"You better finish your little cafe latte there, they'll never let you in with it." "Why not?" "'cause they don't allow outside drinks into the movie." "Well, we'll just see if we can't get around that." "Pardon me." "Excuse us." "Oh!" "Ahh!" "Coffee!" "And then, there is this tonight." "In albuquerque, an 81-year-old woman has been awarded $2.9 million" "After she sued mcdonald's, claiming their coffee was too hot." "It seems she was holding a cup between her legs while driving." "I spoke to a lawyer, we're suing for millions." "Suing, what for?" "The coffee was too hot!" "I've been thinking of quitting work here," "And suing big companies for a living instead." "Suing has become a popular american pastime," "And I'd like to get in on some of that easy money." "A college student sued his college, because his roommate partied too much." "A florida man sued because he got a bad haircut." "Of course, many of these lawsuits fail." "But you might win." "Stella liebeck did, because of a cup of coffee." "Every minute they waste on this frivolous lawsuit," "They're not able to waste on other frivolous lawsuits." "Like "ooh, my coffee was too hot!" it's coffee!" "The woman, she purchased the coffee, and she spilled it on herself." "I mean, it wasn't like the mcdonald's employee took the coffee, threw it on her." "Now that in itself, then she would have had a lawsuit." "It's just, people just are greedy, and want money, and they'll do anything to get it." "I think many americans have a, a fundamentally wrong perception" "Of the civil justice system." "They think that the system is flooded with frivolous lawsuits." "Jackpot justice!" "Predatory trial lawyers at it again." "Junk lawsuits over frivolous injuries..." "Lawsuit lottery, and jackpot justice, and frivolous lawsuits." "These were bumper-sticker phrases that were easy to market," "And use to move public sentiment away from a strong civil justice system." "The whole issue is, the industry does not want the public, generally," "To have access to the courts." "So, there's all of these devices and methods that businesses use" "To keep consumers out of the courtroom." "My mother, at 79, was very active." "She drove, she drove well," "She very seldom dropped anything," "She very seldom spilled anything," "And so that, uh, for her age," "At 79 years old, I thought she was, she was remarkable." "And she had been working full-time just about," "Until about a week before this all happened." "My name is charles allen." "I'd like to introduce my wife, judy, and her mother, stella liebeck." "The woman who was burned by a cup of scalding hot mcdonald's coffee three years ago." "She cannot speak due to a confidentiality agreement that she signed," "But judy and I have no such agreement." "I am just xxtoded at how many people are aware of this case," "And how many people have a distorted view of the case." "It doesn't matter where I am, or who I speak to, they "oh, yeah, I know all about that. "" "Well, what do you know?" "I got this picture in my mind that she actually pulled up," "Maybe took the coffee, and dumped it." "I think she went through the drive-through." "She was driving the car." "Tried to drive and drink it at the same time." "And then it might have popped open and it spilled on her lap." "Had it between her legs." "Spilled in her lap, it was too hot." "And then sued mcdonald's" "For millions of dollars." "And I'll say, "what would you say if I told you she wasn't driving?"" ""oh no, she was driving!"" ""what would you say if I told you that's the wrong report, and she was not driving?" ""she was in the parking lot." ""she was in the passenger seat." "My nephew was driving. "" "So we had just dropped off my uncle at the airport," "And went to the nearest mcdonald's that I knew of, and this was it." "So, pulled up, she ordered coffee with her value meal," "And I knew she liked cream and sugar in it." "There was no place in, in my 1989 ford probe." "Everything sloped." "There were no cup holders in that car." "Did I get cream and sugar also?" "It's in the bag." "It's in the bag?" "Yeah." "Thank you." "We pulled out of here knowing that we..." "I needed to get organized if I was going to be eating and driving," "And I knew she wanted to put her cream and sugar in the coffee," "So, pretty much pulled right here, almost exactly in this spot," "And handed her her coffee, or had already done that," "And so we just went about organizing," "And a short period after that, she started screaming." "Wanted to get the top off to put cream and sugar in," "So I put it between my knees to steady it with this hand," "Trying to get the top off, and it just went "whoo. "" "Are you going to show me the burns?" "Yeah." "What?" "Yeah." "Would that change your mind at all?" "Wow." "Yes, if I saw injuries like that, I would definitely take a different view of it" "From what I hear from the media." "Oh, my gosh!" "Excruciating pain." "Uh, I was burned so severely that, uh, they didn't think I would live." "I'm a nurse, and I was horrified" "At the type of injuries that she had sustained." "Um, the skin grafts, and the pieces that were still ongoing." "So it was kind of a shocker, 'cause it's one thing to hear, but it's another thing to see." "So it was kind of, uh, "oh my goodness. "" "We could see the extent of this injury, so we started saying" "We need to ask mcdonald's to pay for this." "Under no circumstances would she ever sue or do anything like that." "We thought that the company would take care of medical, and everything would be done." "And chuck and I wrote the letter to mcdonald's." "The very first thing we said is, "your machine must be too hot," ""so look at it, and fix it, if it's broken. "" "This must be an aberration." ""it must be an aberration." "But if it is your, your policy," ""we ask you to worry about that policy," ""because it..." "You do not want to have this happen to just one person. "" "And then clearly it can't have happened to just one person." "We were extremely surprised when mcdonald's did not" "Offer more than $800 on what was at that point a $10,000 medical problem." "It's one of those things that's really like," "If you ask people what the top ten issues they care about," "You know, the economy, healthcare, education," "The civil justice system never even makes the top twenty." "It's just not in, in most people's radar screen." "Until something bad happens to them," "And then the first thing that most americans think is that they should find a lawyer." "When you are hurt by somebody, harmed in some way," "And the person or the company that harms you is negligent," "Or does this intentionally," "You have a right to hold that wrongdoer accountable." "And those are the civil courts that handle those kinds of cases," "And that is our civil justice system." "It's a fundamental right that we have." "It stems from the constitution," "From the bill of rights." "♪ hey there, kiddos the lesson today" "♪ is about our constitution and the government way" "♪ lawmaking powers divided in three" "♪ forefathers had their say" "♪ that is the american way ♪" "Our judicial branch of government is one of the very few places where" "An average person can actually go and confront a big corporation" "On somewhat of a level playing field, you know." "The other two branches of government are dominated by money, and politics." "The judicial branch is not, because you can't wine and dine juries." "In the courts, it's you versus general motors." "Or it's you versus, you know, bank of america." "And if you can present your information and your complaint in an effective way," "You have just as much likelihood of winning as general motors does." "There's no other part of the government where that's true." "I got involved in the liebeck case by way of invitation from reed morgan," "Who was lead council," "And once I met reed, and met stella liebeck, and looked at the evidence," "You know, they had my full attention." "Because the coffee in question was brewed at temperatures" "That would approximate the temperature in your radiator" "After you drive from, you know, from your office to home." "In discovery, we learned that in the franchise directives and manuals," "That the franchisee was required to follow," "That they had to have their, their waters at certain temperatures." "And they said that the holding temperature should be 180 fahrenheit to 190 fahrenheit." "Hot liquid, whether it's coffee, or water," "Or any liquid like that," "If it's in the range of 180 degrees or hotter," "If it is in contact with your skin for more than just a few seconds," "It will produce very serious burns." "If you're lucky, it'll produce a second-degree burn," "If you're not as lucky, you will get third-degree, or full-thickness burns" "Requiring skin grafting and surgery." "And if you add up the, uh, burn history of mcdonald's" "Since January of 1983 until March of uh, '92," "It's over 700 burn cases, and that doesn't surprise you, does it?" "I can't say that I'm surprised