What George
W. Bush's So-Called Legal "Reforms" Take From Families Injured
By Firestone/Ford
George
W. Bush has radically altered the legal system in Texas to make life
easier for companies that injure Texas citizens like Firestone and Ford.
As a result, Texans injured by companies such as Ford and Firestone
will have difficulty receiving full justice.
In
one of his first official acts as Governor, he declared it an "emergency"
for the Texas Legislature to limit the legal rights of citizens and
the authority of juries he thought it more important than improving
education, fighting crime, or protecting the environment.
Now
George W. Bush is running for President on a platform that calls for
tort "reform" that would curtail the rights of all Americans.
Here
is how the radical Bush plan has limited the legal rights of Firestone/Ford
crash victims in Texas, and how it could affect all Americans:
George
W's plan takes away Texans' ability to punish Firestone and Ford
Bush
has made punitive damages the mechanism that allows citizen juries to
punish a defendant who has willfully and maliciously injured or killed
other Texans impotent.
- By
stunting this legal right, Bush has ensured that Texans found to
be maliciously injured by Firestone and Ford will recover far less
than victims in other states even if they have exactly the same
injuries.
-
It doesn't matter whether a jury thinks victims deserve three times
more or twenty times more companies like Firestone and Ford are
shielded from having to compensate people as a Texas jury orders.
George
W's plan takes away the ability to force companies like Firestone and
Ford to reveal their deadly secrets
Bush
has announced that he wants to restrict the amount of information those
injured in cases like Firestone/Ford can get from companies during the
trial - allowing defendants to keep vital information on their cases
secret from those who need to know it to prove their cases.
- We
know that Firestone and Ford kept facts about their products' faults
secret for years leading to the deaths of some customers.Bush wants
those injured in cases like Firestone/Ford to have even less access
to company information than they do now.
George
W's plan takes away citizens' ability to seek justice in their own state
courts:
Bush
supports radical changes that would allow companies like Firestone and
Ford unilaterally to yank cases out of state courts and dump them into
the Federal system.
- In
some cases that would mean that victims would have to travel hundreds
or thousands of miles to seek justice in courts located in other
states, to be heard by Federal court judges judges they didn't get
to vote for. And pursuing cases in Federal Court is more expensive
and results in delay of justice.
DON'T
LET GEORGE W. BUSH DO TO YOU WHAT HE'S DONE TO FIRESTONE/FORD VICTIMS
IN TEXAS!
