Illinois Deserves the Truth

Wisc. Judicial Race: Life mirrors Art

The old adage that art imitates life is being turned on it's head in Wisconsin. (Okay - Well I know some would debate if a John Grisham novel is "art" - we will say it is for our purposes.)  As we commented on this blog about Grisham's new novel "The Appeal,"  the story centers on corporate interests trying to "buy" an election in hopes to make the Mississippi Supreme Court become more business friendly (as well as  and strike down a large jury award.)  Well many may have thought the ability to do actually "buy" a judicial election a stretch of the creative imagination.  Unfortunately, this has already happened (according to Grisham) in West Virginia and is being played out right now in Wisconsin. 

Wisconsin is in the middle of a Supreme Court race which are drawing very similar parallels between the race in the book and real life - even down to the attacks on the incumbent.  (I must warn you the article has a spoiler in it about the book - so click on it at your own risk.) 

University of Wisconsin-Platteville lecturer Scott Nikolai said he was taken aback by all the similarities. He has urged his political science students to read the book, which he said is raising awareness about the powerful role of special interest money in judicial races.

"The more I read it, the more I think about the Supreme Court race we're having now," he said. "It's just eerie that this book has come out while we are grappling with this issue."

 

Let's hope that real life Wisconsin voters will not follow the fictional people in the book and make a stand against special interest money in judicial elections.

Madigan Takes On Crooked Brokers

A few days ago we cross-posted a notice from The Pop Tort about CJ&D's latest study on the importance of state Attorneys General (AGs).  Well, now the Sun-Times offers us more reason to applaud the work of Lisa Madigan’s office.  Yesterday she filed a suit against Advantage Mortgage Consulting for deceptive lending practices. 

The suit alleges the defendants employed a variety of schemes to convince consumers, many on the brink of foreclosure, that they would pay lower monthly mortgage payments. Instead their monthly rates later increased significantly, the state claims…

The lawsuit accuses the defendants of using deceptive refinancing schemes and alleges they padded loans with higher than stated fees, failed to disclose prepayment penalties and brokered adjustable-rate mortgages for consumers who thought they were agreeing to fixed-rate mortgages.

AGs aren't the only ones holding these guys accountable, but considering the huge number of people who have been wronged throughout this credit crisis, it’s great to see them playing such an active role in protecting the public interest.

Walgreen Settlement - Better Shape Up!

Here is yet another example of how the civil justice system helps us all.

A judge approved a settlement to a racial discrimination suit filed on behalf of 14 current and former African American employees of Chicagoland's Walgreen. The suit alleged that Walgreen would place their black mangers, management trainees and pharmacists in low performing stores or in stores in majority black areas, as well as deny these employees promotions based on race.  Under the terms of the settlement current and former black employees will split $20 million for damages and the company has to implement new employment policies to ensure fairness in employment and hiring practices.

Walgreen employs 230,000 people in its company.  Now all of these people will benefit from better and more fair place to work thanks the brave people who stood up against wrongdoing.

Two bills that will protect Illinoisans

Recently two important bills passed through committees in the state legislature, house
bill (HB) 5213 and senate bill (SB) 2784. These bills will reach the house and
senate floors for consideration in the coming weeks.

HB 5213, Nursing Home Liability Insurance. Sponsored by David E. Miller
(D-29th District) and co-sponsored by Greg Harris (D-13th District) and Mary E. Flowers
(D-31st District)

This bill requires nursing homes to carry liability insurance, just as Illinois car drivers
do. It also makes information about nursing home insurance plans available to the public,
so potential residents and their families are better informed when making important
decisions. Finally, the bill requires licensed nursing homes to pay treble damages (three
times the amount of actual damages) when they violate residents' rights. This important
bill will help hold wrongdoers accountable.

SB 2784, Civil Procedure Death of Party. Sponsored by Don Harmon (D-39th
District). 

This bill allows people who have been wronged to still be able to receive due
compensation if the responsible person dies. It requires that when a person dies before a
lawsuit is filed against him or her, the court can appoint a representative (of the
wrongdoer's estate) against whom the action may be filed. In this way innocent victims
don’t suddenly have to pay for another's wrongful conduct.