or not surprised." "I'm, I'm glad the number's not higher." "All right." "I'm, I'm really pleased that that's not more than that." "I thought that was, that was terrible" "That he was so indifferent about it, you know." "Uh, even if it was just one person, that's enough to pay attention to." "I mean, uh, one person that spoke up." "I'm sure there's more than that, that was damaged with a hot coffee." "But, uh, it's so easy to burn at that temperature," "And they were so indifferent about it." "If you were to take a sip of that coffee," "Enough to where you could feel it go down your throat," "You can't do that at 180 to 190 degrees, can you, because you'll be burned." "You better not do that, you will get burned." "We talked about different percentages of how much was her fault versus, you know," "How much was mcdonald's," "And we finally came to assign 20% fault to mrs." "Liebeck," "Because she had initially spilled the coffee," "And we assigned 80% of the, uh, blame to mcdonald's," "Because they had a very long history of people being injured," "And they were so adamant that it was such a trivial thing," "That they weren't going to bother to do anything" "Other than just continue to rake in the money on their coffee sales." "And the fact that it was their own records" "Really damned mcdonald's as far as I was concerned," "Because it was very obvious that they knew there was a problem," "And they were ignoring it completely." "Just totally disregarding the consumers' safety." "We looked at the coffee sales on a daily basis," "And we figured about two days' worth of coffee sales." "We thought that that was, you know, a fair amount," "And punitive damages we, uh, assessed at $2.7 million." "Punitive damages are very rare, and they have a specific purpose," "Which is to essentially change the behavior of the wrongdoer." "Only way you can get the attention of a big company would be," "To, uh, make punitive damages against them," "And this was a very small punitive damage, we thought." "Even though the amount was reduced later," "I think the initial award certainly got everybody's attention," "Not necessarily in a favorable way." "♪ I sued starbucks, 'cause I spilled a frappuccino in my lap," "♪ and brr it was cold" "♪ I'm gonna sue, sue, yes I'm gonna sue" "♪ sue, sue" "The media in corporate america turned a disadvantage into an advantage," "An extreme advantage, as to how they dealt with this case and its aftermath." "I mean, mrs." "Liebeck became a joke, the jury function became a joke," "Notwithstanding of the fact that we had twelve good," "Hardworking new mexico citizens on that jury," "And it was a unanimous verdict." "But they did a masterful job of taking this, this simple verdict" "And turning it upside down, as though people like mrs." "Liebeck" "Are trying to take economic advantage of, of the whole legal system." "The tort reform groups, they love the mcdonald's coffee case," "This was a perfect case for them, because it looked like it was frivolous." "I had heard the word "tort reform" before my mother was injured," "But I, I had never really understood what that meant." "A tort is, uh, a pastry, as far as I know." "It's also some type of funding" "That the federal government has done, uh, for bailout money, I believe." "Oh, I thought that was tarp." "No, I think it's tort." "Uh..." "I have no idea what a tort is." "A tort is a piece of..." "It's a..." "I think a tort is a piece of bread" "That looks like a hoagie roll, but isn't a hoagie roll." "So a tort is a harm, it's, it's a, when someone commits a tort," "They have harmed you in some way." "I've heard the statement, "tort reform. "" "Do you know what it means?" "No." "Tort reform would mean trying to clean up, the, the logistics of suing people," "Or, or trying to make it easier or harder." "I'm not quite sure which way tort reform tends to work." "Well, tort reform is a term drummed up by some of the advertising people for the uh," "Business sector," "Which is, to limit the likelihood that you can bring a lawsuit." "It is, essentially, laws that restrict people's rights to go to court." "I don't think that the term..." "I'm not going to say it." "I, I just won't say the word "tort reform," the phrase, that phrase," "Because, um, I don't think that it, uh," "Is an accurate representation of what's really going on." "Ralph nader calls it "tort deform," so I guess reform is in the eyes of the beholder." "But if you want to change a system, which had become, in the late 1970s," "Very, very pro-plaintiff in the view of some," "If you want to change it, usually the word "reform" is used." "This big push to publicize the mcdonald's case" "Came in the midst of an attempt to pass federal legislation." "It was going to limit the consumer's right to go to court." "It meant that there were going to be caps on damages," "That there were gonna be all sorts of changes in the rules" "Of what you could do in order to bring a case into court." "And so there was this humongous campaign by industry," "Attempting to affect juries, but also attempting to affect senators." "And the mcdonald's case became the poster child" "For what's wrong with people going to court and suing." "We looked at the congressional hearings about the tort reform bill," "And we found that the most common reference to justify tort reform" "Was the mcdonald's coffee case." "There were not many statistical studies." "The primary evidence was, everybody knows the mcdonald's coffee case," "Therefore we need tort reform." "If a lady goes to a fast food restaurant, puts coffee in her lap, burns her, her legs," "And sues and gets a big settlement," "That in and of..." "Of itself is enough to tell you why we need to have tort reform." "And in fact what happened was, it did pass the senate," "And, uh, president bill clinton did veto it." "This legislation is arcane, complex," "It has a lot of legalisms and loopholes in it," "But the real fact is, it could have a devastating impact on innocent americans." "And so what happened was," "Corporate america sort of went to a plan b," "So they went to a lot of state legislatures," "And asked the state legislatures to pass laws" "That would limit the rights and remedies of individuals in various ways." "And they were constantly on the attack, because they had so many pr firms" "That they had hired to go out and do their work in the different states." "A woman was awarded $2.9 million in a lawsuit against mcdonald's." "She spilled hot coffee on her lap while sitting in her car, and claimed it was too hot." "Every day we hear about another outrageous lawsuit." "Who pays?" "You do." "Tell the legislature we can't afford another million dollar cup of coffee." "One of the most significant pr efforts" "Was spearheaded by the american tort reform association," "Atra." "The american tort reform association is a group of several hundred businesses" "And also colleges and universities," "And I'm their general counsel." "And they are dedicated to try to see" "That there's a fair and balanced legal system in the United States." "The american tort reform association was formed in 1986" "By about 300 major corporations," "Insurance companies, chemical companies, oil and gas, pharmaceutical companies." "They were going to start advocating for laws all around the country" "To limit the liability of all their members." "And so they hired a pr firm, and they came up with these groups called" "Citizens against lawsuit abuse." "They were to give the impression" "That these were just citizen groups that had sprung up spontaneously." "Astroturf groups." "So they looked like they were grassroots groups," "But they really had no people in them, they were all run through the pr firm." "But that's what citizens against lawsuit abuse was." "The tobacco industry was actually funding a lot of this." "That they would funnel money through a washington, dc law firm" "Called covington  burling," "That would then distribute tobacco money" "To some of these citizens against lawsuit abuse groups." "Was there any distortions by people in the media, by politicians," "By people who wanted tort reform?" "Sometimes stories were repeated, and repeated over and over again," "It happens all the time," "That were not, uh, true, or they were unfounded." "I don't think it was intentional." "Listen to just a few cases." "I hope I won't be repeating some that maybe have already been told to you." "In california, a man was using a public telephone booth to place a call." "An alleged drunk driver careened down the street," "Lost control of her car, and crashed into the phone booth." "Now it's no surprise that the injured man sued," "But you might be startled to hear whom he sued." "The telephone company and associated firms." "That's right." "There's a telephone booth on the corner of a very busy intersection in los angeles," "And this guy was standing inside, and he saw this car coming right at him," "And he tried to get out of the phone booth, and the door stuck." "And the reason