Consumer Law

The Hottest New Civil Justice Trend

By Joe Consumer

Hey, wanna know what?s hot hot hot in state politics today? Handing power over to Corporate America to re-write a state?s judicial system, that?s what. 

In New York State, as we?ve noted, Governor Andrew Cuomo has given hospital lobbyists and millionaire hospital executives "carte blanche" to rewrite New York State?s judicial system in medical malpractice cases. 

Yesterday, the Florida Senate (with the House expected to follow), at the behest of the auto industry, passed a bill to rewrite state law, as once laid out by the Florida Supreme Court. That bill overturn standards meant to hold car companies fully responsible for producing defective cars. The bill

[O]verturns the 2001 Florida Supreme Court decision D?Amario vs. Ford Motor Co. The court ruled that jurors cannot consider the cause of the accident when determining fault on enhanced injuries. These are injuries that are not the result of the initial accident, but rather come from a defect in the car, such as a faulty gas tank.

 Or to put it another way,

Siding with the Ford Motor Co. and automobile manufacturers, the Senate approved a measure overturning a Florida Supreme Court decision in a ?crashworthiness? case dealing with enhanced injuries in accidents. ?

Sen. Maria Sachs, R-Delray Beach, said that the bill, which would apply retroactively, would let vehicle manufacturers off the hook.

?We Floridians buy these vehicles and we are led to believe that they will be safe, and safe from inherent defects that will cause secondary issues that can cause even more damage, injuries to people,? she said. ?Those manufacturers should be held accountable whether it?s a tractor, a motor vehicle.?

Full post as published by ThePopTort on March 17, 2011 (boomark / email).