Cross posed from The Pop Tort by Joe Consumer.
Yes, we have a uniquely-American civil justice system, historically an important tool for protecting rights and liberties not just in the United States but also around the world. The corporate/neo-con lobby, of course, views this system not as a source of national pride that the injured and disempowered sometimes get justice, but rather as a source of shame, as something that should be weakened. In looking back over a few articles from last week, I’m reminded of the breathtaking capacity of our system to provide access to justice and vindication of rights.
Human Rights in Iraq: In a lawsuit filed by families of 12 Nepali men
killed in Iraq against defense contractor KBR and a Jordanian
subcontractor of human trafficking, the families say that the workers
were sent to work in Iraq against their will after being promised jobs
in a hotel in Jordan, taken to work at an American air base in Iraq in
2004 when insurgents intercepted their caravan and killed them days
later. A Nepali worker who survived said he was forced to work at the
airbase for 15 months.
Human Rights in Indonesia: A court is allowing the case to go forward against Exxon, sued for “the actions of Indonesian soldiers who, while guarding Exxon assets, allegedly beat, shot, tortured and raped villagers eight years ago.”
Hate Crime: An openly gay woman (a former contestant on "Top Chef,") was attacked last year by a group shouting anti-gay slurs. She has filed a lawsuit against her alleged attackers and the bar owner.
Discrimination: Officer Doreen Spiotti, the only female police in Wolcott Connecticut’s Police Department, sued for harassment and discrimination after being berated and told she had become a "soft" police officer after becoming a mother. The police department settled for $300,000.
Vindication for Imprisonment: A man spent more than five years in state prison for child molestation before a criminal jury acquitted him in 2005. Turns out that the investigating officer and the imprisoned man’s wife had become romantically involved and planning to marry. None of this was disclosed to the defense. But a civil jury stepped in, awarding him $16 million. “‘I’m most thankful,’ he said. ‘I believe in the system. The only way you can get vindication is to go back through the system.’
Child Molestation: After finding that a Roman Catholic diocese hid the sexual abuses of a priest, a former altar boy was awarded $5 million by an Illinois jury. The jury found that the diocese "fraudulently concealed" his suspected molestations since the early 1970s yet quietly shuffled him around from parish to parish.
