Posted on: Thursday, October 24, 2002
ISLAND VOICES
Protecting the underdogs
By Richard Turbin
Many Americans today ask themselves, "Who are protecting society's underdogs?"
Federal bureaucrats appear to sit on their hands as billions of dollars of the underdogs' hard-earned savings and pensions evaporate because of crimes committed by chief executives of such multibillion-dollar corporations as Enron and WorldCom. Some of the perpetrators of these crimes may escape with their multimillion-dollar golden parachutes to their lush Florida and Texas estates while the millions of Americans who are their victims lose their ability to enjoy dignified and well-deserved retirement.
The millions of Americans who played by the rules have been victimized by the few who did not.
Since our federal bureaucrats and politicians seem unable to protect the average American, the responsibility has been taken up by the plaintiffs' lawyers. It was these lawyers who exposed the fraud committed by greedy tobacco companies, which for decades hid the evidence that tobacco smoke killed thousands of Americans each year and cost our society billions of dollars in health care costs.
The work of plaintiffs' lawyers also rid our ships, buildings and industry of cancer-causing asbestos and forced our automobile manufactures to install seat belts and remove dangerous vehicles from our highways.
Plaintiffs' lawyers also protect the public from dangerous doctors and hospitals, uncaring insurance companies, HMOs and unscrupulous security brokers and sales people.
Unquestionably, it will also be plaintiffs' lawyers who will do their best to bring justice for the millions of Americans who were swindled out of their money by the corporate crimes of Enron, WorldCom and others.
The contingency fee system allows the plaintiffs' attorney to seek justice for the American underdog. For a percentage of the victims' recovery, usually one-third, the American plaintiffs' lawyer will invest tens of thousands of his or her own dollars and thousands of hours of his or her time to ensure justice for the underdog in the courts. Without the contingency fee system, a victim could never afford to pay for a lawyer to fight for justice.
Unfortunately, President Bush and his conservative allies are attacking the contingency fee system. Recently, Bush proposed new laws that severely limit the amount of compensation that victims of bad healthcare could receive and that would nationalize healthcare law. Fortunately, Bush's proposed laws were defeated in the Senate.
The victims of corporate wrongdoing are often courageous when they decide to fight for their rights. For example, Helen Anna Beiser, a local clinical psychologist, retained my law firm when her healthcare provider failed, for two years, to diagnose her breast cancer because it refused to timely schedule a mammogram.
Because the HMO refused to settle the case, my law firm spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on expert and arbitration fees in order to force the case through a long and expensive arbitration. Beiser died, but as a result of this well-publicized case, HMOs in Hawai'i and around the country purchased more mammograms to ensure that this tragedy would not be repeated. After a two-year legal fight, Dr. Beiser won $1.6 million for this provider's mistake.
Whenever society's underdogs are in need of help, the plaintiffs' lawyers will be ready to render aid and protection and do what is necessary to keep our justice system strong.
Richard Turbin, a Honolulu lawyer, is president of the Consumer Lawyers of Hawai'i.
