Personal Injury Law

House and Senate Bills Creating New CPSC Powers is Long Overdue

By Steve Lombardi

In the Tuesday, March 4, 2008 edition of the Wall Street Journal there is an editorial titled "Lawyers 'R' Us. It discussed the house and senate versions of bills trying to strengthen the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Included in the editorial are claims that both bills include provisions that would "more than double the agency's budget by 2015...", increase "civil penalties faced by companies in violation of consumer safety rules.", a "whistleblower provision", "distribute enforcement power among the nation's dozens of state Attorneys General", allow the AG's the right "to file lawsuits and enforce rules against manufacturers"; "making matters worse, the Senate bill would create a new product safety database to provide "disclosure" of safety complaints - ostensibly for the benefit of consumers.", and lastly, "complaints from consumers would be listed on an official CPSC searchable database without any requirement to verify the claim or alleged defect."

At first glance I thought they were trying to be funny. In light of what we've recently experienced with lead paint on toys and how that affected the Christmas spending by consumers it appeared completely off the mark. But reading it again didn't shed any further light on the point of this editorial. The title suggests envy about what the editorial board perceives lawyers earn. If you don't like what your job pays then by all means get a new one. But don't throw your ethics away just to sell newspapers. Let's analyze each point the editorial makes to see if there's lead in the editorial staff's pencils. In considering each point they make and reflecting on current stories of toys covered in lead paint it's difficult to appreciate how anyone on the editorial board would consider this to be responsible journalism. Not even if they own stock in Mattel does this make sense to criticize. Let's examine each point they make and ask ourselves if this is a reasonable response to the proposed legislation.

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on March 31, 2008 (boomark / email).