In nearly every state, as well as in Congress, proposals abound to limit the rights of Americans to use the civil justice system. The fundamental PR message of corporate and other special interests behind these proposals is that the civil justice system is somehow harmful to us as a nation, instead of something to be proud of. They use alarmist, prejudicial and unsubstantiated data to make their case, while we use scientific, objective and fully substantiated data to make ours. I think if we’ve learned anything over the last four years, it is that our approach is not only correct but also on the right side of history.
And today, we’ve got the receipts.
The Center for Justice & Democracy has a new study, called Lifesavers 2021: CJ&D’s Guide to Lawsuits that Protect Us All. The study describes over 125 lawsuits that have led to major health and safety improvements benefiting large numbers of people, spanning over 50 years. These cases have not only saved lives but also show us how to mitigate some of today’s most dire crises.
Take hate groups. The report describes a number of cases brought from the 1980s through the 2000s by the Southern Poverty Center, which accomplished what the criminal justice system could not: putting them out of businesses. The report notes, “Civil lawsuits by hate crime victims were used effectively to bankrupt several white supremacists and Nazi organizations, while also directly responding to the financial needs of victims.” While some groups may be operating differently today, civil liability remains an important tool that attorneys should explore.
Take COVID-19. Lifesavers includes cases recently brought against disease-ridden COVID-19 super-spreader establishments, resulting in safer workplaces. These cases have been necessary because many essential businesses and services, which have been operating throughout this pandemic, have not followed best practices and have endangered their own workforce and customers. Many have not been supportive of sick employees, forcing them to work, threatening dismissal unless they do and greatly contributing to infection-spread throughout the country. As with the dismantling of hate groups, lawsuits by workers – unusual as they may be – are a critical safety tool that must be available. The corporate push for business and health care liability shields must stop.
Finally, take police brutality. The crises of police brutality and racial injustice in law enforcement cry out for solutions. One idea has emerged as a starting point: abolishing the doctrine of “qualified immunity.” Qualified immunity protects police officers from civil liability when they kill or injure someone using excessive force, brutality or other misconduct. Fortunately for victims and their families, qualified immunity does not prevent police departments from being held accountable. Many suits have been brought and resulted in important changes to policies and practices, including serving as a tool for police departments to identify and remedy potential widespread abuses. Lifesavers highlights many of these cases.
Our nation is not harmed when the rights of injured, sick and violated individuals are vindicated through the civil courts. We all benefit from civil justice and from the corresponding deterrence of unsafe or illegal misconduct. Over the last 40 years, the civil justice system has been battered. But as Lifesavers shows, after 245 years and just as the nation’s founders had hoped, the system still works.
You might think we are a bit tone-deaf to do this post today, threats to the Republic and all. But it is still important to note some under-the-radar issues that will be with us well past January 20 and even beyond COVID-19. So here’s what we want to tell you: some of the bosses and political patrons of corporate medicine are creating such misery for people that the Hippocratic oath “First Do No Harm” seems to be in clear violation at the moment. And I don’t know who’s supposed to be enforcing that, but at least we can talk about it.
Let’s start with a couple shocking COVID related stories this week that you may have missed.
First comes this story from the New York Times about close Cuomo ally Northwell Health, run by Northwell’s ethically-challenged Michael Dowling. (Not our first rodeo with Mr. Dowling, BTW.). Northwell is New York’s largest health system. Even though the Governor told state-run hospitals to stop suing patients over unpaid medical bills, Northwell ignored this directive and has launched a “flood of litigation” against patients during the pandemic, more than 2,500 last year.
The Northwell lawsuits each sought an average of $1,700 in unpaid bills, plus large interest payments. They hit teachers, construction workers, grocery store employees and others, including some who had lost work in the pandemic or gotten sick themselves.
And as they were running around suing their own patients, Northwell and New York’s other major hospitals systems lobbied for immunity laws in New York (and in Congress) so that patients severely harmed by negligent hospitals or killed by bad nursing homes would have no remedy and could never hold anyone accountable in court.
Speaking of negligent nursing homes, here’s some chutzpah for you. Pennsylvania nursing home operator Comprehensive Healthcare Management Services is trying to hide behind the COVID-19 federal declaration of emergency, meant to deal with actual emergencies like vaccine production, to infect and kill its patients with impunity. This is even though courts have already said they can’t do that, and their facilities’ staffing and infection control problems existed well-before COVID.
