Craig MurphyLas Vegas accident attorney and injury trial lawyer Craig Murphy asks whether you will be the next victim of tort reform. That question presupposes that tort reform causes harm and that it has victims. But isn’t tort reform supposed to protect us all? No is the simple answer to that question. Tort reform quite simply is an initiative by big businesses to protect their profits at the expense of the little guys, you and me. How can that be you ask? Tort reform seeks as its goal to take your rights away and create protections for businesses who wrongfully and negligently harm people. The businesses want to become favored and protected classes. By doing that the businesses take away your constitutional rights. Not only do they take away your constitutional right to a jury trial and for the jury to determine the amount of your injuries and damages, tort reform can leave you with insufficient protection if you are able to get to trial.
Lets look at the current situation in the Gulf of Mexico. The BP oil spill disaster continues unabated. Millions of barrels of oil a day continue to spew into the Gulf. According to BP’s latest estimates, it could take another month before it is able to stop the oil from continuing to spew into the Gulf. In Louisiana alone businesses and entire industries are facing the complete devastation. The financial damages to the tourism industry and the fishing industry cannot even be calculated. Estimates are in the hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more. However, due to the lobbying efforts of the oil companies and other powerful interests, Federal law limits BP’s responsibilities for damages to $75 Million. Federal law caps BP’s financial responsibility to those whose lives and livelihoods have been taken from them. There is no obligation for full and complete compensation. There is no requirement for fair compensation. The compensation is capped. So everyone who has been damaged and all those who may be damaged as the oil spreads to other states and perhaps spreads to the east coast of America will all have to share in the $75 Million.
How is it fair that BP’s damages can be capped? It isn’t. Plain and simple. The people who are damaged the most are the ones who can least afford to be without compensation. BP on the other hand will be protected. Its profits protected. The injured people and small businesses are the ones who are left with no protection and no way to recover what has been lost.
Caps on damages like those protecting BP are in effect in Las Vegas. You may become the next victim of tort reform. Nevada law imposes strict damage limits in medical malpractice cases. No matter how badly a person is injured by the negligence of a doctor, the damages are capped at $350,000 for non-economic damages. What does that mean, if a person is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for life, the most a negligent doctor would have to pay for all the pain inflicted, all the mental anguish suffered, all of the enjoyment of life taken away, could not exceed $350,000. If a jury awarded more, the judge, by law, would have to reduce the damages to $350,000. Who wold be willing to be paralyzed for $350,000? No one. Beyond that, suppose a family ember died as the result of medical negligence. Say a young stay at home mom. Would anyone dispute that her life would be worth more than $350,000 to her family? I do not think so. However, that would be all the family would be entitled to receive.
No one thinks of the potential consequences when a proposal to limit the constitutional rights of individuals is being presented by multi-million dollar ad campaigns. National organizations, business alliances, and insurance companies lobby and press politicians everyday to impose strict liability limits to protect them from having to pay damages to people who have been injured due to their negligence. It is nothing more than a scheme to protect and guarantee their profits. More than that it is a means to give them free reign and a license to practice their business in any manner its sees fit without regard to the consequences because they are protected by caps on the damages they have to pay when their practices are negligent and cause injury and damage. Look a BP. What incentive did it have to be safer? What plans did it have if something were to go wrong? BP can know that its liability for damages is capped at $75 Million. It can pay its corporate dividends. It can fund a $50 Million ad campaign to try and save its corporate image. Think about that for a minute. BP is willing to pay almost as much for its public image ad campaign as it will be required to pay for damages due to the protections afforded to it under federal law. How can that be right? How can that be fair? Unfortunately it is the little people all around the Gulf of Mexico and perhaps beyond that will really have to pay the price when BP escapes its full responsibility.