Consumer Law

Tom Donahue: Hypocrite, Serial Plaintiff

By Justinian Lane

Everyone?s favorite foreign-corporation-funded special-interest group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, has a guy at the helm named Tom Donahue. 

I used to think that Tom hated lawsuits.  After all, his group spends millions of dollars every year to persuade the public that we need to pass tort ?reform? because there are too many lawsuits.  But as it turns out, Tom?s a big fan of lawsuits:

"Litigation is one of our most powerful tools for making sure that federal agencies follow the law and are held accountable," Donohue said in remarks prepared to be delivered in Des Moines, Iowa. 

Source: U.S. Chamber pledges to take Obama policies to court | Reuters

So why is it that when people use litigations to make sure that Chamber members ?follow the law and are held accountable,? Tom says we need to change the law?

Probably because Tom is a hypocrite.  And his Chamber of Commerce is also a serial plaintiff.   You see, Tom also bragged that the Chamber has sued the EPA ?six times? this year.  What would Tom say about someone who bragged about suing Wyeth six times in a single year?  Tom would probably brand the plaintiff a ?serial litigant? and accuse him of ?clogging the courts with frivolous lawsuits.?

Don?t get me wrong.  Tom and the Chamber of Commerce have the right to sue the EPA six times a day if they believe the EPA has wronged them.  But the flip side is that we American citizens also have the right to sue Chamber members when they wrong us.  If Tom doesn?t want his right to sue to be limited, then he shouldn?t ask us to limit our right to sue.

Full post as published by TortDeform.com on October 14, 2010 (boomark / email).