To the Editor:
If the U.S. Chamber wants a debate over what justice means for someone who lost a child due to a physician’s gross negligence, a worker maimed because his plant didn’t want to spend a few extra dollars for safer equipment, or for an individual killed when shrapnel severed their carotid artery after a defective airbag inexplicably exploded in their face, let’s have that debate. But let’s not hide behind a disingenuous “poll” of corporate attorneys who, by the pollster’s own admission, know little about state courts.
The Chamber’s efforts to sow confusion and demonize our justice system on behalf of its wealthy benefactors, who hope to maximize profits and shift the responsibility of caring for those sickened or injured by their own reckless conduct onto taxpayers, insult the intelligence of citizens who can and should make up their own minds about whether to seek justice in the courts that their tax dollars fund. To deny them the opportunity is, frankly, un-American.
John P. Scanlon, President
Illinois Trial Lawyers Association