SB2784 is already scheduled for a Senate reading on April 1st and HB5213 will be debated soon, too. We need to get the message out that these bills are important to all Illinoisans.

Contact your state representative and state senator to let them know you support
HB 5213 and SB 2784. You can find your legislator’s contact information by going to the General Assembly's home page.

Attorneys General Rock!

Cross posted from The Pop Tort by Amanda

[Check out the report, our very own Lisa Madigan is mentioned.]

Hey, that would be a good name for a band.  Okay, maybe not. 

However, according to a new report released today by the Center for Justice & Democracy, state Attorneys General (AGs) are among our country's most important public advocates, targeting corrupt and harmful business practices on behalf of state consumers – and that definitely rocks.

CJ&D Executive Director, Joanne Doroshow, said,

"We tend to take for granted the important and sometimes understated work of state Attorneys General, many of whom toil away in unglamorous offices as they fight for the public interest.  But a stealth corporate campaign is underway to keep them from accomplishing their job, both by treating with contempt their pro-consumer cases and by attacking their use of outside counsel, which AG's seek out to better protect consumers while saving taxpayers money.  If these business groups are successful and prevent AGs from doing their job, the difference could means hundreds of millions of lost reimbursements for states due to corporate wrongdoing, not to mention countless lives."

A copy of the full report can be found here

Nursing Homes Escaping Liability

Cross posted from The Pop Tort by Amanda

Among other things, the civil justice system is supposed to compensate victims of grossly inadequate care or gross failures of care.  So when nursing home care kills or injures its vulnerable residents the nursing home should be held accountable.  Right?

But, according to the Oklahoma Center for Consumer & Patient Safety, "[O]ver 20 percent of the beds in Oklahoma are in nursing homes that refuse to carry [medical liability] insurance." Also, many of the companies that run these nursing homes set up complicated corporate structures that shield their assets from possible litigation.

Which means that there is often no legal recourse for the victims and their families if they suffer from abuse and neglect while in these homes, and they can escape responsibility for their misconduct. 

Yesterday's Oklahoman offered this example

In October 2006, Leah Gann of Sand Springs received a dreaded telephone call.

Her mother had been injured at The Gardens nursing home in Sapulpa.

Hospital X-rays revealed her mother had suffered spiral fractures to both legs, she said. Since that type of injury often is associated with abuse or neglect, Gann sued the nursing home.

She said she was upset at what she discovered: The nursing home had no medical liability insurance coverage.

"I never learned what happened to my mom," Gann said. "I never knew to look for insurance (when picking a nursing home)."    

Unfortunately, this is not just happening in Oklahoma, but in states like Illinois. Thankfully, important legislation is being discussed in both states - Oklahoma (SB1549) and Illinois (HB5213) that would require nursing homes to carry liability insurance. 

I say "about time!"  As drivers, we are required to carry liability insurance so that innocent victims can be compensated for their injuries, why shouldn't people who care for our loved ones be held to the same standards?   

We need to make sure the civil justice system is accessible to anyone who has been harmed or killed while in a nursing home is important, not just in Oklahoma and Illinois, but across the country.  Between 1 and 2 million Americans age 65 or older have been injured, exploited, or otherwise mistreated by someone on whom they depended for care or protection. 

For more information check out the Center for Justice & Democracy new fact sheet on elder abuse and nursing homes.

Your Rights for Broadband Service

A heads up for anyone looking to upgrade their telecom service: Before you sign on to a new provider, make sure you've read, er, deciphered, the terms of service.

It's no secret that credit card companies and their ilk do everything they can to get us to sign on to contracts without really understanding them.  This allows them do things like make it almost impossible for us to receive fair compensation for wrongful service.  One common practice involves giving us the card before we've even seen the full contract.  That way we can't compare the terms with those of competitors, plus we already have our foot in the door.  Well apparently telecom providers, specifically Verizon, have adopted these nasty tactics.  The LA Times wondered if one woman, who was deceived by Verizon, would switch to another provider:

"I'm just not up for going through this again," Lough said. "I guess I bought a pig in a poke."

