Personal Injury Law

Part 5.2 of 10: The economics of non-economic damages. Is the Texas Legislature right or just being greedy?

By Steve Lombardi

SO WHAT IS GOING ON IN AMERICA? Why is tort reform so popular?

Historically in America there is no precedent for governments reducing or altogether eliminating or prohibiting pain and suffering damages from being awarded. Other countries have done this very thing, but historically not Americans. The Communist Party in China has and continues to prohibit all but the most rudimentary of civil damage awards. The infant children sickened and poisoned into kidney failure or death were not allowed to sue Sanlu for civil damages. The few that were allowed to sue sought no more than 150,000 Yuan; the equivalent of $21,900 US. Which sounds a lot like Texas civil damage law as applied to Mr. Fitzgerald. Here are a few excerpts about how civil rights are respected under a communist system of government.

To gain an understanding of the melamine controversy and how the melamine infant formula controversy is being dealt with in China read this post. See a previous article I posted titled Consumer Safety: How do we solve the melamine contamination crisis and stop the Chinese from corrupting the American and world supply of consumer goods?

The family's attorneys, Zhang Xingkuan and Ji Cheng of Beijing's Deheng Law Office, declined to disclose the names of their clients. Mr. Zhang said they are seeking compensation of 150,000 yuan ($21,900) to cover hospital fees, travel expenses, time off from work and other costs. The attorney said that the parents claim the boy developed kidney stones from drinking Sanlu, and that they had more than 90 empty bags of Sanlu milk powder their son had consumed as proof.

The Sanlu lawsuit comes as some lawyers who offered to assist families of sickened children report being pressured to stay away from the issue. Beijing lawyer Li Fangping (who I met with last Saturday), who organized a group of over 120 volunteer lawyers around China to provide free legal advice to families affected by tainted milk, said he has received numerous calls from lawyers in the volunteer network who said they are facing pressure from local officials to refrain from getting involved.

Chinese Parents File Melamine Milk Lawsuit - Other Lawyers Urged to Quit Helping Victims, Bill Marler with USLaw.com.

And in The Wall Street Journal, Chinese Parents File Milk Lawsuit, Sky Canaves and Juliet Ye.

As you can see communism pushes civil rights for civil reparations for personal injury out of the courts and into the streets where the disabled traditionally beg for assistance. Their suffering is counterproductive to profit-making so they are told to suffer in silence and away from the media.

For the most part in America we don't allow begging.

Later today I'll take up what makes the American dream different. We continue to ask the question about what is making tort reform so popular and what is going on in American culture and politics.

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on May 22, 2009 (boomark / email).