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PRESS
RELEASE
For
Immediate Release
Contact:
July 26, 2000
Peter Guzzo (609) 883-7481
CCJ
Endorses New Report Uncovering Secret Campaign by Big Tobacco
and Other Industries to Restrict Legal Rights
Consumers for Civil Justice, Inc. (CCJ)
is a coalition of citizen, labor, civil rights, victims’ rights, environmental
and public health organization promoting the interests of New Jersey’s
consumers through fair and equal access to the civil justice system and
government.
CCJ
was established in 1994 in response to efforts in the New Jersey Legislature to
weaken the State’s tort liability laws. Coalition member organizations
worked diligently to provide an alternative voice on behalf of consumers during
a contentious year-long debate dominated by the money and politics of big
business. CCJ’s efforts resulted in the substantive amending of a series
of “tort reform” bills that had been characterized as “draconian” by
noted consumer advocates. While our State’s tort laws were amended, the
final impact of the legislation on consumers was softened considerably by the
work of CCJ and its supporters in the New Jersey Legislature.
CCJ
remains committed to protecting consumers from the harmful effects of dangerous
products, environmental hazards, drunk and negligent drivers, medical
malpractice and various insurance proposals which deny victims their just
remedies that often result when private industry places profits before the
health and safety of the public and threatens the integrity of the democratic
process.
CCJ
recognizes the challenges presented by the current climate in our State and
nation. An alliance of powerful corporate interests and some politicians
has launched an unprecedented assault on consumers and the laws that protect
them. These powerful interests have decided to use their money and
influence to discriminate against women, workers, the poor and middle class
workers and to take from them long established constitutional and legal rights.
CCJ’s
public interest agenda incorporates a network of progressive, pro-consumer
organizations and advocates who find themselves under assault. CCJ will
work with its supporters to advance the interests of consumers and workers
through grassroots advocacy, public education, the dissemination of accurate and
timely information through the mass media and participation in the legislative,
regulatory and legal processes.
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EMBARGOED
UNTIL:
Contact:
Joanne Doroshow (212) 267-2801
10 a.m., July 26, 2000
Frank Clemente (202) 546-4996
Carl Deal (718) 857-8168
New Report Uncovers Secret Campaign by Big Tobacco and Other Industries to Restrict Legal Rights
“Citizens
Against Lawsuit Abuse” Groups Linked to
National Network Funded by Major Tobacco and Corporate Money
NEW
YORK -- So-called “lawsuit abuse” groups throughout the country are part of
a national, corporate-backed network of front groups that receive substantial
financial and strategic assistance from the tobacco industry and some of America’s
biggest corporations, a major new report released today by the Center for
Justice & Democracy and Public Citizen finds
Typically
called Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA), Lawsuit Abuse Watch, or Stop
Lawsuit Abuse (collectively referred to as “CALAs”), these organizations
masquerade as “grassroots” citizens groups spontaneously manifesting citizen
anger against so-called “lawsuit abuse.”
The groups aim to incite public scorn for the civil justice system,
juries and judges, paving the way for enactment of laws immunizing corporations
from liability for actions that harm consumers.
The
report, THE CALA FILES: The Secret Campaign by Big Tobacco and Other Major
Industries to Take Away Your Rights, is co-authored by investigative
journalist Carl Deal and Joanne Doroshow. Doroshow, an attorney who has
represented consumer interests on civil justice issues since 1986, is executive
director of the Center for Justice & Democracy (formerly Citizens for
Corporate Accountability & Individual Rights)
“This
report unmasks funding by self-serving mega-corporations that secretly spawed a
national network of fake citizens organizations,” said Public Citizen
President Joan Claybrook. “These
so-called citizens groups are doing the bidding of the corporate funders and are
pushing at all levels to deny Americans access to the courtroom and to create a
legal environment that shields corporate wrongdoers from accountability.
The authors drew from the cache of newly released tobacco industry papers uncovered in connection with state lawsuits against the five major tobacco companies. They also reviewed other public documents and interviewed lobbyists, elected officials and paid consultants.
“This report shows how large corporations seeking to reduce their liability to consumers created and bankrolled the CALA campaign to manipulate the media, the legislative process, the electoral process and the American public,” Doroshow said.
Added
Deal, “The report identifies many of the corporations, national lobbying
groups and political consulting firms behind the state CALA groups, and exposes
how the tobacco industry has concealed its leading role in order to preserve the
CALAs’ credibility in the public eye.”
Among
the report’s key findings:
·
Since 1991, “tort reform” advocates have set up dozens of
tax-exempt groups in at least 18 states (currently there are 27 active groups)
to plant their spurious “lawsuit abuse” message in the media and the public
consciousness, and to influence legislation, the judiciary and jurors.
These groups claim to speak for average Americans and represent
themselves as “grassroots” citizens groups determined to protect consumer
interests. But their tax filings
and funding sources indicate that they in fact represent major corporations and
industries seeking to escape liability for the harm they cause consumers.
·
A huge cache of documents made
public in the late 1990s during state litigation against the tobacco industry
reveals that Big Tobacco spent millions of dollars annually supporting the
American Tort Reform Association (ATRA), its grassroots lobbying firm, APCO
& Associates, state CALAs and other activities to weaken tort laws in many
states. ATRA and APCO supply the
CALA groups with strategic guidance, media training and pre-produced radio,
television, print advertising and billboards designed for maximum media exposure
and legislative impact.
·
Some CALAs, such as one in
Louisiana, were virtually created by the tobacco industry.
Tobacco money has gone directly to ATRA, APCO and state organizations and
been indirectly funneled to the cause through trade associations, lobbyists and
law firms, such as the Washington, D.C. firm of Covington & Burling.
In the late 1980s, Big Tobacco’s efforts were instrumental in the
passage of legislation immunizing the industry against products liability claims
in a number of states.
·
The CALA blueprint was honed in
South Texas in the early 1990s. Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who raised more than
$4 million in his gubernatorial races from Texas “tort reform” groups, has
been one of the Texas CALA’s most prominent champions.
The report provides a detailed review of CALA activities and documents from 18
states including Alabama, California, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma,
Texas and West Virginia.
· A principal focus of CALA groups since the mid-1990s has been to ensure the election of pro-industry state judges and the defeat of judges who typically support plaintiffs’ verdicts or have voted to strike down state tort law restrictions as unconstitutional
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The
Center for Justice & Democracy is
a non-profit, national consumer organization dedicated to raising public
awareness about the importance of our civil justice system.
For more information please visit www.centerjd.org.
Public Citizen is a consumer
advocacy organization with 150,000 members nationwide. For more information, please visit www.citizen.org.