Which brings us to our next topic, forced arbitration. When it comes to medical care, turns out this is not just a problem with nursing homes. As Bloombergreported last week, more and more doctors are forcing patients to sign these anti-patient clauses in order to get medical care, guaranteeing that if they or their child are victims of negligence no matter how egregious, they must resolve their cases in rigged, secretive systems and cannot hold the culpable health care provider accountable in court.
This is due to a new trend, which COVID-19 is accelerating - doctors themselves are being told they cannot provide care without patients signing these horrendous clauses. The requirement is coming from out-of-state private equity firms that now buying up physician offices and surgery centers. Says Bloomberg,
Over the past decade, almost 4,000 independent clinicians in women’s health have come under private equity ownership, according to a study published in August in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The figure is likely much higher, according to the study’s authors, but the deals aren’t uniformly disclosed.
And as the story also describes, these clauses are being forced on patients even though state Supreme Courts have prohibited use of them.
Oh, make sure to give the insurance industry proper blame for this trend too. As Bloomberg reports, “[t]he insurance industry has encouraged this trend by offering better terms to physician groups that can get their patients to preemptively waive their right to a jury trial.”
And finally, CBS just did a couple great pieces (here, here) about the failure of state medical boards to oversee and sanction even the most incompetent physicians with records of medical malpractice. As CBS points out, it is no secret that a small number of doctors are responsible for most malpractice. If medical boards simply did their job and weeded them out of the system, deaths, injuries, claims and lawsuits would all drop. Instead, the medical industry is relentlessly focused on stripping victims of their legal rights.
The following is a memo we obtained from a confidential insurance industry source (FWIW).
MEMO
From: Four Seasons Media Consultants, Inc.
To: The property/casualty insurance industry
Re: Stop Mimicking Donald Trump!
Date: November 11, 2020
Friends, voters have spoken about the current President and what they’ve said is, “we don’t like this guy.” As a fairly detested industry yourself, you could learn some things from this experience. Based on what I observed from yesterday’s A.M. Best Webinar called, The Impact of Social Inflation on Insurance, which featured grievance-filled insurance lawyers and litigation consultants, I would like to make a few recommendations.
1. Stop Playing the Victim
Trump played the victim for four years. Ultimately the public didn’t buy that story. They’re not buying yours either. Maybe it’s just that your disgruntled lawyers and consultants who (sometimes) lose their cases need to stop representing you in Webinars. I think it’s more than this, however. Consider the “optics,” for example. You have made huge profits during this pandemic, partly due to the fact that you are price-gouging your struggling commercial policyholders. As you must know, the whole idea of “social inflation” was fabricated to justify these premium hikes, which began last year and have continued all this year. This is all happening while you hoard money, fight claims, and dump risk while making a windfall due to fewer claims, delayed jury trials, and low-balling settlement offers. Trump's campaign was grievance-driven. He lost. Please take a lesson from that.
2. Stop Talking about Jury “Fraud” with No Evidence
Talk about ripped from the headlines! Here are some of the things I heard at the A.M. Best Webinar. Jury verdicts, rendered by everyday people from a community (jurors, like voters!) are “fraudulent.” This “fraud” occurs when jurors hear from both sides in a case, believe the plaintiff’s version of things, and award an injured victim a sum that you consider large. This is your main definition of “social inflation.” But as one Webinar panelist noted, this is a completely made up industry term, created with “no scientific evidence behind it” and “no sound scientific basis for it.” And he was the first speaker! “Who cares,” said one of the corporate lawyer panelists later. “I know it when I see it” (paraphrasing Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart trying to explain hard-core pornography). Nope. U.S. government policy is about to become science, data and fact-driven again. Get with the program, folks!
3. Stop Ignoring Covid
I’m not talking about ignoring lives lost due a lethal pandemic, as Trump has done. I’m talking about holding a gripe-filled session about jury verdicts at a time when, due to Covid, the civil jury system in under more strain than at any time in modern history. Civil juries trials barely exist today. How can you possibly be complaining about jury verdicts right now? Even when jury trials start up again, civil cases are so backlogged that “extreme delay” seems like an ridiculous understatement. (A few articles and observations here, here, here.) Some injured victims are having to turn to private systems, like mediation and arbitration, to adjudicate their claims - systems that can be infected with corporate bias. As the LA Timesreported,
Having to rely on mediation and arbitration to resolve cases has left many plaintiffs in a painful limbo, said Oakland attorney Micha Star Liberty, president of Consumer Attorneys of California. Liberty’s law practice represents people whose claims include wrongful termination from work, sexual harassment and serious injury or abuse.
