Talk to an Attorney

Contact Minnesota-based Sieben, Grose, Von Holtum & Carey to speak with one of our personal injury attorneys free of charge.

Featured Attorney

James P. Carey
Jim Carey is a personal injury attorney with a reputation for winning big cases while effectively serving all of his clients. He was chosen to sit on the American Board of Trial Advocates, an elite organization of accomplished trial attorneys.

Four Office Locations

With offices in...
Minneapolis
Lakeville
Fairfax
Duluth

Newsweek Surrenders Journalistic Integrity

The headlines scream from the recent issue of the magazine Newsweek:

Lawsuit Hell – How Fear of Litigation Is Paralyzing Our Professions
Civil Wars
Our Litigation Nation – And A Plan To Fix It

There’s just one problem though: it’s all baloney!

Media Conglomerate Uses Power To Control Public Opinion

Even the informed reader can’t help but sympathize with the dramatic stories of doctors, teachers, coaches and ministers all living in fear of lawsuits.  Millions of people reading the recent Newsweek article “Lawsuit Hell” or viewing follow-up coverage on corporate sisters NBC and CNBC nod their heads in agreement with the premise of the reports: greedy lawyers, freeloading clients and airhead jurors are wreaking havoc on our system of civil justice.

We join in the tide of criticism waged at this writer’ editorial that the magazine passed off to its readers as “news.” Instead of journalism, what we are witnessing is the stark reality of a propaganda campaign that is now being waged against the legal rights of individual Americans. [See story “They’re Trying To Take Away Your Rights” this issue.]  And in fact, Stuart Taylor, the Newsweek reporter who wrote the article, is not a reporter at all but an editorial writer well known for his disdain of the civil justice system and trial by jury … facts that are never revealed in the article.

Here’s a point by counter-point review of the truth behind the Newsweek “story.”

Newsweek: Claims “the ‘litigation explosion’ of the past 30 years may be leveling off (though one study shows a sharp recent uptick.)”
Reality: Tort lawsuits (those that involve personal injury and medical malpractice cases) have actually decreased 9 percent since 1992, according to the Conference of State Court Administrators, the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the National Center for State Courts’ Court Statistics.

In Minnesota, personal injury filings have dropped 19 percent since 1997, wrongful death 4 percent, and medial malpractice an incredible 46 percent.

Newsweek: Stated that, “Americans will sue each other at the slightest provocation.”
Reality: One in six Americans sustains an injury serious enough to result in economic loss. Yet according to the Rand Institute, “the injured person does not even consider the notion of seeking compensation from some other person or entity…” In fact, only 10 percent ever file a claim, only two percent file a lawsuit.

Newsweek: Wrote that, “little league coaches [are filled with dread] that the slightest mistake…will drag them into litigation hell.”
Reality: The author is apparently unaware that in 1997, Congress passed a law that immunizes Little League coaches – or volunteers for any non-profit organization or government program – from negligence lawsuits!

Newsweek: Blames litigation for the astronomical rate hikes in malpractice insurance premiums that many doctors are experiencing.
Reality: During down markets in the mid-70s, 80s and now today, insurance companies have lost billions from investments gone sour. In fact, studies have shown that the payment of medical malpractice claims is not the source of significant losses to insurers.

In Minnesota, According to a recent compensation report, Dr. William Macguire, CEO of mega-insurer United Health Care, was paid $37.8 million this past year. This is substantially more than all of the verdicts and settlements reported from medical malpractice litigation for the entire state of Minnesota in 2003 which totaled $19 million.

Newsweek: Claims that citizen juries award “outrageous verdicts” and are often too “emotional, sympathetic” or “ignorant” to handle their constitutional duties in our system of trial by jury.
Reality: If you have every served as a juror, you know this isn’t the case. Ask judges, and they’ll tell you that the opposite is true. Ninety-six percent of judges in a recent major study say they agree with jury verdicts most of the time. And nine out of 10 responding judges stated that jurors show considerable understanding of legal issues involved in the cases they hear. Virtually every major independent jury scholar has expressed the same confidence in the jury system.

Newsweek: Said that, “playgrounds all over the country have been stripped of … old-fashioned equipment once popularized by President John F. Kennedy’s physical fitness campaign. But some experts say that new, supposedly safer equipment is actually more dangerous…”
Reality: The Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Handbook for Public Playground Safety sets the standards for safe playground design. Independent researchers have determined that the fear of legal liability from failing to meet these federal standards has resulted in “widespread upgrading of playgrounds in schools, public parks and day-care centers” throughout the nation.

There were numerous other inaccuracies and distortions in the examples Newsweek used to make its case for overhauling the American system of jurisprudence. “Parents sue McDonald’s” for making their kids fat, reported the author. “Convicted sex offender threatens to sue police for failing to find him…Cheerleader’s parents threaten to sue school… They sue local governments when struck by lightning on city golf courses… They sue ministers for failing to prevent suicides.” What they didn’t tell you was that the McDonald’s case was dismissed; the sex offender couldn’t find a lawyer willing to take his case; the cheerleader’s parents never filed suit; the lightening strike case was lost at every level due to governmental immunity; and, every state court that has considered clergy malpractice has rejected these claims.

Probably the most serious shortcoming of this story, however, is what it failed to say. Fact is people can sue anyone about anything. But they can only succeed if the claim if merit. Claims without a basis in fact or in law – so called frivolous lawsuits” – are dismissed by the courts BEFORE they advance to a jury trial.

Our civil justice system works day in and day out for thousands of Americans who have wrongly experienced physical or emotional loss. Manufacturers of everything from children’s pajamas to medical devices to building materials to automobiles have been forced to make their products safer because of legitimate legal redress. The unacceptable risks inherent in some products, cigarettes for example, have been widely disclosed to the public during trial. It has always been clear to us that only a judge and jury – unfettered by corporate influence and the well heeled in our society – can balance the scales of justice for the average citizen. “Destroy that ability,” says Dennis Archer, President of the American Bar Association, “and we slice a major gash in the protective bulwark of our justice system.”

- Other sources for information used in this story include the Center For Justice and Democracy and the American Trial Lawyers Association.