December 2012

Last night, the House Majority included legislation in their “Plan B” fiscal cliff proposal that would limit the legal rights of injured patients.  This happened on the same day a new study was released from Johns Hopkins showing that at least 4,082 surgical “never events” occur each year.

This post was originally published on Media Matters for America’s blog and can be found here.

A Wall Street Journal editorial echoed right-wing talking points to endorse an Ohio bill that would restrict asbestos victims from proving their claims at trial. But the editorial, which claims "rampant fraud" exists in asbestos-related litigation, provides no evidence of systemic abuse, conceals the fact that multiple companies can be legally responsible for asbestos injuries, and fails to disclose that the state legislation is a corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council bill pushed by top Republican ALEC officials.

Why Court Funding is Essential to Our Democracy

On this site we talk about how justice has been denied for Americans across the country.  We often focus on something called “tort reform” – or efforts led by corporate front groups to close the courthouse doors on plaintiffs (i.e. consumers, employees, and small businesses).  But Americans’ legal rights are also threatened because courts are struggling with not having enough money to operate.  In fact, today our justice system is in severe jeopardy.