“Regular folks who depend on an ability to petition the courts to remedy wrongdoing are in dire straits,” Liberty said.
“Systems like arbitration favor corporations and are extremely expensive. Mediation is extremely expensive,” she said. “With the courts failing to function at full capacity, delay and denying tactics are working and people are getting hurt.
Not only that, insurance defense lawyer costs are down since everything’s on Zoom. No more padding those business travel expenses! And no more ignoring Covid. It’s been a windfall for you guys and you know it.
4. Don’t be a Sore Loser
Another recent Trump theme, of course. Most of your fake evidence of “social inflation” is the litany of cases you lost due to your inability to defend your client’s negligence or misconduct. Sorry you did not do well but blaming anyone but them and you for this is juvenile. No, it’s not lawyer ads that cause your loses, or litigation finance companies that actually screen-out frivolous cases. (See more here.) Most of the Webinar addressed how insurance defense lawyers can turn things around for themselves. Here’s a thought – settle more legitimate cases for a fair amount of money. You’ve got the funds. Stop fighting everyone. If you really don’t like these outcomes, leave and do something else like set up your own media company. Or something like that.
To sum up, Tom Friedman had a recommendation in his recent New York Timescolumn about how “the Trump presidency has dangerously normalized lying.” He said,
[I]t’s vital that every reputable news organization — especially television, Facebook and Twitter — adopt what I call the Trump Rule. If any official utters an obvious falsehood or fact-free allegation, the interview should be immediately terminated, just as many networks did with Trump’s lie-infested, postelection, news conference last week. If critics scream “censorship,” just shout back “truth.”
So consider this memo my shouting back a little truth. Make sense? If not, I hear the Trump White House is still hiring.
A few years ago, an article in Business Insider posed the age-old question, “Is there such a thing as too much profit?” Or to put it another way, is it right that companies are allowed to do anything and everything to (legally) increase profits even if those decisions ruin the lives of their employees, customers and communities? As the writer wrote,
I initially thought, "What kind of hippie question is this?" but I was in for a surprise. Regardless of someone's politics or economic point of view, everyone I spoke with reached the same conclusion. Ultimately, the answer is:
His answer was: "it depends," which is honestly a better answer than I’d expected from a Business Insider writer.
This question came to mind the other day after reading news reports of Travelers insurance company’s third quarter 2020 profits, headlines like, "Travelers Reports Strong 3Q with Profit More Than Doubling."
Doubling. During a pandemic, while the company’s own commercial customers (and so the nation’s economy) are collapsing in large part due to the insurance industry's decision to fight claims – especially over “businesses interruption” losses (see here and here) - and at the same time, being forced to pay ever-increasing insurance premiums. And just to fully fill out this picture, insurers are also receiving a direct financial windfall from the pandemic itself, especially in personal lines like auto insurance. The Consumer Federation of America and the Center for Economic Justice have been up in arms about this, most recently last week:
The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and Center for Economic Justice (CEJ) criticized insurance companies for opposing a proposed regulation by the Nevada Division of Insurance to ban the use of credit information to increase insurance rates for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic. This rule is modest, but it will help make insurance more affordable and ensure that consumers are not harmed by large premium increases due to declines in their credit score over the past eight months. Yet auto insurers remain steadfastly opposed to the proposal, and even tried to weaken it.
“Insurance companies have reaped massive profits due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects, including significantly increased unemployment, which caused a huge decline in driving, car accidents, and insurance claims. Yet they are opposed to any efforts to protect consumers from harmful credit scores resulting from the pandemic,” said Michael DeLong, CFA’s Insurance Advocate. “This proposed rule is limited, but it will protect consumers from insurance premium hikes caused by declines in their credit scores. We are encouraged that Nevada’s Division is pushing back against industry attempts to undermine this badly needed rule, and urge the Division to enact it as soon as possible.”
And there's more. The insurance industry is also taking advantage of people who have been hurt by low-balling settlement offers to exploit trial delays. We covered this problem here.
Back to price-gouging. In early March, the Center for Justice & Democracy and CFA released How the Cash Rich Insurance Industry Fakes Crises and Invents Social Inflation, showing that this industry was, once again, causing a national insurance crisis of skyrocketing rates, while sitting on more cash than at any time in its history. Now months into the pandemic, we see the continuation of ever increasing insurance rates on businesses throughout the country.