that this was the fault of the telephone company" "Is that there'd been lots of other cases" "Where this telephone booth had been hit by cars, 'cause it was in a very dangerous position," "And it hadn't been properly repaired, so the guy couldn't get out!" "And so he was hit inside the phone booth." "He lost his leg." "He was extremely ill." "You know, it was not the source of real humor the way reagan had portrayed it." "So there were a lot of stories like that." "For me, you know, not being a lawyer, I'm a journalist," "And I felt like journalists had just really not done a good job of covering," "And that they had fallen for lots of public relations ruses" "That they should know better about." "There was even a story of somebody taking a lawnmower to trim a hedge," "And there was a lawsuit, and actually it never occurred." "So there were some scare tactics that really didn't have basis in fact." "I didn't take this job to sit around and worry about getting sued." "If we don't stop lawsuit abuse," "I might not be able to do my job." "And my job just might be to save your life." "Join the jury against lawsuit abuse." "It was supposedly just a group of business people and community leaders" "Who were acting on their own, when in fact," "It was a carefully orchestrated campaign," "Orchestrated out of washington, dc with the help of people like karl rove," "Who had their own business and financial interest in pushing the agenda of tort reform," "And making it look like it was a totally spontaneous event." "Texas must end the junk lawsuits that clog our courts and threaten our producers." "In texas in the mid '90s, you had karl rove," "And then-candidate bush come along," "And see that there was a real political advantage" "To talking about so-called tort reform." "Karl rove was, in the early 1990s, a consultant for phillip morris," "For the tobacco industry." "He was working for phillip morris and bush at the same time." "He was on the phillip morris payroll." "So he had a lot of ties to these folks." "Rove saw that if he used tort reform, and if his candidates ran on tort reform," "It would make it that much easier for him" "To open the pockets of the business community." "And then, once governor bush was elected, uh, it was katy bar the door." "They implemented all of the things that interests like insurance companies," "And the health care industry, and others wanted in texas." "And so it's with great pleasure that I sign a cap on punitive damages," "That will add certainty to the business climate." "And a lot of the people who had been his biggest financial backers in texas," "They followed him right to the white house." "So he kept going." "No one has ever been healed by a frivolous lawsuit." "I urge the congress to pass medical liability reform." "Our economy is held back by irresponsible class actions, and frivolous asbestos claims," "And I urge congress to pass legal reforms this year." "Because lawsuits are driving many good doctors out of practice," "Leaving women in nearly 1500 american counties without a single obgyn," "I ask the congress to pass medical liability reform this year." "He was tort-reformer-in-chief." "He really brought the issue to center stage in a way nobody else had ever done." "Too many good docs are getting out of business." "Too many obgyns aren't able to practice their," "Their love with women all across this country." "We're a litigious society." "Everybody's suing, it seems like." "There are too many lawsuits in america..." "If you have the right words that evoke your whole system of thought," "And your way of understanding an issue," "And when that language is repeated over and over, the brain changes." "The circuitry gets stronger, and can become permanent." "In my line of work you gotta keep repeating things over and over and over again," "For the truth to sink in." "To kind of catapult the propaganda." "So they would get their message out there," "And then the public would pressure their local legislators" "To enact caps on damages and other kinds of liability limits." "So there was a direct link between the pr that was done," "And ultimately the passage of laws." "That's for everybody?" "Yeah." "All right!" "We got 16 candles we have to put in here, because you're 16 years old." "So pick up one." "This has to be the top." "Turn it around, so that you have a hold of this part," "And then you're going to put it in up there." "Any place you want." "Put it there." "Okay, now let me show you what you need to do, you need to take..." "Don't laugh." "They're not, they're not gonna laugh." "Take a hold of it, here I'll help you." "I had no idea what tort reform was." "I had no idea that there were caps on damages here in nebraska," "Um, prior to colin's case." "Caps on damages, I think, is something that exists when there..." "When there is misuse in the system, so I," "I would trust, just as someone has the right to access the courts, uh," "There should be a body overseeing it, and regulating it, and uh," "And that's what a cap is." "A cap is, is public oversight on abuse." "No, it's a, it's a limit for how much money you can get from, like," "The tobacco company that killed your wife because of lung cancer or..." "Right." "I don't know, you can only sue your doctor for so much, right, isn't that..." "Right, because there's abuse, and so you have to set a limit." "One of the most common so-called tort reforms is what's called caps on damages," "Or limits on the amount of money that a jury or a judge can award to somebody" "After they've been hurt and won their case." "Their opportunity to get compensation is strictly limited." "I, I want to be honest with you, I'm not advocating caps on malpractice awards." "Which I believe, uh, I personally believe" "Can be unfair to people who've, uh, been wrongfully harmed." "Wow, you're a big helper." "I know that." "I was 36 weeks along, um," "Pregnant with identical twin boys," "And I noticed the night before my regularly scheduled doctor's appointment," "That the movement..." "Normally when I'd go to bed the," "The babies would be really moving around a lot," "And I noticed that they weren't moving around very much," "And I just kind of felt like, you know, this is kind of weird." "And I, I'm going to the doctor in the morning, I'll talk to her about it." "And I went in, and I told her, and she's like, well let's listen to the heartbeats," "And she listened to the heartbeats," "And, um, she said, you know, the heartbeats are normal," "Every, you know, it sounds, you know, everything looks good." "And so, um, I was reassured..." "It's really important to determine how many placentas," "When you're pregnant with twins, that if there's only one placenta," "Then it's a high-risk pregnancy." "So when I went in with my concern on Monday," "It should have been immediately followed up with an ultrasound," "And, you know, a stress test." "And had they done that, they would have seen what was happening was" "The twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome," "Where one baby starts getting everything, and the other baby's getting nothing." "Um, the next day, the movement was less," "And then the, the next day, the movement was even less," "And I became, I started to become really concerned," "And I called the doctor's office." "And, um, we're going to see dr." "Knolla's partner." "He said "come on, let's go do an ultrasound. "" "And he showed the heartbeat of one of the babies, and it was so slow," "It was, like, almost gonna stop." "And he said, you know, "there's not a lot of fluid around one of the babies," ""and we need to deliver the babies right away. "" "Colin suffered, uh, severe brain damage to all areas of the brain." "They just said that it must have been from a lack of oxygen or, or whatever," "But they didn't really say how it happened or why it happened," "Or give us any further background," "And I guess that kind of led us to keep asking questions, and keep looking for answers." "Well, I've got one son that's perfectly normal, he's a, you know, a normal child," "And I've got one son who has severe brain damage, and they were born at the same time." "You know, what happened here?" "The gourleys also never knew that before they went to see dr." "Knolla," "She'd been in court before." "Sued two other times, both for malpractice." "According to court records in 1987 and 1989," "Dr. Knolla was accused of botching two pelvic operations." "It appears both cases were settled secretly, but legally, out of court." "At trial, it came out that the injury was caused by a lack of blood flow" "From the placenta through the cord," "And oxygen depletion of the brain for five to eight minutes" "Is what caused the damage." "So not knowing, I mean looking back," "All that time was so critical, you know." "It was, I mean had they just, you know, delivered him right away..." "And the nurses testified that the doctor had called over to the hospital" "And they'd had the or prepared and ready, but the doctors weren't