SlowpokeBlog

...cartoon for a moment, reader Adam sends in these other sordid tales of tort reform hypocrisy:

My two favorite tort reform Hypocrites of all time:

John Stossel: You know that reporter on ABC? Puts out books with titles like "Give Me A Break!" and shit like that? Sets himself up as a man of the people and champion of common sense? One of his big issues is tort reform, so much so to the point where business groups hire him to come and speak.

My favorite quote from him is "...we all have pain and suffering in our lives. And if each time we hang onto it until we get some kind of compensation, society can’t work." Which is pretty interesting when you consider that in 1986, he sued a professional wrestler named David Schultz for beating his mustachioed ass, as seen here.

Stossel felt that his pain and suffering was worth $200,000.


Sterling Cornelius: Mr. Cornelius presides over an agricultural empire, and is also the founder and trustee of a group called Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. According to their manifesto, “…Lawsuit abuse is a huge problem growing out of control. The severe damage it's causing to American small-business owners, taxpayers, consumers, retirees and working families is shocking. And it's getting worse every day.”

Mr. Cornelius became such a stern advocate of tort-reform only two years after he filed a $100 million dollar lawsuit against the DuPont Corporation. In 1993, Mr. Cornelius brought suit against the chemical manufacturer because he claimed that one of their fungicides damaged his crops. Of that $100 million, $75.3 million were in the much decried “punitive damages” category.

While his lawsuit was still in progress, Mr. Cornelius helped enact severe caps on punitive damages under the Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which was the exact same statute under which he brought suit against DuPont. Fortunately for Mr. Cornelius, his suit was completely safe from the caps as it was initiated before the new regulations came into effect.

Apparently they both thought they were entitled to the windbag exception (see cartoon).