Blogging for Justice

Take Justice Back highlights six additional asbestos victim stories

David served as an electrician’s mate in the U.S. Navy for 20 years. During his tenure, he was exposed to asbestos-containing equipment and materials. From this asbestos exposure David developed mesothelioma cancer so severe he was forced to sleep in a chair because he could no longer breathe lying down.  Shortly before his 50th wedding anniversary, David died. 

Instead of protecting people like David, Congress is fast-tracking legislation that would grant a handout to the very same corporations that knowingly exposed millions of Americans to this deadly toxin.  Today the U.S. House Judiciary Committee is marking up H.R. 982: The FACT Act.  This bill threatens to delay justice and deny accountability until asbestos victims die.  It also publicly reveals extensive personal information about asbestos victims, inviting invasions of privacy and potential identity theft.

Congress is fast-tracking legislation that would grant a handout to corporations that knowingly exposed millions of Americans to the deadly toxin – asbestos.  Previously, during a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing, Chairman Spencer Bachus promised to hear from victims who oppose this bill.  That request has gone unfulfilled. 

An op-ed by Joanna C. Schwartz, an assistant professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles, in today’s New York Times confirms what we have always understood: accountably in the courts improves patient safety. 

Michelle Garcia of Miami never thought a simple doctor’s office procedure for birth control would result in the removal of both of her fallopian tubes.  Yet last year Michelle underwent surgery to remove Essure, a medical device marketed as a “surgery-free permanent” birth control procedure. It was supposed to be Michelle’s easy solution for birth control for life; instead, it was her worst nightmare, requiring surgery to remove the coils and both damaged fallopian tubes.

Women suffer disproportionately from faulty drugs and medical devices, and Michelle is just one example.  As part of National Women’s Health Week, the American Association for Justice (AAJ) has released “Unequal Harm: The Disproportionate Damage to Women from Dangerous Drugs and Medical Devices,” an analysis detailing a history of a few of the many products that have harmed women over the years.

As if we needed another example of the need to hold generic drug makers accountable to the same standard as brand names, there is this disturbing story from The New York Times. A drug maker named Ranbaxy was churning out generic versions of a number of common drugs, including the epilepsy drug, gabapentin.  But in 2007, it admitted to the Food and Drug Administration that certain batches of the drug had tested positive for “unknown impurities.” 

78% of 2012 CPSC Recalls from Foreign Makers According to Analysis

Washington, DC—More than seventy-eight percent of all Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recalls in 2012 were products made by foreign manufactures.  Despite those numbers, foreign corporations are able to evade United States laws and safety standards because of the difficulty of holding them responsible in the U.S. court system. This creates an unfair market advantage for foreign corporations, who have little fear of being held accountable when their defective products injure and kill American consumers.

Buried in the fine print of everything from credit card, cell phone and nursing home contracts to employee handbooks and online user agreements are dangerous forced arbitration clauses that take away your right to go to court. Instead you are forced into a private arbitration tribunal designed by the very corporation that broke the law. The process is secretive, costly and rigged so that corporations cannot be held accountable. By removing access to justice, it grants corporations a license to steal and violate the law.

Do you know what is hidden in the fine print of the contracts you routinely agree to?  Chances are you have signed away your right to access the courtroom and didn’t even know it!  

Included in many everyday consumer contracts are dangerous forced arbitration clauses that take away your right to go to court and instead force you into a private arbitration tribunal designed by the very corporation you have a dispute against.  The process is secretive, costly and rigged so that corporations cannot be held accountable!

Public Citizen is running an important petition against Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. for its use of forced arbitration in contracts.  If you are a private investor doing business with Schwab, you should consider registering your complaint by signing this petition.   

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), H.R. 624, last week and the bill is set to be taken up by the Senate quickly.  

While there is across-the-board agreement on the need to update the nation’s cybersecurity laws, CISPA contains broad provisions that eliminate the ability of harmed individuals and business to hold corporations accountable that have acted recklessly or negligently after receiving cyber threat information.