How corporations award themselves legal immunity | Laura Flanders

Whether in his employment contract or paperwork for a cell phone, it is likely that the fine print says you can not continue

Concerned about the influence of money in American politics, the huge cash payments to the U.S. Supreme Court signaled their decision to move American citizen - the decision has raised no limits on campaign spending? Companies have their way with the U.S. elections as has already had his way with our media.

But at least we have the courts, right?

evil. The third branch of government is in trouble, too. In fact, access to justice - such as access to elected office, much less an expert on the pole - becomes an advantage only for the rich and powerful.

Take

youth report now before a court in Texas. Jamie Leigh Jones says she was drugged and raped while working for the military contractor KBR in Iraq (at that time, a division of Halliburton). Jones, now 26, was on his fourth day in the office in Baghdad in 2005, when she says she was assaulted by seven contractors and captive under armed guard by two police officers KBR in a shipping container.

When the criminal courts not to act, his lawyers filed a civil suit, only to find the answer to all requests for Halliburton was decided in arbitration - because he had waived his right to take the company to court when he signed his employment contract. As Leigh testified before Congress in October 2009, "had given up my right to a jury trial at the age of 20 years and without the advice of counsel." It was a matter of signing or resigning. "I had no idea that the clause was part of the contract, the clause actually meant," said Jones.

• You probably did the same thing, without knowing it. When it comes to consumer complaints, compulsory arbitration is the new normal. According to a study by Public Citizen and others, companies are inserting "forced arbitration" clauses in the fine print of employment contracts for credit cards cell phone service, including nursing home contracts, that ask customers to waive their right to sue if injured. Arbitration is a non-judge, no jury, no appeal to the world, where the arbitrators are (often by contract) selected by the company and all decisions are private - and the final
• print
• fatal, not only for subprime asylum - and neither costly repercussions. When companies to avoid liability for damages, regardless of size (medical malpractice, for example, or the collapse of pension funds), the responsibility to the people, and then to the taxpayer. A new documentary, hot coffee, including 1 June 27 on HBO, presents a complete picture - and it's devastating.

for the first time filmmaker Susan Saladoff begins where for many Americans, the term "tort reform" has appeared. Stella Liebeck, an elderly woman of 81, sued McDonald's coffee in the sense that it was "too hot" - and became the "welfare queen" of tort reform. pilloried in companies financed by public relations and media after a jury imposed an initial $ 2.7 million in punitive damages, interest groups used to mock Liebeck case "frivolous" claims and the club members of Congress and the State in the adoption of laws establishing maximum "caps" on damages. (politicians all the way up to President George W. Bush does not need to be convinced. "frivolous lawsuits" has become a successful campaign)

Saladoff But look at the pictures presented in the hot coffee and watch the legs cauterized by Liebeck is wild, third-degree burns covering more than 16% of his body. Like any journalist could find at the time, the protocols of coffee from McDonalds has maintained its 82-87 º C (180-190 º F). More than 700 people had been burned by it. Ten years of lawsuits and claims were held not to change. Reply Liebeck was anything but "frivolous."

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