Sunday, April 21, 2013

Cleveland Park Train Wreck case shows injustices of "tort reform"


The Cleveland Park Train Wreck case is a painful reminder of why so-called "tort reform" doesn't work.  Current law limits the government's liability "per occurrence" to $600,000.  This means that no matter how many people get killed or injured in a single catastrophic incident (like the train wreck) due to the government's negligence, the most that can be collected for all victims total is $600,000.  These kinds of laws are an example of tort reform.  This newspaper, which has advocated tort reform on occasion, is now correct in arguing the limit needs to be raised to help the victims of the train wreck.

But it cannot stop there.  We cannot raise the limit for just one group of victims while ignoring other horrible cases which have not received the same degree of publicity.  As an attorney representing injured people in the Upstate for almost 20 years, I have seen too many other cases in which limits on liability have resulted in the grossest of injustices.  I represented a man who lost his beloved wife to a drunk driver, losing his helpmate of many years, only to have his damages limited by the state's ridiculously low requirements for how much liability insurance people are required to carry.  I've had other cases involving catastrophic injuries and disfigurement, where the insurance limits of the at-fault party were not anywhere near enough to pay for the damages and medical bills.  I could cite many more examples.

The point is, setting arbitrary limits on liability will always result in certain terrible injustices.  The Cleveland Park Train Wreck, horrific as it is, is just one of many situations where wrongdoers are allowed to escape responsibility for their actions due to the government granting them immunity of some kind.  At its essence, "tort reform" is merely the government picking winners and losers in the American Justice System.  The winners are those whose negligence kills, injures, maims and devastates.   The losers are the many families who find themselves unlucky enough to have been injured by a specially-protected class of wrongdoers.

Here's the original Spartanburg Herald Journal Editorial . . .  http://www.goupstate.com/article/20130414/OPINION/304141017/1128?Title=Reimburse-train-victims

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