there." "You know, you just start thinking all these things," "And why didn't they do an ultrasound on that Monday, you know?" "And then, you know," "I went through, for about three years, of "why didn't I just ask?"" "You know, I kind of blamed myself," "For a while, um, you know, but you, you just want to change what happened," "And knowing that it was preventable." "The economists at the time said that he would need $6 million," "At the time of the trial," "For him to have enough money to take care of him for the rest of his life." "All right, here we go." "In most instances when you have a lawsuit where a cap statute is involved," "The jury doesn't know that there's a cap statute." "So if the jury renders an award which is higher than the cap statute," "The trial judge, after the trial," "Then reduces the verdict to the amount of the cap." "And so it actually, it takes away the power of the jury" "To make a determination as to what a fair and reasonable amount should be for damages." "That's in the bill of rights," "That juries, not legislators," "Get to determine questions of fact in the court room," "And one of the most important issues of fact decided in a civil jury trial" "Is what the appropriate damages are to compensate someone who has been injured" "Due to the fault of another, you would agree with that?" "I don't disagree with that." "So, so why does the u." "S. Chamber spend so much money" "Trying to convince us that we know more" "About the value of someone's injury or death" "Than the people who elected us to congress," "Who go into jury boxes all over this country," "Under the seventh amendment to the bill of rights?" "The judge ruled that the cap here in nebraska was unconstitutional," "That, um, it violated your rights to a jury trial." "And then the doctors and the insurance company appealed the case" "To the nebraska supreme court," "And the nebraska supreme court came back and found the cap constitutional." "I've been involved in the tort reform issues in nebraska for a long time," "But most recently as a member of the professional liability committee" "Of the nebraska medical association," "And subsequent to that, the colorado physicians insurance company," "Which is the major malpractice carrier for this region." "In nebraska, we have a total cap that includes all damages," "Whether it be economic or non-economic damages." "So caps on damages can be three kinds." "There can be caps on punitive damages" "In some states," "There's caps on non-economic damages in many states," "And in a very, very few states there could be caps on the entire amount" "That a plaintiff can get." "Economic damages, you can think about those as your out-of-pocket cost." "They're your health care expenses, your lost wages," "And non-economic damages are for pain, suffering, the loss of enjoyment of life," "The harm that's been done to them that is difficult to measure in money." "But there needs to be some reason," "When it comes to non-economic damages in the system." "And that's why I've proposed a hard cap of $250,000 on non-economic damages." "I think a cap on non-economic damages of $250,000 makes some sense" "For most of the states in the United States, 'cause there's such a soft and squishy type" "Of, of, of, damages, and difficult to determine, I think that makes some sense." "It's an arbitrary number that bears no relationship" "To the harm that the plaintiff suffered," "And also, it has a disproportionate impact on people in certain situations." "If you've been blinded, permanently disabled, disfigured in some way," "Or you're a woman and your reproductive system has been harmed in some way," "Those injuries are non-economic in nature," "And someone deserves to be compensated for that." "Okay, guys." "Colin?" "Colin." "Boo!" "They're identical twins, but there's nothing really very identical about 'em." "I mean conner's a, pretty much a normal boy," "I mean he grew up and played baseball and soccer," "And, you know, just did what boys normally do," "And colin on the other hand, he grew up," "The first surgery, I think, was when he was, was he one?" "One." "One." "He had, he had to have eye surgery." "There was optical nerve damage in the brain injury." "It was part of the brain injury." "So he, he doesn't see real well." "And then he started having to go to therapy," "When he was about two, I think we started taking him to therapy?" "Mmm-hmm." "And that was pretty intense," "And they finally got him to where he could hold his head up," "And then where he could sit up." "Then as he, he grew older, he's obviously mentally delayed." "He's..." "He, he didn't even know the days of the week." "The jury heard the evidence, and they said okay, well," "We're, 5.6 million, I think, is probably what they, what he needs, and that was close," "We could've made that work." "I mean, that would have been enough money that he'd have people to take care of him," "If we're gone, or whatever." "He would have been okay for the rest of his life." "And then the cap comes in and says, "no, no, no, no, that's not right. "" "You get this amount of money and then, you know," "Pay your lawyers out of that, and pay your, some medical bills," "And so colin ends up with a few hundred thousand dollars." "And so what happens is then, he goes onto medicaid," "And the taxpayers have to pay, pick up the bill for his care." "Dad." "Dad!" "What?" "It's falling apart." "It is." "Is it getting your hand all dirty?" "No." "Oh, it is broke, look at that." "It's not just an economic need, there are moral issues involved here." "And what a cap does is, it relieves the wrongdoer, often a company," "Or a health care provider," "Of the responsibility they have for the damage that they caused." "Medical groups like the nebraska medical association" "Applauded the nebraska supreme court's decision Friday." "They say it will keep malpractice insurance costs down for doctors," "And that, in turn, will keep down medical costs." "When states enact caps on damages," "Doctors' insurance premiums typically do not go down." "And it's interesting that when these various limitations" "Are enacted in various states," "There's never a requirement that the insurance companies pass any savings along" "To the policy holder." "The insurance companies are charging still, I think, a lot of money" "To doctors in nebraska, and they're not having to pay out very much money in nebraska." "So what are they, they're making, it's their little pot of gold." "The insurance industry says," ""well don't look at us, it's not our fault that rates are going up." ""it's all those juries and judges and lawyers and, and victims that are suing us." ""it's all their fault. "" "Those excessive jury awards cost us all money," "And it's part of why, rising, why there's rising costs, uh," "In the health care, health care system." "If it was true that medical malpractice litigation" "Actually drove up health care cost," "Then we would expect that since 2003, when basically nobody," "No patient was allowed to hold a doctor or hospital accountable anymore, in texas," "We would expect that health care costs, heath care spending would go down." "Well, in fact, the opposite is true." "Health care spending has been going up in texas," "At a rate higher than the national average" "Since we restricted patients' rights to access the courthouse." "So, the myth just doesn't jive with reality." "Over these years there's a whole lot of things that I want to say about caps," "And, and to say just how they've affected us" "Doesn't really, um," "I don't know, it doesn't really hit the nail on the head so much." "I mean, it affected us obviously, I mean we have a," "We have a, a son who will never be able to grow up and earn his own living," "Never go off to college, never have his own family." "I mean, he'll require care for the rest of his life." "And so, how does the cap affect you?" "It, it makes his future unknown." "I mean, you have this person that you're responsible for, and that you love," "That you don't know, if you're gone, what's going to happen to him." "I mean, if it's your child, take your child, and say you're gone," "And give him to the state, and let the state do whatever they want with him." "And, is that what you want for your child?" "That's not what I want for my child," "Especially when your child can't ever grow up and take care of themselves." "They're relying on people to take care of them." "So, that's how the cap affects you." "I know that." "Do you want to come to the table?" "No." "In many respects, these laws violate" "State constitutional provisions that protect people's rights." "And, in order to protect those new laws against challenge in the courts," "The business community decided that it was important to them" "To stack the deck in their favor," "Um, with the supreme courts of various states." "They wanted their own set of judges who would be deciding" "Whether these restrictions on people's rights would be upheld." "Watch out, snick." "Watch