's protectors must be silenced.Like Shakespeare's line, the vital role of American civil justice was turned inside out in campaign rhetoric. Our system's crucial safeguards became mired in distortion, cynicism and outright un-truths. Folklore masqueraded as fact as this nation's 200-year-old guarantees of justice were unmercifully bashed.
The proud truth is that our judicial system and the diligence and fairness of American jurors have contributed immeasurably to a safer America. Trucks now have back-up beepers. Farm tractors have roll bars. Life-threatening asbestos has been removed from household and industrial products. Surgical equipment that severely harmed patients has be redesigned. Machines that once amputated fingers and toes, hands and feet now have guards installed. Contraceptive devices that caused infections and sterility have been recalled.
One of the most compelling examples of the benefits of civil justice emerged last year when Sports Illustrated reported that, for the first season in 60 years, not one player died from football injuries. One reason cited for this gratifying news was "lawsuits brought against helmet manufacturers that forced them to make their products even safer."
Despite positive developments like those, some people still would curtail access to justice. They ignore human consequences to argue numbers. These critics rail about 18 million lawsuits filed in 1989 but failed to explain that 17 million of these 18 million lawsuits were divorces, small claims disputes, business litigation and the like. At most, 1 million these involved personal injury, not a huge number when you consider that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that consumer products alone are involved in 29,000 deaths and 33 million injuries annually.
Nor is the number of personal injury suits rising dramatically, according to the National Center of State Courts and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
A related charge is that Americans are too eager to sue. Yet a 1990 Harvard University study reported that only about one in eight medical negligence victims filed lawsuits, while negligence figured in nearly 7,000 deaths and 27,000 injuries in one year in New York state hospitals. Said the authors, "We do not now have a problem with too many claims: If anything, there are too few."
Critics also claim our legal system hurts U.S. competitiveness. This issue has been studied repeatedly by nonpartisan organizations, and none has found plausible support for it.
Ultimately, the competitiveness argument is illogical. Foreign companies selling in the United States, subject to our laws, aren't doing badly. Relaxing product liability law here would be akin to lowering safety standards.
Ideally, corporate responsibility and government vigilance should be at the forefront of a safer America. When both fail, safeguards are necessary. Americans deserve nothing less.