Travelers just boasted about sticking almost all of its commercial policyholders with higher premiums. As one Wall Street Journal reporter wrote, the company's excessive third quarter profits have much to do with insurance rates, which they insist on increasing because (they say) claims might go up in the future even though they have no evidence of this, and today claims are in fact way down. Less driving, people aren’t working, the economy is in shambles.
So to sum up, the insurance industry is hoarding money, fighting claims, and dumping risk while making a windfall due to fewer claims, delayed jury trials, and low-balling settlement offers while shaking down their policyholders with price hikes.
So I guess in answer to our first question, yeah. It's a thing.
Long long before Tik Tok there was Woodstock, that 3-day music festival in 1969 featuring 32 acts before nearly a million people. In addition to all the peace and love at Woodstock, there were some serious protest performances. One sticks in my head right now, Country Joe and the Fish’s anti-war diddy I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin-To-Die-Rag: “Ain't no time to wonder why, whoopee we're all gonna die.”
If I were a small business today, that’s exactly how I’d feel right now. So many have already died, and many more will also die if government aide doesn’t come quick. The U.S. House keeps trying to do that, while the Trump Administration and Senate Leader Mitch McConnell keep trying to nickel and dime the lifeblood out of the U.S. economy.
There’s plenty of blame to go around. Here are some top contenders.
Big businesses lobbyists including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Thanks to these guys, Mitch McConnell got it into his trippy brain that money to help small businesses survive must be contingent on giving big corporations immunity for killing or sickening workers and customers. What’s more, they claim small businesses demand such a thing. In fact, they absolutely do not. They never have.
The Center for Justice & Democracy’s new study, Limiting Lawsuits: Small Businesses’ Least Concern, shows this clearly, noting “as we have reported for years and do so again, internal small business surveys consistently show that restricting lawsuits, or the ‘cost’ of lawsuits, is an issue of less importance to small businesses than almost any issue they could possibly face, or on which they want lawmakers to focus.” CJ&D even reports on surveys done since the pandemic hit, including one by Wells Fargo over the last two quarters:
Q2 2020 Survey. When over 1,475 small business owners were asked to indicate challenges experienced as a result of COVID-19, lawsuits wasn’t among the list of 14 options. When asked, “Thinking ahead to the next 12 months, as a small business owner, what do you need to feel confident you could recover from the economic impact of COVID-19?” limiting lawsuits was not mentioned.
Q3 2020 Survey. When 600 small business owners were asked, “What do you think is the most important challenge facing you as a small business owner today?” lawsuits were not mentioned. When asked to “select the reason why you feel you might have to close” as a result of the pandemic, lawsuits wasn’t on the list.
Incredibly, the U.S. Chamber’s own surveys show that small businesses could hardly care less about their lobbyists’ obsessive focus on limiting lawsuits. For example, according to the Chamber’s own push poll, only 22 percent of “Mom and Pop” stores, i.e. those with 1 to 5 employees, believe that limiting lawsuits is an important issue.
The Insurance Industry. As CJ&D also notes,
The property/casualty insurance is an industry with vast power and economic control over the ability of small businesses to survive the pandemic.… Many small businesses dutifully paid premiums for “business interruption” insurance coverage, expecting claims would be paid when they were forced to close due to lockdown. Instead, insurers have denied all of these claims and fought small businesses in court, which has resulted in the single largest category of COVID-related litigation to date. The U.S. Chamber is actively supporting the denial of these claims.
TBD: The U.S. Supreme Court
As if things couldn’t get worse for small businesses, a case being argued Wednesday (tomorrow), called Ford Motor Company v. Montana Eighth Judicial District and Ford Motor Company v. Bandemer, has the potential to do enormous further damage to them. Let’s hope not.
As the small business advocacy group, Main Street Alliance, wrote in a recent op ed, the case will determine “whether victims of alleged car defects can sue the auto manufacturer in states outside its home state. … If Ford prevails, it may be the first of many big, future losses for small businesses."
The case does not hinge on Ford’s guilt, but how difficult the corporation thinks it should be for someone to hold them accountable. … The added barrier to hold corporations accountable will ultimately mean small businesses are taking on the burden of corporate malfeasance.…
In this case, despite the polarized nature of our courts, a bipartisan group of more than 40 state attorneys general have filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court against Ford in this case. They agree that corporations should not be allowed to invent new procedures to avoid lawsuits, and small businesses should not have to worry about being sued for a defective product they didn’t create.