Not necessarily. Many users say FiOS works great and is competitive with rival cable and satellite offerings.

On the other hand, perhaps Lough would have reconsidered had she known in advance that, according to the online terms of service, Verizon "reserves the right to change any of the features, content or applications of the service at any time with or without notice to you."

Or perhaps she would have raised an eyebrow at the provision stipulating that her Internet service can be cut off if she engages "in any conduct harmful to the Verizon network, the Internet generally or other Internet users."

Then, of course, there are the binding arbitration agreements.  Read the LA Times story and find yourself getting angry.

Medicare-"We're Not Gonna Pay For It!"

Cross posted from The Pop Tort by John Guyette

Just like the 80's rock band Twisted Sister sang, "We're not gonna take it," Medicare, though perhaps less cool and with undoubtedly minimal makeup, is carrying the torch by saying "We're not gonna pay for it!" Thats right, Medicare is the new rock group of 2008 fighting the establishment and the status quo.  No longer is Medicare going to foot the bill for care caused by preventable errors in hospitals. According to a CBS News report from last night:

Beginning in October,  Medicare will no longer pay for eight hospital mistakes - including:

• Urinary infection from catheter
• Bed sores
• Surgical object left in body 
• Air embolism
• Giving wrong type of blood
• Blood infection  from catheter 
• Chest infection after bypass surgery
• Hospital-caused injury

Also from the report:

"We think it's a big deal," said Kerry Weems, Medicare's acting administrator. He says when the system stops paying for preventable mistakes, hospitals will stop making them.

Touche Mr. Weems, I could not agree more.  Medicare's "rock n roll" actions are catching on in other states as well.  Pennsylvania's medicaid program is also refusing to pay for preventable mistakes.  Rock on PA! I only wish New York would follow suit.  Check out the full report here and the video clip below.

FDA, Stop the Madness

I'm ashamed to say it, but going through the news this morning I asked myself, "is it possible there is a race going on to see who can put the most harmful products on the market?"  If there is, the pharmaceutical industry is giving toy companies a run for their money.

The latest is the blood thinner heparin. This drug has been in the news so much lately its hard to keep all of the developments straight. Let’s see… First we heard about a rise in adverse side-effects to the drug, then came the recall, then the revelation that foreign manufacturers may be contaminating the drug, and through it all there was Dennis Quaid’s horror story (covered here and on ThePopTort). To date, heparin has been linked to as many as 19 deaths and hundreds of serious illnesses.  The FDA just announced they would begin inspecting imports of all heparin products, but is that enough? After all, every time you think they are taking control of a situation another story breaks.

Time and again the FDA has failed to keep dangerous products off our shelves. The good news is that when federal bodies aren't working, consumers can always count on the civil justice system to get results themselves (except of course in Michigan--read this CJ&D report).

If it's broke, fix it.

Another recall of 2.4 million dangerous toys. Sounds like old news, right?  But disturbingly it is not.  To highlight this recall, some of the toys recalled were sent as replacements for other recalled toys.  It is enough to make your head spin. 

In May, the Chicago Tribune conducted an investigative report into the death and injury from high powered "candy sized" magnets from toys that where consumed by children.  This investigation spurred the governement to act and recall these toys.  As part of this toy recall, the makers of the dangerous toys, Mega Brands, sent out "safer toys" as replacements.  As of this Monday, March 17, these replacement toys have also been recalled.  It begs the question, who is supposed to be making sure that our children toys are safe? 

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is the governmental agency charged with investigating and recalling dangerous products, but as the Tribune report showed the CPSC's "failure to act promptly on reports of the deadly hazard was emblematic of how the docile and underfunded agency failed to protect children."  (A recent report (membership required), released by CJ&D, highlights administrative agencies that have been weakened under the Bush Administration and have deteriorated consumer protections.)   

This is why it has become so important to let the civil justice system hold wrongdoers and makers of unsafe products accountable to victims and their families. 

To find out more about recalled children's products visit Kids in Danger. To find out about how the civil justice system can hold wrongdoers accountable visit The Center for Justice & Democracy.