Comments on: Made in America: Corporate Gall

CBS News Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen On Corporations Seeking To "Reform" The Very System They Broke

[prospector44]

Indeed, you are right. Tort reform has reduced the penalties for poisoning people pets and the economy just part of the cost of doing business. A campaign fund contribution here and there and you can get away with ANYTHING. Our legal system and our judges are a joke.

[nlous]

Thank you Mr. Cohen, and CBS, for exposing the Chamber of Commerce and their tort reform agenda for what it really is -- a license for corporate America to defraud the American public with impunity. Every TV station and news outlet in this country should be writing about this weekly.

It should be noted that corporate America has found another way to avoid lawsuits -- predispute binding mandatory arbitration clauses in every contract you sign today. From home builders to nursing homes, credit cards, cell phones, doctor offices, etc., in the fine print you will find this clause. It removes our 7th amendment right to use the civil court system, by forcing us into a "kangaroo" system of justice that they control by naming the arbitration service that must be used. These arbitration services like CAS and AAA are employed by the corporations -- who do you think wins? NOT THE PUBLIC that''s for sure. Then they slap you with a gag order so you can''t talk about the injustice that you have just experienced.

Support the Arbitration Fairness Act that will give us back our 7th amendment rights!!!

[perfectstom]

The degree to which the producer is %u201Csheltered%u201D from the direct judgment of it%u2019s product by the consumer is directly proportional to the degree of fraud and corruption within the producer organization, directly proportional to the amount of poor product on the market and indirectly proportional to the amount of profit claimed by the producer.

The only reason that product liability lawsuits do not do an adequate job of consumer protection, as evidenced by the continued existence of poor producers, is that the producers have sufficiently insulated themselves from the effect of liability responsibility. This has been achieved by increasing product prices and by out of court settlements requiring nondisclosure of damages.

Eventually we must establish a system that impacts the producers sufficiently to cause changes toward good management practices. Until then we will live with a fraud, corruption, poor products and yet high producer profits.

The current system is incapable of keeping poor producers out of the market which is a requirement not only for the consumer but also as a means of reward for good producers.

[perfectstom]

The degree to which the producer is %u201Csheltered%u201D from the direct judgment of it%u2019s product by the consumer is directly proportional to the degree of fraud and corruption within the producer organization, directly proportional to the amount of poor product on the market and indirectly proportional to the amount of profit claimed by the producer.

The only reason that product liability lawsuits do not do an adequate job of consumer protection, as evidenced by the continued existence of poor producers, is that the producers have sufficiently insulated themselves from the effect of liability responsibility. This has been achieved by increasing product prices and by out of court settlements requiring nondisclosure of damages.

Eventually we must establish a system that impacts the producers sufficiently to cause changes toward good management practices. Until then we will live with a fraud, corruption, poor products and yet high producer profits.

The current system is incapable of keeping poor producers out of the market which is a requirement not only for the consumer but also as a means of reward for good producers.

[ubrew12]

If you and I are neighboring farmers, and I kill you and your family and take over your farm, then, in the eyes of free-market capitalism, I just made a good business decision. I profited mightily by it, and so it was good.

Murder, stealing, insider trading, monopoly, pollution, bribery, graft: all of these are perfectly acceptable to the free market. We pass laws, and enforce them, precisely because we don''t want to live in the kind of society the free market would allow. Somehow, this simply truth has been lost on the Chamber of Commerce, and much of the business community. It''s time to put an end to that nonsense.

[arnldmartin]

You CANNOT put the FOX in charge of the henhouse,pure carnage always result!

[hitoyou11]

This is just like the greedy no goods. Make it so we can SCREW up and can''t be punished for corporate negligence or fraud with civil lawsuits. Let the companies screw the people some more. The UAW must have something to do with this.

[irmcvet971]

If a law was passed here like they have in Europe that the loser in a lawsuit pays all of the court cost you would see that most of the frivolous lawsuits would disappear. All class action lawsuits should be banned, as a previous poster noted only the lawyers get paid, I was in a class action lawsuit and didn''''t even know it until I got a letter saying that I had a credit for a few dollars(less than 100) a ink cartridge company and I have never received it, but I bet the lawyers got theirs.

Posted by d7767w at 08:45 PM : Dec 20, 2008

You failed to mention that Europe has Ton''s of Regulations that we do not have to rein in Corporations. The solution you propose only favors the well to do and corporations even more. THEY have the deep pockets to use this king of law, the average citizen does not.

[thedavid4]

In light of what has happened, corporations gone amok, experiencing record profits during Bush''s first five or six years, but not doing anything constructive except parse out more for their top rungs and not reinvesting into the company in a meaningful pro American way, big business IS bad. When it forces the taxpayer to foot 700 billion to save them from their risk taking and schemes, it can''t be good, right? Unfortunately we have learned it sometimes has to be forced to do the right thing through enforced policy.

[andor3]

"...the loser in a lawsuit pays all of the court cost you would see that most of the frivolous lawsuits would disappear."

That does happen fairly often. There are actually very few "frivolous" lawsuits--that is just a term invented by companies tired of getting sued (most of the time deserving it). The fact is in any business lawsuits are a part of the deal, and of course everyone who has ever been sued called the suit "frivolous."