The Chamber of Commerce has begun a campaign highlighting what it claims are the abundance of frivolous lawsuits filed in the courts that are supposedly plaguing small businesses.
Whenever a politician or interest group for business tries to limit the rights of ordinary citizens to bring a lawsuit, it’s commonly done in the name of small business. How very concerned and thoughtful these politicians and interest groups are! You’d think that they would be advocating on behalf of their major funders which are overwhelmingly large corporations, financial institutions, and the wealthy…
The Chamber has focused the spotlight on seemingly outrageous lawsuits such as the one brought by a former administrative judge for millions of dollars against a dry cleaner for misplacing his pants. (The judge lost the case at the trial level).
Okay, let’s assume that the cases it has cherry-picked are indeed outrageous. Should public policy be shaped based on the worst-case scenario? If so, we will see our rights get thrown out the window real quick.
Business groups’ main target when they try to curtail legal rights is always trial lawyers and the cases they bring on behalf of consumers and injured persons. Notably, you don’t hear these same groups clamoring for limits on the rights of one company to sue another. If a person suing a small business hurts its financial well-being, wouldn’t the same be true if it was sued by another small business, or for that matter, a large corporation?
But that isn’t mentioned, and that says a lot right there.
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