Ep. 107: Pop Torts and the Ready-Made Virality of ‘Frivolous Lawsuit’ Stories
Added 2020-04-22 17:04:40 +0000 UTC“Woman Sues TripAdvisor After Falling off Runaway Camel,” reports the Associated Press. “Red Bull Paying Out to Customers Who Thought Energy Drink Would Actually Give Them Wings,” eyerolls Newsweek. “Tennessee man sues Popeyes for running out of chicken sandwiches,” scoffs NBC News.
We see “frivolous lawsuit” stories all the time and have for decades. Seemingly absurd cases of get rich quick schemes often with catchy headlines, a caricature of a plaintiff friendly legal system run amok. These stories play into faux-populist tropes of a country full of lazy poor people looking to cash in and a sleazy legal system that leeches off hard-working Americans.
But how organic are these “pop torts”––or popular stories of frivolous lawsuits––and more importantly, how true even are they? What organizations are behind cherry-picking and teeing up these shameful tales of greed for uncritical writers, editors and producers? Who’s backing them, and what, perhaps, may be their ulterior motives?
Moreover, what are the human stakes to so called “tort reform” and how did it come to be that the vast majority of Americans came to accept the premise that, at some point in the 1980s, we all became amoral lawsuit happy scumbags out to shutdown mom and pop stores and grab a quick buck?
We are joined by the Center for Justice & Democracy's Joanna Doroshow.
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Guest
Joanne Doroshow is Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Justice & Democracy at New York Law School. She is also co-founder of Americans for Insurance Reform.
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Show Notes
The Racial Implications of Tort Reform
Joanne Doroshow and Amy Widman | January 2007 | Washington University Journal of Law & Policy
The Right Wing’s Drive for ‘Tort Reform’
Dan Zegert | October 7, 2004 | The Nation
The third-leading cause of death in US most doctors don’t want you to know about
Ray Sipherd | February 22, 2018 | CNBC
Study: How the Cash Rich Insurance Industry Fakes Crises and Invents Social Inflation
J. Robert Hunter, Joanne Doroshow, and Douglas Heller | March 9, 2020 | Center for Justice & Democracy
How Much Is Your Life Worth to a Court?
Lisa Cylar Barrett and Dariely Rodriguez | April 30, 2019 | Bloomberg Law
Medical mistakes harm more than 1 in 10 patients. Many are preventable.
Linda Carroll | July 18, 2019 | NBC News
What a lot of people get wrong about the infamous 1994 McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit
German Lopez | December 16, 2016 | Vox
In one corner of the law, minorities and women are often valued less
Kim Soffen | October 25, 2016 | The Washington Post
The Worst Courts for Businesses? It’s a Matter of Opinion
Adam Liptak | December 24, 2007 | The New York Times
Little-Known Texas Patron Guided Bush Policies On Vouchers, Tort Reform
Kathryn Wallace | July 31, 2000 | Center on Public Integrity
Tort Reform in Texas: "Rove's Genius At Work"
"Frontline: The Architect" | April 12, 2005 | PBS
January 5, 2005 | CBS/AP
Fact Sheet: Tort Litigation in the United States
Center for Justice & Democracy | November 12, 2011
Special Interests Use Anecdotes to Mislead Public
Texans for Public Justice | April 4, 1998
Tort Reform in the Twentieth Century: An Historical Perspective [PDF]
G. E. White | 1987 | Villanova Law Review
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Transcript
A full transcript of this episode can be found here.
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Comments
Oh, those "silly lawsuit" stories have always been popular in Russian media as a "proof" of how naïve and sheltered Americans are. (One of the pillars of the Russian national pride is being able to survive in harsh conditions, including a broken state where laws don't quite work.)
Ivan M
2020-04-24 04:15:38 +0000 UTCNew Patron here, though I've been listening for a while on Soundcloud. As a younger man I took a paralegal job with a personal injury law firm that deliberately advertised to the poor, on bus stop shelters for example. Many of the cases were b.s. like parking lot fender benders or someone tripping over a curb in their apartment complex, but we were also the only resort for some people who could not afford upfront legal fees and had legit claims. It was also rare that a case made it to court, so that complaint is b.s., and in most cases the defendant was an insurance company, not the business, so that's a conservative myth too.
Simia Canis
2020-04-23 16:31:49 +0000 UTCif anyone wants to hear interviews with some trial lawyers Sam Seder (The Majority Report) regularly goes to a tort law conference to do this. skimming the episode notes he's talked to lawyers with cases involving the opioid crisis, Equifax, Monsanto, Juul, Johnson & Johnson (talcum powder), pollution from US military bases, human trafficking and SESTA-FOSTA. these episodes: 1700, 1941, 1942, 2068, 2069, 2204, 2205
sensorsweep
2020-04-22 23:22:30 +0000 UTC