out, snickers." "My grisham books." "Some of them, anyway." "When was this, this was written, uh, two years ago," "John decided to write the appeal." "He talked to me about it, 'cause he wanted me to help him get the," "Get the details right in the book." "He likes the books to be accurate." "It's about, it's interesting, because it's about uh, it sort of tracks what I went through." "It's about a mississippi supreme court justice running for re-election," "And, uh, being, uh, attacked by these out-of-state big business interest groups" "That are coming in, trying to defeat the incumbent supreme court justice," "So that they can get their corporate interests on the, um, you know, on the court." "So, yeah." "As the legislature would try to effect tort reform," "If it did get into law," "Then it came down to the courts to decide" "Whether or not that law was constitutional." "And, there started to be decisions around the country" "That said that these laws were not constitutional, that they went too far." "So then, the businesses decide," "Well we can't pass those laws," "What we can do is to try and have judges who decide these cases" "Be really conservative, business-oriented judges." "Karl rove developed this plan, and worked with the chamber of commerce" "To influence the outcome of key judicial races around the country." "They put in place a pretty aggressive campaign," "Ranking which states are most important for them to be in," "And putting tens of millions of dollars a year into these elections that often had" "Tiny amounts of money." "I started getting calls from karl in the middle-to-late 1980s," "As he began his work representing, at the beginning," "State supreme court candidates in texas." "Rove was able to put together a franchise, basically," "To elect republicans who he was representing," "With a guarantee that they would have well-financed races," "And business interests got supreme court judges who were going to rule their way" "On business cases, and on tort cases." "By the time you reach the 1990s, this core of conservative, republican," "Tort-minded judges" "Were ruling overwhelmingly for some of the largest corporate interests in texas." "It's a model that they used, and they exported to other states." "It's a good payoff." "It's a good payoff." "You put money in a judicial race, uh," "You spend $100,000 to help uh, uh, challenge a, a judicial candidate," "It can have literally a million dollar impact on your company." "And it seems that that's happening more and more throughout the country." "That, uh, our state supreme courts are reversing civil juries in this country" "At an unprecedented level," "After seeing the gifts of millions of dollars." "Last week, the supreme court reversed a century of law" "That I believe will open the floodgates for special interests," "Including foreign corporations," "To spend without limit in our elections." "If you get five people, in our state we have nine, so the majority is five," "You get five judges that have that persuasion to be always with the doctors," "Or be always with the corporations," "You have court reform." "And that is more deadly than tort reform ever thought about being." "That's what this karl rove chamber is about," "And they came into these southern states," "And mississippi was a good state to take on, because it's a small state," "Not much money," "And u." "S. Chamber put in candidates that were friendly towards them," "And they were able to elect all of them except for one," "And that was oliver diaz's election." "The appeal was a book I published," "It's a novel, it's completely fictional, and it's completely true." "Uh, it's the story of the, uh, purchasing of a supreme court seat in mississippi." "I felt like I kind of lived through it with oliver," "You know, knowing, because he was my friend, knowing what he had gone through." "I was born and raised in biloxi, mississippi." "Lived there all of my life, and then went to law school," "And after law school, came back home and started practicing law there," "And in 1987 was elected to the mississippi house of representatives" "And, and started a career in politics at that point." "I was his campaign manager." "You had these interest groups that were interested in electing judges" "That they deemed to be pro-business." "I was not deemed to be pro-business," "And the u." "S. Chamber mounted a very, very large and expensive campaign" "Against me in 2000." "Diaz even voted to overturn a cocaine conviction" "Because evidence of a prior cocaine sale was allowed." "Oliver diaz." "Very bad judgment." "The negative ads are still running, and that, that part has not changed," "The, the ads are still on the television." "It's, it's a terrible situation." "It is demeaning to the office." "It is improper, it should not have happened." "I've, I've told judge diaz that I've, uh," "Done all I can do to get those stopped." "I don't like it." "My opponent, who was supported by the u." "S. Chamber of commerce," "He had probably a million dollars spent on his behalf," "Which was not even..." "Oh, it was more." "Yeah, it was more than a million dollars," "Spent on his behalf, but it wasn't in his name," "And he didn't report that on his campaign finance reports." "You know, people think, "oh, the u." "S. Chamber of commerce,"" "They think of it representing small chambers on a national scale." "That really isn't what the u." "S. Chamber of commerce is." "So what's the u." "S. Chamber of commerce?" "um, I'm not really sure." "Something dealing with the government." "It was my understanding that it was a government agency, but I'm not sure of that." "Probably they are getting engaged in, hmm, managing of... something." "Trade?" "Do they engage in managing trade throughout the United States?" "I'd go with that." "The u." "S. Chamber of commerce became a very, very important player" "In the tort reform movement," "And they have now been shown to be funneling money into judicial campaigns." "Here's, here's the way that campaigns happen, okay?" "You have your doctors, hospitals, manufactures, insurance companies," "You got all those folks kind of quarterbacked by the chamber of commerce." "That's where the money is." "There's nobody on the other side except for trial lawyers," "Because the trial lawyers know the law, and they know what's going to happen" "If these judges are elected." "We were playing by a certain set of rules, there were campaign finance laws" "That you had to know where the money was coming from," "And there were limits on some of the amounts of money by who gave it." "The trial lawyers are limited as to how much money they can put in." "If you give more than $5000, a judge can't sit on your case." "Whereas if the money comes from the chamber," "All that money was packaged into a large group," "And there's no way that you can see who it were that contributes." "The chamber puts in millions of dollars into state races," "Through some kind of a front group." "You know, citizens for a strong ohio, or partnership for ohio," "Groups that sound like they're citizens groups, but in fact are really business groups," "Hiding behind a false veneer." "We're doing much, much better in courts," "And in the election of, of judges to the state supreme courts," "And we're in those races." "We'll spend $19 million" "In election of those judges and state attorneys general in this next election." "They spent so much money against us, they would run almost every 15 to 20 minutes" "On tv, on our local station." "So we got to where we just didn't have the tvs on, and all of a sudden one morning..." "We didn't want the kids to see" "These horrible ads." "We didn't want them to see 'em, 'cause some of the ads actually had big money bags being thrown up on a bench," "That he was bought and paid for." "Diaz's campaign took over $100,000" "From personal injury lawyers..." "And so one morning we hear, you know, just "whoo-hoo!"" "And our daughter is just, like, cheering downstairs, and we come down, and um, she's like, "we're rich, we're rich!"" "And she'd seen the ad with the big bags of money, you know, on the bench," "And her daddy's name." "The game plan was to pick out a justice," "Try to make that justice look soft on crime," "Take snippets from decisions that the justice had made," "Manipulate those decisions to make them seem absolutely outrageous and ridiculous," "And, uh, spend a lot of money to get that message out to the voters." "The amount of money that's spent on television in a political campaign" "Has an enormous effect on the outcome." "And in fact, in 2000," "The statistics showed that the side that spent the most money" "Won about 90% of the time." "We had two weeks until, um, we had to run again for a run-off," "And we find out that the u." "S. Chamber" "Had literally almost purchased all of the available airtime," "That there was available from jackson to biloxi, mississippi." "And what we had to do at the time was actually take out loans to finance the