The Truth Behind "Tort Reform"

Most of us have heard the term "tort reform." Politicians frequently refer to it when they run for office. There have been plenty of commercials talking about it around election time. But what really is tort reform?

Let's start by defining what a "tort" is. A tort is simply a legal term for a civil, as opposed to a criminal, wrong. If you were injured in a car accident because someone else was careless, then a tort has been committed against you. If you suffered a personal injury because a doctor misdiagnosed or mistreated you, then a tort has also been committed against you. In both instances, because a tort was committed against you, you have the right to file a lawsuit to obtain compensation for your injuries.

Tort reform is a corporate/political movement with the (hidden) goal of limiting people's access to the courts, artificially limiting the amount of damages an injured person can recover, and even prohibiting some lawsuits altogether. It has one simple goal: to make it difficult, if not impossible, for injured people to recover their damages. Tort reform is a fraud. It is based on the nonsensical notion that lawsuits are somehow ruining the country. The truth is that if anything is hurting this country, it is that corporations put profits over safety. Lawsuits form a critical part of our civil rights - the ability to recover damages from the negligent person or corporation who harmed you. Corporations do not want to be held accountable, so they want to limit your right and ability to sue them. But here's where it gets interesting: corporations themselves love to sue. They do it all the time. They sue each other, they sue the government, and they even sue their own customers. Corporations want to have the right to sue you, but they don't want you to have the right to sue them.

The horrible part is that politicians, desperate to get elected, have shamelessly pandered to corporations and have promised that, if elected, they would vote to limit our rights to obtain compensation for our injuries. That's why corporations and their criminal lobbyists have poured millions of dollars into the campaigns of "tort reform" politicians. But these very same politicians would sue in a heartbeat if they were injured.

So now you know what tort reform really is - a corporate profit scheme in a cheap disguise.

Contact a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer today at the Lagstein Law Firm if you or a loved one have been injured or if a tort has been committed against you.