ThePopTort

The Legal Hammer Falls on International Victims

We don’t want to jump to conclusions, but this could be a fairly ominous day for victims of misconduct or recklessness by U.S. corporations - at least the ones that wreak havoc abroad.  

First comes word that a federal judge has dismissed and sent back to Italy a lawsuit filed in Miami – this one by 1,000 Italian businesses - against Carnival Corp. for damages caused by the fatal capsizing in January of its Costa Concordia cruise ship.  Notes Associated Press, “Still pending in the U.S. are several lawsuits filed on behalf of hundreds of passengers on the Concordia.”  If these cases get sent back as well, good luck to those victims obtaining justice in a country not particularly known for it (and I’m not just talking about criminal justice).  Aside from no civil jury trials or common law, Italy’s civil justice system has severe procedural defects, very limited discovery and disclosure, no expert testimony, loser pays, limited appeal rights, or to put it mildly, “[c]ivil litigation in Italy is burdensome, costly, and not plaintiff friendly.”  (That’s a quote from former New York Law School student, Rene DuBois, in his paper for the Center for Justice & Democracy during the last school year.)

Second is today's oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, which “concerns the torture of Ogoni leaders in Nigeria, but at stake is the future of the law under which this case was brought, the Alien Tort Statute.”  See our coverage here.

The United States has the best and, under some circumstances, the only laws available for human rights survivors to obtain some sort of redress and monetary compensation and to hold abusers financially accountable - provided the wrongdoing violates customary international law or a U.S. treaty.  If a U.S. corporation, like an oil company headquartered in the U.S. but operating abroad, has assisted a government that has committed human rights abuses, the ATS has been available to hold that company accountable.  See more here.  Without the ATS, these victims will be forced to litigate their cases in court systems that are as bad as Italy’s or worse. 

As Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, put it,

The United States stands at a crossroads. At its best, our nation has played a crucial role in championing human rights throughout the world and pioneering human rights law. At its worst, it has abandoned its lofty ideals in the name of realpolitik and supported dictators and policies that were responsible for horrible abuses.

We’re about to find out just how much less brightly America's beacon may shine.

Occupy Moves to the Courthouse

Unlike big corporate special interests, we actually believe in judicial independence and usually stay away from attacking courts.  I'm not sure if today's exception proves the rule, but we're going for it anyway.

That’s because it’s Occupy the Courts day, as people in cities across America occupy courthouses “in a show of protest against the two-year anniversary of the controversial Citizens United ruling.”  Learn more here.  Writes Politico:

“Why the courts? Because frankly folks, that’s the scene of the crime,” said David Cobb, an organizer of Friday’s protests. “Corporate personhood and money equals political speech are court-created doctrines. We the people never decided it; our elected representatives didn’t decide it; ordinary people like me and you never decided it. The court created these doctrines and it’s going to take a movement to overturn it.”

They’ll be lots of demonstrating at the U.S. Supreme Court, that's for sure, which by the way just threw out “electoral maps drawn by federal judges in Texas that favored minorities.”  My, the good news from this Court just keeps comin'!  See more background here.

And speaking of being thrown out, New York’s courts have done the same to the Occupy the Courts permit request itself, keeping demonstrators from coming near NYC’s federal courthouse.  So it’s back to Zuccotti Park!  For everyone else, go here to find out where Occupy the Courts is in your city today.

Sprinkles of Civil Justice (With a Post Election Flavor)

So what do the civil courts have in store for us, post mid-term elections?  Looks like a dash of new state hurdles here, a pinch of federal obstruction there.  Let’s take a look at a few smidgens!

First, Oklahoma's new Attorney General-elect, Scott Pruitt, apparently accepted thousands of dollars in campaign donations from poultry industry employees, for which he was heavily criticized – and for good reason.  As soon as he was elected, he announced that he would consider stopping the state’s lawsuit against the poultry industry for causing “widespread pollution” even though the state “has spent millions of dollars arguing the case, and it is awaiting a judge's ruling.”

Also, in an article earlier this week, New York Times reports that the new Governor-elect of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, said “he planned to remove all ‘litigation, regulation, excessive cost’ barriers to businesses (declaring Wisconsin, on election night, ‘open for business!’)."  In other words, no accountability for wrongdoing whatsoever!  How attractive!  (Hope you’re paying attention toxic polluters, makers of unsafe children’s products, dangerous commercial truckers and hazardous equipment manufacturers.)

On the federal judiciary front, Ann Woolner writes for Bloomberg, 

Republicans have managed to stall more than a score of President Obama’s nominees to the bench so far, although they number only 41 senators, barely enough to keep a filibuster going.

With six more Republican senators narrowing the gap in January, the minority party in the Senate will have more muscle to use against the president’s choices...

Republicans have been loading the federal bench with as many conservatives as they can, while blocking as many Democratic nominees as possible.

Yes, I said Democratic nominees instead of liberal. The current list of 23 stalled Obama nominees includes 17 approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee without a whiff of controversy or even a no vote against them.

And when it comes to one of the hottest environmental issues today – greenhouse gases - a new study by “DB Climate Change Advisors (DBCCA), a New York-based eco-investment advisory unit of Deutsche Bank Group” concluded that:

The failure of federal cap and trade, the return of Republican control in the U.S. House and California's plans to move forward on that state's greenhouse gas law will probably inspire a new wave of lawsuits moving the climate change battle to the courts,

"It is probably inevitable that people are turning to litigation to fill the void left by the lack of legislation, and it is possible that the threat of court action will in some cases galvanize legislators to take action where before they had simply avoided the issue," DBCCA analysts say in the report, titled "Growth of U.S. Climate Change Litigation: Trends and Consequences."

And finally, the decision as to who will be Alaska's next Senator moves to the courts, with Tea Party trial lawyer Joe Miller now suing to invalidate a lot of Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s write-in ballots. 

Whoa, back up a minute.  Did we say "Tea Party trial lawyer"?  You betcha we did!  Specializing in all kinds of accidents including medical malpractice cases, Mr. Miller writes on his web site:

Have you been injured? If you have suffered serious injury as a result of an accident, you have probably been contacted by an insurance adjustor. Remember, insurance adjustors are in the business of saving insurance companies money, not helping you. Insurance adjustors are very skilled in what they do...

Every day, Insurance Companies convince accident victims that their injuries are insignificant and deserve little compensation. You should always contact an attorney before resolving your case.

Couldn't have said it better ourselves, Joe.