campaign," "And, um, if you're familiar with banking at all, um," "They generally don't like to loan money to folks who may lose an election," "So you have to have somebody with money that co-signs on your behalf," "And my very good friend paul minor was willing to step up and sign a loan at the bank" "To allow us to compete with the u." "S. Chamber's ads that were running at the time." "Keith starrett's special interest group from washington, dc" "Recently started attacking me, and distorting my record," "I refuse to be negative, but I must defend my record." "I still don't know how we did it to this very day, but we actually won that election." "I really honestly thought when we won and celebrated that election" "We had thought that was a good day." "It turned out to be, probably one of the worst days of our life, the election was." "Federal prosecutors decided to investigate me" "And used, uh, the loans that paul minor had co-signed at the bank," "And called that a bribe, and said that he'd bribed me as a judge." "But what's really interesting about that is," "I never voted for a single case in which paul minor, or his law firm," "Or anybody he was associated with," "Had brought before the supreme court because of our friendship." "And then that summer oliver was indicted," "And it just kind of started spiraling downhill from there." "Um, I almost kind of didn't believe oliver." "I said there has to be something here, you're not telling me the truth." "They wouldn't bring these charges against us and do this." "All these counts," "You're facing a hundred and some years in the federal penitentiary," "We have two... millions of dollars in fines." "Millions of dollars in fines," "We have two small children..." "Oliver diaz says the charges against him are groundless," "Because he withdrew from all cases involving paul minor." "Diaz is on leave from the supreme court until the case is resolved." "The decision to prosecute justice diaz" "May have been motivated by tort reform politics." "It may have been motivated by an effort to" "Remove justice diaz from the supreme court" "Where he often voted for ordinary citizens and against corporations," "But it certainly was not a prosecution that was based on the evidence," "Because the evidence did not support it." "Do you think that oliver was prosecuted for political reasons?" "sure." "I don't think there's any doubt about that." "We thought we were just targeted," "And this was just us," "And this political prosecution was just us." "We later found out that this happened all over the country," "And those other judges were, that won or were successful, were also targeted." "After a three month trial, I was completely acquitted of all charges." "The jury returned not guilty verdicts on everything," "But, uh, three days after my trial," "I was re-indicted on tax evasion charges." "So I had to go through another federal trial" "After that first three-month trial," "And had a week-long trial this time on tax charges," "And after a 15-minute deliberation time by the jury," "I was fully acquitted a second time." "I was finally cleared to return to the bench," "But not till after I had been removed from the bench for almost three years." "So what they weren't able to do through an election," "They were able to do with a federal prosecution, a federal investigation," "Uh, to keep me off the bench," "Uh, to ruin my reputation," "To make it that, uh, I probably wouldn't be able to" "Be elected again to the mississippi supreme court." "Some other people were elected who were considered to be much more business-friendly," "Uh, justices then had served on the court in the years past," "And it really, really did alter things." "In mississippi after the, the courts swung," "I think they went, like, two years without upholding a plaintiff verdict." "You know, you might be able to win with the jury," "But you have no hope of having that, that verdict sustained by the courts." "I think the, sort of, the taint of these charges," "And sort of the residue of all of that," "And the fact that some people in the public simply assumed" "He was guilty because he was charged of it," "Caused him to be defeated for re-election." "Also, um, I was not able to, to raise the funds to, to compete." "I raised about a quarter of the amount that I'd raised in my first election." "If two or three million dollars is being spent," "Or ten million dollars is being spent," "The way it's going now, ten years from now" "They'll be spending a hundred million dollars on judicial elections." "And it's not really a good way to have the system work." "And there's many people in the business community who don't agree with me on that." "Can you tell us why you're here today at this reform summit?" "We're here to receive the leadership achievement award." "Oh, for what?" "For passing a 208-page civil justice reform law in oklahoma," "That is going to take the bull's-eye off the back of business in our state." "What does that mean exactly?" "It means that we're protecting our businesses from frivolous lawsuits." "And do you think there are a lot of frivolous lawsuits?" "There are, and we think that there's a definite cost to the medical profession" "And the cost of doing business" "Where we have to protect that," "Companies that are now doing business in our country" "From that kind of invasiveness." "And so who brings these frivolous lawsuits?" "All kinds of people." "People that are jackpot-justice oriented." "Do you think tort reform is a good thing for the american public?" "Without a doubt." "Why, why is that?" "There's an incredible amount of frivolous lawsuits." "It directly impacts everything from health care to, um," "You know, prices in stores, and small businesses." "It's extremely important." "And where do you work, or what do you do?" "Uh, I am a, I'm a lawyer." "Okay, and with a law firm or..." "No, in-house counsel." "Oh, for what kind of company you work?" "Uh, pfizer pharmaceuticals." "I think we've just gone too far." "Too much litigation." "And so who, who benefits from having less litigation?" "Everybody, except the trial lawyers." "And how do you..." "Do you want to, like," "Eliminate people's rights to go to the court system?" "I want to give people..." "My own preference would be to give people rights to sign contracts" "When they buy products and so forth," "So the contracts would determine what rights they had." "Are these things like the arbitration clauses that are in contracts," "Like the mandatory arbitration clauses?" "Yeah, those are useful clauses, I believe." "Sometimes, um, litigation is harmful to all of us." "And there are better means to resolve disputes than through the courts." "You mentioned a few of them already." "Arbitration is a very good one, and there are lots of others." "Uh, but I hope you'll excuse me, I do have to run now." "No problem, thank you so much, I appreciate it." "Did she get any on her head?" "Yes." "That doesn't go on your head, baby girl!" "Silly." "You thirsty?" "You want a drink, hon?" "Oh, yeah, why not." "Chocolate milk, coke, orange juice, milk?" "Hmm, I'll have coke." "A coke for breakfast, huh?" "Uh-huh." "All right." "Here you go, I'm gonna make me an orange juice." "I had never heard of a mandatory arbitration clause" "Before I had signed my employment contract with halliburton." "I worked for halliburton in houston," "And, um, I wanted to help operation iraqi freedom." "My mom was very sick at home, so I needed to help support her." "They say it's more likely that you'd get in a car wreck" "Than something happening to you in iraq." "So as a 19-year-old girl, you believe your elders," "And you think that that's probably true, so..." "Four years ago at the age of 19," "Ms. Jamie leigh jones signed a contract to" "Become an employee of kbr, then a halliburton subsidiary." "That contract contained a clause" "Which required her to arbitrate any future dispute against her employer." "This means it would force her to give up her right to seek redress" "In court if she was wronged." "Mandatory arbitration is, uh," "Something that has to be involved in the case, isn't it, or something?" "Because arbitration is how the case..." "Oh..." "It has something to do with case files." "Have you heard?" "No." "I've heard the two words used separately." "Right." "Businesses use a number of devices to keep the public out of the courts." "One of the devices they've used is" "They've written clauses into contracts that say that you cannot go to court." "You can only go to arbitration." "What we started to see was, again and again," "Our clients had been forced to sign in the fine print of contracts" "These mandatory arbitration, or forced arbitration clauses," "And none of our clients knew that those provisions were there" "And then it was only after we got hold of their documents" "That we would say to them," ""hey, did you know you supposedly agreed" ""that you are not allowed to sue the company?" ""do you know that you agreed that instead of going