Warning: The Perils of Products Liability
Features • June 21, 2004
Making or Selling This Product May Be Hazardous to Your (Financial) Health
The waffle iron in our kitchen comes complete with 21 distinct warnings in seven languages concerning its use, including ...
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Subject: Product Liability
Posted On: July 13, 2004, 5:48 pm CDT
Posted By: Matt
Comment:
Amazing how many conservatives actually believe that Trial Lawyers are to blame for this legal system. Are the judges that preside over the cases elected or appointed by elected officials? Stop talking and start walking - get involved and do something on the election front! Every one knows state and federal government is controlled by special interests - lobbyists, corporate sponsored PACs, etc. The Trial Lawyers are just one organization and not the sole ones to blame. How many of the conservatives who have commented - like Geoff and Mark Wells - would change their stance if they or someone in their immediate family were to suffer a severe injury due to a defective product?
When corporations like Halliburton are allowed have fully owned subsidiaries file bankruptcy so that can reach their own settlements and financially obligate the burden of their asbestos claims onto their insurers I guess the Legal system works just fine then. The burden of insurers becoming insolvent because of these corporate actions are not a problem - the class action lawsuit is the problem right? It is about time that everyone - individuals in society, the government and corporations stand up and take responsibility for their actions or inactions!
How is it that as far back as 1918 there is documented evidence as to the harmful nature of asbestos and that many life insurers refused to issue life insurance policies (Pudential Life acknowledged this)to anyone who worked in an industry handling asbestos material because of the actuarial data showing the high mortality rates in those industries! But yet did anyone warn the workers? Did the employers get safety conscious? Did the government assist in safe guarding these workers back then? What about the toxicity of the air around lower Manhattan after 9/11 that EPA declared safe and subsequently a finding is released that the air was toxic and office workers diligently and patriotically returning to work to show how America will not be terrorized now are suffering with diminished lung function and lung disease?
How about the recent declaration by the U.S. EPA that DuPont Co. (the 2nd largest chemical manufacturer) failed for the past 20 years (from June 1981 to March 2001) to warn of the danger and toxicity of the chemical components of Teflon that workers and maybe even consumers have been exposed to? DuPont violated the Toxic Substances Control Act by not reporting the dangers of perfluorooctanoic acid - a crucial ingredient in Teflon. I wonder how many of these individuals that have this negative opinion of the civil tort system and trial lawyers would have the same opinion if they discover that they or their spouse or children have been exposed to high level of a carcinogen from their non-stick Teflon coated cookware or their stain resistant carpet?
Stop blaming the trial lawyers for the legal system and tell the government and corporations to start taking responsibility. Removing or limiting civil tort actions would only embolden the worst offenders of the public good. You can't change the laws for some and not others. Are we really sure we want what we are asking for?
Subject: Product Liability
When corporations like Halliburton are allowed have fully owned subsidiaries file bankruptcy so that can reach their own settlements and financially obligate the burden of their asbestos claims onto their insurers I guess the Legal system works just fine then. The burden of insurers becoming insolvent because of these corporate actions are not a problem - the class action lawsuit is the problem right? It is about time that everyone - individuals in society, the government and corporations stand up and take responsibility for their actions or inactions!
How is it that as far back as 1918 there is documented evidence as to the harmful nature of asbestos and that many life insurers refused to issue life insurance policies (Pudential Life acknowledged this)to anyone who worked in an industry handling asbestos material because of the actuarial data showing the high mortality rates in those industries! But yet did anyone warn the workers? Did the employers get safety conscious? Did the government assist in safe guarding these workers back then? What about the toxicity of the air around lower Manhattan after 9/11 that EPA declared safe and subsequently a finding is released that the air was toxic and office workers diligently and patriotically returning to work to show how America will not be terrorized now are suffering with diminished lung function and lung disease?
How about the recent declaration by the U.S. EPA that DuPont Co. (the 2nd largest chemical manufacturer) failed for the past 20 years (from June 1981 to March 2001) to warn of the danger and toxicity of the chemical components of Teflon that workers and maybe even consumers have been exposed to? DuPont violated the Toxic Substances Control Act by not reporting the dangers of perfluorooctanoic acid - a crucial ingredient in Teflon. I wonder how many of these individuals that have this negative opinion of the civil tort system and trial lawyers would have the same opinion if they discover that they or their spouse or children have been exposed to high level of a carcinogen from their non-stick Teflon coated cookware or their stain resistant carpet?
Stop blaming the trial lawyers for the legal system and tell the government and corporations to start taking responsibility. Removing or limiting civil tort actions would only embolden the worst offenders of the public good. You can't change the laws for some and not others. Are we really sure we want what we are asking for?