Martin & Jones Blog  filter by author: Walt Wood

This month, President Obama signed into law the most important financial and consumer protection law in years as part of Congress's Wall Street reform legislation.  The Wall Street reform legislation contains many provisions designed to prevent future taxpayer-funded bailouts and curb unfair tactics banks perpetrate on consumers.

The familes of rig workers killed in the April 20, 2010 BP oil rig explosion, and the fortunate rig workers who survived, are limited in the recovery of their damages by federal law. 

After the Exxon Valdez oil spill created long-term ecological and economic damage to the Prince William Sound area of Alaska, the oil industry persuaded the U.S. Congress to give it a $75 million liability cap for damages for future oil spills.  Today, as the BP offshore oil rig disaster continues to wreak havoc on the Gulf of Mexico and the communities that depend on it, BP may be shielded from fully compensating the people, industries and ecosystems it has harmed even though the damages will surely reach billions.  This is tort reform on a grand scale, and shows how unfair and unwise it is to give private industry blanket protections from responsibility for future negligence or recklessness.  In the quest for profit, why should BP or any other oil company invest more in safety when they have such big protection from being held accountable for their actions?

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana and others criticized the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's annual "lawsuit climate" rankings as biased and unreliable. 

Anthony Tarricone, President of the American Association for Justice, addresses the hypocrisy of tort reform opponents only too eager to file lawsuits when it fits their personal and political agendas.

Last week, the Supreme Court of Georgia declared that a recently-enacted state law capping noneconomic damages violated the right to a jury trial bestowed by the Georgia Constitution.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals recently upheld a jury verdict that Martin & Jones obtained on behalf of two senior citizens who were defrauded in an investment scheme.

Even though malpractice awards are dropping to near-record lows, medical negligence -- the errors that injure and kill patients -- have not similarly dropped.  Calls for tort reform ignore the most important concern: improving patient safety by reducing medical negligence.

New Wall Street Journal editorial emphasizes the importance of trial lawyers in ensuring safety and fairness for those who are injured.