to a jury," ""that you have to go to a private arbitrator," ""who's with the company, that's picked by the company who cheated you?"" "And when you ask people about binding arbitration" "And "would you knowingly sign away your rights?"" "They say, "well, of course not. "" "And then you ask them, "well, do you have a cell phone?" "Do you have a gym membership?" ""do ya, you know, do you have a credit card?"" "Do you know whether you've ever agreed to" "Mandatory arbitration in any of your contracts?" "Um, I don't believe I ever have." "No." "Do you own, do you have a credit card?" "Well, maybe I have." "When you first sign a contract with a cell phone company" "Or a credit card company, or what not," "There won't be any reference or any mention of the arbitration clause," "But then at some point, the company decides to add it." "So what they do is, they send out, in incredibly tiny print," "A little booklet that they stick in with the bill." "And what almost everybody does, is you look at the bill," "And you throw everything else away." "But that's where they send in the arbitration clause" "And then what they say is, if you ever use your phone again," "Or you ever use your credit card again," "That you've supposedly "agreed" to mandatory arbitration." "What's happened in america," "Is that entire industries have all adopted mandatory arbitration clauses." "You'll see them in credit card agreements," "Checking account agreements, lending agreements," "Cell phone contracts," "Virtually anything that's bought over the internet." "Computers, books, records." "Virtually all nursing homes." "Nearly every contract to buy a new car," "Health clubs, tanning salons." "I have a friend who took her cat in to be boarded while she went on vacation" "And the kennel made her sign a mandatory arbitration clause" "That if they killed her cat or did something horrible to it," "That she couldn't go to court." "You have no bargaining power," "You as a consumer or a worker are forced into these things" "And you really never had a choice in the matter." "Mandatory arbitration is fast becoming the rule," "Rather than the exception." "The practice of forcing employees to use arbitration has been on the rise." "There are several surveys that show" "That more than a third of the working people in america" "Are bound to forced arbitration clauses." "In fact far more american workers" "Are governed by mandatory forced arbitration clauses" "Than are members of unions in modern america today." "I worked for halliburton in houston for a little bit over a year" "Before I decided to go to iraq." "When I was in iraq," "Halliburton and kbr were the same company." "Those that go over to iraq get promoted when they come home." "Also, I mean my goal was to just work there forever." "I was content there, until everything happened." "I was told that I would be housed in a little trailer house" "With one female on one side, another on one side" "And then a bathroom shared in the middle." "And when I got there, I was perplexed" "Because I was put in a predominately all-male barrack." "I didn't see any females there." "I emailed some of the managers that I knew from houston," "And I told them I was concerned, that I wanted..." "You know, to be moved into the living quarters that I was promised," "And one guy emailed me back and just said, "oh, you'll get over it. "" "Men had their doors open, and some were in boxers," "And they were cat calling." "When I woke up, I was severely beaten," "My chest was disfigured," "I was bleeding between my legs, I was naked." "I washed my hands and then I saw the bruises on my wrists," "And I'm starting to put together that something major happened to my body." "And then I go back up the stairs, down the hall," "And I looked in my room and there was a man in the bottom bunk," "And I don't remember if he was clothed or anything," "I was so, like, shocked, that part..." "Bits and pieces of it are gone from me." "It was just, it was the worst moment in my entire life." "To actually see a man brazen enough to still be there in the room after raping me." "And it was really hard," "And I know now that the reason why he was still in the room," "Was because he would be able to get away with it." "I went to seek medical help" "And at the army doctor, she said that I had been, um," "Penetrated both vaginally and anally." "And that the tears down there were significant." "You've heard a lot about halliburton lately." "Criticism is okay, we can take it." "Criticism is not failure." "Our employees are doing a great job." "We're feeding the soldiers, we're rebuilding iraq." "Will things go wrong?" "Sure they will, it's a war zone." "But when they do, we'll fix it." "We always have." "So then two kbr security officers took me to a..." "It's been called a lot of things, shipping container, trailer," "Essentially I was imprisoned." "There was two armed guards outside of my door," "Um, I was begging and pleading through the door to, you know, let me get out of there." "And finally, one of the guards, out of sympathy, let me use his phone." "I called my father, who contacted congressman ted poe." "Well, it was almost unbelievable." "Here she is, a young, uh, 19-year-old, uh, female," "And according to her dad, uh, she had, uh..." "She was locked up in one of these shipping crates," "So the first thing that I thought should happen is get her out of that situation." "You know, uh, send the troops over to rescue her, so to speak." "And uh, the state department, I thought did a pretty good job." "After I was rescued by federal agents," "They formed a meeting with kbr management," "And management told me that I had two options." "One, I could continue working there," "Or two, I could go home and be terminated." "I tried to pursue my criminal case and it didn't work," "And then I tried to file a civil suit and that didn't work out" "Because of the arbitration clause in my employment contract." "No one would conceive that this would happen to them, first of all," "And secondly, no one would conceive that this would be," "Oh, well then, the company that sent you over there and put you in this position," "Uh, where you were raped," "Is also, "you're just going to have to arbitrate with us secretly. "" "I mean, I don't think anyone could possibly conceive that that would happen." "Well, whenever you take a case out of the court system," "You're immediately put into a biased type of forum." "Arbitration happens to be extremely biased." "Most arbitrations take place in secret." "You have a private judge," "So if you have a credit card agreement," "The credit card company picks who the arbitration company is going to be" "And then the arbitration company picks an individual arbitrator to hear your case." "The arbitrator wants repeat business," "And they only deal with you once," "But they deal with a bank of america, or general motors, or whoever it is," "The businesses, they deal with them day in and day out." "And so they're going to tilt their decisions toward the businesses." "There have been a bunch of examples" "Where if the arbitrator ruled in favor of a consumer," "Or ruled in favor of somebody who is an employee," "That they were blackballed, and they never got to work again as an arbitrator." "So they set up systems that are" "Essentially rigged against the consumers." "Many studies show that consumers come out winning these cases" "Maybe less than ten percent of the time." "They're almost always won by the bank or the credit card company." "It's impossible to find out what the reason is" "For an arbitrator ruling for one side or another." "They just say this side wins, this side loses, and that's it." "And there's no right to appeal, so I have to take the final judgment of one guy" "Who's been picked by my credit card company" "To tell me that I'm going to end up having to pay." "I'm not okay with that." "Yeah, I'm not okay with that either." "No." "Uh-uh." "That's actually upsetting." "Transparency is a must in the judicial process," "So if there's no oversight in that regard," "I'd be pretty, I'd be pretty worried." "Until and unless congress takes action with regard to" "Restricting the use of these binding arbitration clauses," "We're all going to be stuck with these clauses." "Senator al franken proposing the pentagon shouldn't hire contractors" "That make their employees agree in advance not to sue" "If they're raped by co-workers." "I just started the jamie leigh foundation, and I've been trying to bring awareness" "To the situation to help others through my foundation." "So behind the scenes up to this point," "You've been trying to pursue every legal avenue..." "Oh yeah." "I went public because I wanted to bring awareness to the situation" "That there was a loophole in our justice system" "That needed to be fixed very quickly." "If I could just, you know, get this out there, what happened to me," "That maybe, you know, people would change the laws, somehow the laws would change." "Hi!" "Hi!" "Hi." "Thank