In Suits at common law. . .the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Bill of Rights, 7th Amendment to The United States Constitution
Trial by jury in civil cases is a fundamental right granted to all U.S. citizens, and with good reason. The judicial branch of the government is the only branch in which the lowliest citizen can stand on equal footing and in parity with the most powerful.
It is for this reason that James Madison declared that “trial by jury in civil cases is as essential to secure the liberty of the people as any one of the pre-existent rights of nature.”
Under the guise of grassroots advocacy, corporate and insurance giants have levied an aggressive and successful campaign urging “tort reform,” professing the prosperity it will bestow upon all Americans. It is a campaign of lies, distortions, and propaganda that most Americans have readily consumed, digested, and accepted at their own expense and to the benefit of insurance industry profits. Billions have been spent convincing America that corporate interests are your interests.
The rights of the many, once consolidated into the powerful hands of the few, will never be relinquished. The 7th Amendment exists to protect Americans from abuse, mistreatment, and error. It is fundamental and it is just. If we continue to be complicit in the theft of our own liberty, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Tort reform measures are explicitly designed to limit your right to file a lawsuit, to deny and limit your right to have your case heard in front of a jury of your peers, and to limit and cap the amount of damages you can recover if you are harmed regardless of how bad you are hurt. These reforms are unnecessary, unwise, and unjust.
I can assure you, that you personally, and America collectively, have nothing to gain by implementing “tort reform.” In time, I will compose a series of short posts debunking the distortions, one-by-one, that have been foisted upon us over the last 30 years, in hopes that, when you are confronted with similar attacks in the future you can sort out tort deform myth, from tort reform fact.
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