There’s a new poll out, which sorta summarizes all of these points at once. It shows that “an overwhelming majority [74%] of voters believe the Senate should prioritize coronavirus relief over confirming Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett,” whose confirmation would push the court into an even greater anti-small business direction. As Country Joe may have put it back when Mitch McConnell was a mere 26-year-old (I know, hard to imagine), “Yeah come on all of your big strong men, Small Businesses need your help again.” Take it away Joe.
The Real Housewives of New York (RHONY) don’t always get it right but at least they try. Like the time they hosted an event to honor the work of our friend Bridie Farrell, a leader in the effort to change statute of limitations laws for child sexual abuse survivors. The event quickly turned into what Andy Cohen called one of the most “cringeworthy” events in Housewife history, which is saying something. At least a lot of people suddenly knew about Bridie.
Sonja Morgan is a RHONY star who hasn’t always gotten it right but clearly has tried. As fans of the show know, she recently did a deal with New York’s most famous discount department store, Century 21. She "was planning to be Chief Lifestyle Officer taking people on shopping sprees… helping ‘people transition through hard times in their life’” such as providing “wardrobes for people who need to ‘get a leg up on a job interview,’ or folks who are ‘going through a sex change, coming out or coming back from the military.’” Who didn’t admire her for that and hoped it worked out?
Century 21, 2020. It didn't survive.
The insurance industry, that’s who. This industry’s greed has now destroyed Century 21 and with it, Sonja’s admirable plans. It should be noted that Century 21’s flagship story, directly across from the World Trade Center, survived 9/11. Back then, the insurance industry did the right thing, paid claims it owed, and helped Century 21 survive and grow. Isn’t that how insurance is supposed to work? You pay premiums (sometimes for years), and if something unexpected happens, insurers pay your claims.
Yet today, the industry is refusing to pay pandemic-related claims knowing that by doing so, they are destroying businesses like Century 21, and severely weakening the U.S. economy. In other words, it has now wrecked a company that the terror attacks couldn’t. Not to mention that it’s pulled the rug out from under Sonja Morgan.
The only thing insurers seem inclined to do during this pandemic is to hold onto all their money and add to their already huge $800 billion (give or take) surplus. The industry’s entire response to this pandemic has been either to try to escape responsibility for virus-related claims or dump risk while at the same time price-gouging customers with completely unjustified rate hikes.
In fact, as we’ve noted before, when this pandemic began, the industry had already started raising rates on its business customers using its go-to excuse – “out of control” U.S. juries, which rule in only 2 percent of cases. In fact, they created their own lingo for this so-called nonexistent “problem” – social inflation. Blaming juries has always worked whenever the industry has wanted to jack up rates or cancel coverage. Incredibly, this is true even now, when the entire civil jury system is on hold and American jurors themselves are sick and dying of a pandemic and insurers are low-balling every claim.
Back to Bravo world. Say what you will about the lifestyles of Bravolebirities, there is one interest that seems to be shared by a lot of them: pet rescue. While most sane people see pet adoption as one of the few silver linings of quarantine, the insurance industry sees it rather as a new way to screw their policyholders. According to them: Pet adoption means dog bites; Dog bites mean people running to court; People running to court means “social inflation;” Social inflation means insurers being forced to cancel coverage and price-gouge.
There is no actual data to back up any of this. That’s never stopped the insurance industry. And incidentally, way to encourage pet adoption, you creeps.
It’s hard to reconcile. Doctors live by an oath so well-known that we can all recite it: “first, do no harm.” Their work through the worst of the pandemic in New York was utterly heroic. Yet when it comes to the activities of leaders and lobbyists who represent the institutions they work for, the opposite is true.
The Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) has historically been one of the most powerful and insidious anti-patient “tort reform” groups in New York State. Run by Ken Raske, GNYHA wastes an enormous amount of its budget on lobbying, politics and PR efforts, offending nearly everyone except – ironically - those who do harm. It is the single largest “hospital and nursing home” contributor to federal candidates in the country, far surpassing any other donor. It’s hold over Governor Andrew Cuomo is legendary, dating back to Cuomo’s first few months in office nearly a decade ago. (More about that here, here, here.)