you so much for all that you've done." "Thank you for your courage." "It's just amazing." "Amazing!" "Hi, yes." "Very nice to meet you." "Nice to meet you." "You have an incredibly courageous daughter." "Thank you." "And also with a tremendous amount of persistence." "yeah." "So, way to go." "Thank you." "And you're testifying tomorrow?" "Yes, sir." "Uh-huh." "I've testified in front of congress a few times." "Is it judiciary committee tomorrow?" "Uh, judiciary, yes." "So that's me." "Yeah." "I turned to the civil court system for justice" "When the criminal justice system was slow to respond." "When my lawyers filed the suit, um, they were met with halliburton's response" "That all of my claims were to be decided in arbitration," "Because I had signed away my right to a trial by jury at such an early age." "I had no choice to sign this contract because I needed this job." "I had no idea that the clause was part of the contract," "What the clause actually meant," "Or that I would eventually end up in this horrible situation." "The problem of forcing claims like mine into a secret system of binding arbitration" "Goes well beyond me." "Even when victims pursue their claims in arbitration," "The information is sealed and kept confidential." "The system of arbitration keeps this evidence from ever coming to public light," "And allows companies like halliburton" "To continue to allow the abuse of their employees" "Without repercussion or public scrutiny." "The seminal question is, should employers and employees be able to" "Engage in mediation and mandatory binding arbitration of employment disputes" "As alternatives to litigation?" "The seminal answer is, absolutely." "Adr unemployment programs are flourishing," "When implemented appropriately they're decisively in employees' best interest." "It is a popular concept for those employers who've adopted it," "And adopted it appropriately." "It provides for more effective communication..." "Sir, in your comments..." "Sure." "Uh, would you also tell how arbitration could be helpful to somebody like miss jones" "When the, when the, uh, her employer, halliburton in effect, said that" "Rape and sexual assault has just to be considered part of the job?" "What we have in this situation, I'm not here representing" "Uh, anyone involved in that case, I'm not involved in that case," "Um, you know," "Miss jones has had her day in court, and maybe more than she'd want." "It goes on and on and on, I understand that." "Uh, what we're talking about is the concept of adr," "And dispute resolution programs overall." "Senator franken." "Thank you mr." "Chairman." "Thank you for calling, uh, this hearing, uh," "Mr. De bernardo." "You said that the net result of the use of, uh, arbitration" "Is better workplaces." "Correct." "Better workplaces?" "Correct." "She was housed with 400 men." "She told kbr twice that she was being sexually harassed." "She was drugged," "By men that the kbr employment people knew did this kind of thing." "She was raped." "Gang raped." "She had to have reconstructive surgery, sir." "They had this, this arbitration." "Now, if that created a better workplace..." "And then, she was locked in a shipping container with an armed guard." "Now, my question to you is, if that's a better workplace," "What was, what was the workplace like before?" "That's a rhetorical question, I'm not really asking that question." "They had binding arbitration at kbr," "And because of that," "And they asserted it," "On cases like this," "And miss jones, in your foundation you've heard from other women who were raped," "Is that not true?" "Yes, sir, I have." "And uh, and women who, under arbitration..." "Yes, sir." "Were, were told to keep silent, is that right?" "Exactly." "And because of that silence, you didn't know about anything like this, did you?" "Exactly, I didn't know." "It was not public knowledge." "And when mr." "De bernardo said that you had your day in court," "What was your reaction?" "I was livid, sir." "Four years to fight to get in court is not a day in court." "Um, I was livid too." "This is the result of your binding," "Mandatory arbitration." "Mr. De bernardo." "Thank you." "Mr. Chairman." "As I talk to people who have been harmed," "Look, most of them are not interested in a big payday." "Most of these people are interested in accountability," "And the, and the way our system is structured," "The only way we have, we have to hold somebody accountable is through the courthouse." "I can't tell you why people support tort reform." "I can tell you that if they have supported tort reform," "And that they subsequently get hurt," "They're really sorry that they did." "There's a story of a gentleman in waco." "He was harmed, and he sought to hold the doctor who harmed him accountable," "And he came to find out that he couldn't do that," "And he had voted for the state constitutional amendment that" "Allowed the legislature to limit the rights of patients." "And when he was told," ""well, you know, proposition 12 is what made this happen," ""made it so that you couldn't access the courthouse,"" "He said, "well, I voted for that!"" "And they said, "well, you know, a lot of people did." ""and that's why it's the law of the land now. "" "He said, "but that doesn't..." "That's not my case," ""that's for those people who file frivolous lawsuits." ""that's for those people who are trying to take advantage of the system." ""that's for those people who are trying to cash in on some lawsuit lottery." ""that's not what I'm trying to do." ""I was harmed, and all I'm trying to do" ""is hold the person who harmed me accountable. "" "And he realized at that moment," ""what I've been told all of these years," ""they think that's me. "" "We don't need tort reform, uh, we need tort respect." "With the, the tort law is, uh, what makes this country strong." "It is tort law and the bringing of tort lawsuits," "And the rendering of civil damages, that's what keeps our toys safe." "It's what keeps our cars from horribly injuring people." "It's what keeps people from lying, cheating, and stealing." "If we can't hold perpetrators of wrongdoing accountable," "None of us are safe from their actions." "That's the role that the civil justice system plays." "The one entity that can hold businesses, bad doctors accountable is the civil jury," "And that's what they're most afraid of." "Why is it that you support an effort to limit the ability of juries to make a decision" "When you're suing business," "But you support the idea that juries should be allowed to decide in death penalty cases," "Where the issue is whether or not some person should die?" "Ultimately, it comes down to whether you trust juries." "Certainly it's the best system anybody's come up with, in the history of the world," "To resolve disputes involving ordinary people." "And then the question becomes, what's the alternative?" "So, should we let the businesses decide?" "Should we let arbitrators decide?" "If we give up the civil jury, uh, as a tool for holding uh, wrongdoers," "And the business community, uh, accountable, what's the alternative?" "Who's going to police them?" "And the answer is no one, they're going to police themselves." "And that's exactly what they want." "It really opened my eyes to how the system works," "And, um, the things that I thought were in place to protect you have been," "Have been taken away." "And I didn't realize there were caps here," "And I didn't realize that the doctor wouldn't have to pay for this," "That the taxpayers were going to pay for colin's damages." "This is a campaign that's occurring all across the United States," "It's not only in mississippi." "They don't want a level playing field," "And they'll spend millions of dollars to get these people in place," "To be sure that the judges will rule the way that they want them too." "I still have flashbacks, I still get jumpy if someone comes up behind me," "I have nightmares." "I wish that I could confront the men that did this to my body." "I think that it would be instrumental to my healing." "The only way I could do that is if I'm able to face them in a court of law." "And I hope to do that one day." "I mean, I've heard so many ridiculous stories about, she was asking for $30 million or," "You know, something equally ridiculous." "Basically, stella told them, "I want you to cover what medicare doesn't cover," ""and I want you to get a better lid on that coffee," ""'cause I don't want this to happen to another person. "" "And that was basically what she was asking for." "When somebody goes to court, they're doing something extraordinary that is hidden." "To go to court and to sue is not a simple procedure." "You have to go through a lot of trouble to do it," "It affects your life, you're going to be attacked in all kinds of ways..." "Going to court to gain justice is heroic." "That idea has to be out there." "That is, when you, quote, win a case, you win it for other people," "As well as gaining justice for yourself."