It may be no surprise that Raske was behind New York’s broad immunity legislation, snuck into law as part of Cuomo’s budget in the early days of the pandemic. Fortunately, lawmakers finally woke up to this troubling law and recently rolled it back. However, taking no hint whatsoever from their own state, which decided that broad immunity was harmful and immoral, GNYHA has now moved on to the entire country. In fact, it seems that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell specifically invited them to add its revolting agenda to McConnell's national corporate immunity bill. Raske’s fingerprints are apparently all over it.
Yet let there be no mistake. If New York’s bill was cruel, this national bill is utterly depraved. For example, in the federal bill, any patient suing for malpractice – including in non-emergency situations – must prove misconduct so extreme as to resemble the crime of reckless homicide. Even if a patient wins, they have no right to non-economic damages at all. And there’s more, ensuring that even the most obvious case of medical malpractice won’t go forward for the next five years.
Helping Raske in DC is Albert Pirro. According to recent reporting,
McConnell’s new legislation reflects the Trump administration’s push for a liability shield at the same time that GNYHA has hired Trump’s former lawyer and prolific GOP fundraiser Albert Pirro Jr. as a Washington lobbyist.
Pirro is a long-time personal friend of the president — their relationship began 30 years ago when Trump hired him as a real estate attorney. He is the ex-husband of Fox News’ Judge Jeanine Pirro and was once sentenced to 29 months in federal prison for tax offenses....
Pirro has only been filing disclosures as a Washington lobbyist since 2017, when Trump became president. GNYHA — which is one of only three Pirro lobbying clients in Washington — has paid Pirro’s firm nearly $2.3 million since hiring him in 2017.
So, somehow GNYHA found $2.3 to pay a lobbyist, while at the same time pushing legislation to eliminate all non-economic compensation to every child catastrophically-injured by medical malpractice, anywhere in the nation.
Dunno, somehow we thought it might be different this year.
Every four years, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), which fashions itself as the nation’s largest small business lobby group (and indeed, it spends millions lobbying Congress and states each year), publishes a member survey. This is to present an accurate picture of current small-business problems. It’s called Small Business Problems & Priorities. It includes the most important and least important concerns out of 75 possible problems faced by small businesses. This is supposed to inform NFIB’s lobbying priorities because, they allege, “NFIB was founded on the principle that the membership governs.”
Once again this year, what NFIB dubs, “Cost and Frequency of Lawsuits/Threatened Lawsuits,” is an issue of less importance to small businesses than almost any issue they could possibly face, or on which they want lawmakers to focus. According to the NFIB’s 2020 small business survey (just released), this issue ranks 69 out of 75 possible small business concerns. That’s an even lower rank than it was four years ago. It is of less concern to them than, say, “Access to High-Speed Internet” (#63). Perhaps even more telling, when NFIB broke down the results into “clusters” of issues looking specifically at “Costs,” the topic “Cost and Frequency of Lawsuits/Threatened Lawsuits” ranked dead last.
Drilling down to business size, it is also clear that for “Mom and Pop” establishments, this issue is even less important to them. For small businesses with 1 to 4 employees, the issue came in at #70. For those with 5 to 9 employees as well as 10 to 19, the issue ranked #72.
And it doesn’t matter the state. Here are the state “Cost and Frequency of Lawsuits/Threatened Lawsuits” rankings, all out of 75 possible concerns:
Texas: #64
California: #65
Ohio: #70
New York: #71
For years, NFIB has devoted its substantial lobbying muscle to limiting lawsuits, arguing that this is an urgent issue for small businesses. It obviously isn’t yet it remains an important priority for NFIB lobbyists.
NFIB’s disconnect from its own members when it comes to liability issues has been going on for years.
NFIB says it has “an ear to the ground on what’s happening in Washington, D.C., and the state capitals.” Maybe it needs to put those ears near the voices of its own members. It is clearly not hearing them.
The following is a transcript obtained from a confidential source of a Zoom meeting held 2 p.m. on July 26, 2020, hosted by Senate Majority Leader “Don Mitch” McConnell.
Don Mitch: As you know, this is our regular weekly meeting of the five families charged with writing the "Freedom to Kill Workers, Consumers, Students and Elderly Act." While I do miss getting together at our old joint, the back room of the Swamp Restaurant Supply company, today we'll have to Zoom it because I have some important news to tell you about. We finally have a bill!
First, introductions. You all know me, Don Mitch. I’m here with my underboss, Johnny “Tex” Cornyn, whose name goes on everything we do here, so figured it was important to bring him along.
I see Pauly “Corporate Felony” Rhodes, from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Also, Joey “Kill Grandma” Montgomery, representing the nursing home industry.
Louie “Hydroxychloroquine” Chadwick, on behalf of Big Pharma.
And Al “Screw All Businesses” Huntington, from the property/casualty insurance industry. Looks like we are all here.
Also joining us today is Baby “Agent Orange” Bleach, who is observing for the White House. Unless there is some objection … welcome Agent Orange. Just a word of caution about what you say here. We know Rudy’s your friend but remember this is the same guy who ran the SDNY back in the 1980s when he took down our mentors with those RICO charges. Don’t know if I trust that guy. No leaks, please.
(No response)
Kill Grandma: We are all grateful to Don Mitch for calling this meeting.
Don Mitch: Thank you Kill Grandma. Also a few other thank you’s are in order. I want to thank Corporate Felony in particular for your loyalty and hard work. Your organization, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been in my ear nonstop since this all started, has proven not only to be a great Consigliere but also a fabulous bagman! You’ve got some great earners in your organization. Your shakedown of politicians around the nation has been something to behold.
Corporate Felony: Thank you Don Mitch. You inspire me every day.
Don Mitch: I also want to give a particular shout-out to “Screw All Businesses.” The insurance industry has been an unsung hero in all this. Your ability to escape your responsibility for paying virus-related claims and then scaring small businesses to death by threatening never to cover them – all while hitting them with rate hikes! This has been a model for us all. A true North Star. We will follow you anywhere.
Screw All Businesses: I am honored and grateful that you have included me in this effort, Don Mitch.
Don Mitch: So let’s get down to it. As I mentioned, we have a bill. Now I’m not going to read all 65 pages of it. Gotta be nuts to do that. But rest assured, it’s got all of our top priorities so let’s review:
Most importantly, we have a bill that allows you to get away with murder, which I know is an important goal for all of you. Let me explain.
First, you don’t have to comply with any real safety standards to get immunity under this bill. You get immunity for following the weakest possible standards or guidance that you can find at any level– even if the standards say you don’t have to do anything. Plus here’s the really great part: you get immunity just for saying you “tried” to comply with it instead of actually making a workplace safe. On top of that, the only cases that can go forward are cases involving things like “gross negligence,” which we have defined to basically resemble second degree murder. Who’s gonna be able to prove that? After all, you're the experts at covering your tracks when someone’s whacked. You’ll be fine.
Second, even on the off-chance that some sick and dying worker, consumer, student or elderly patient actually does bring a case, they will face evidentiary burdens that are basically insurmountable. Just to file a case, they will need to allege information with such specificity that we are pretty sure no claim will ever be filed.
Third, even if they go through all of that and win a case, they’ll get almost nothing. Non-economic damages are not just capped (like we’ve always wanted) – their completely gone! We’ve eliminated them. After that, whatever they get is cut even further by things like health insurance.
Fourth, all state liability laws that have blocked your ability to move forward with your dangerous and unsafe plans are wiped out And we’ve forced all these cases into federal court where, of course, they have absolutely no business being, and which we’ve been packing with our own judges!
Now, we are going to have to change the name from our working title, the "Freedom to Kill Workers, Consumers, Students and Elderly Act." Let’s do something both amusing and confusing. How about the ‘‘SAFE TO WORK Act?" We'll come up with some mumbo jumbo to fit the acronym. Any objections? Hearing none, the ‘‘SAFE TO WORK Act" it is!
Agent Orange: Don Mitch, I just want to make sure that all the lawsuits brought by my Boss, Don Don, aren’t harmed by this bill, and that he can still sue the pants off anyone he doesn’t like. He has a lot of those goin’.
Don Mitch: No worries. He’s completely protected, as always.
Hydroxychloroquine: I don’t know. The Democrats in Congress have called this - and actually all of your ideas – a non-starter. Is it really?
Don Mitch: Well I don’t know who they think they are. But we’re going to the mattresses on this boys. Finally we have gotten our chance to take complete control of the civil justice system. I want to thank whoever’s responsible for this pandemic. Take that message to your boss, Agent Orange. We could not be more grateful.
And remember, if we are ever pinched for what we did here, just lie. Tex, can you be sure to delete this recording before anyone tweets about it.
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