Posted on 05/21/2003 6:37:10 AM PDT by Isara
Justice: The fast-food industry is a supersize target for the voracious trial lawyers and "public interest" meddlers who've fed off business shakedowns. Whatever they may win, you can bet they'll be hungry for more.
Yes, fast-food chains should be worried. Other companies should be, too. Ultimately the economy pays when self-appointed protectors of the public interest use the courts to shift wealth away from businesses, their shareholders and customers.
We're not surprised the trial lawyers have turned their sights to the fast-food industry, now that they've drained the tobacco companies for all they could get. Nor do we place much meaning in the failure of the few fast-food suits to date.
It took years for trial lawyers to beat the tobacco companies. They practiced patience and persistence because they knew a big payoff awaited them.
No one understands that better than John Banzhaf, who this month presented the National Restaurant Association with a notice of possible legal action against the fast-food industry.
Banzhaf, a professor of law at George Washington University, was the primary agitator behind the federal government's decision to ban cigarette commercials on TV. He is a sort of godfather to the trial lawyers who hustled the tobacco industry for a $246 billion settlement.
Banzhaf knows the trial bar must be relentless if it's to wear down an entire industry, the public and the judiciary. Consumers may not feel wronged now by the burgers and fries they've eaten over the years. But in time, and with a reward dangled in front of them, they could be convinced otherwise.
Unfortunately, the trend has been to absolve folks of their personal responsibilities.
Fast-food restaurants don't force customers to buy from them. They offer their products, and consumers are free to choose whether to buy them.
Yes, the industry advertises. But that's more of a tactic to pull market share than to suck in naive and unsuspecting diners.
When fast-food companies lose in court — and given the state of today's justice system, it's a near certainty that they will — the effects will trickle down to shareholders and customers. Eventually the economy will feel an impact as companies pay off settlements or, if they're hit particularly hard, lay off workers.
Not that this matters to the shakedown professionals and collection of health nannies who want to run everyone's lives. But it should to anyone who wants to build a business or invest in one, or who thinks he can make his own decisions about what to spend his money on.
We're not surprised the trial lawyers have turned their sights to the fast-food industry, now that they've drained the tobacco companies for all they could get. Nor do we place much meaning in the failure of the few fast-food suits to date.
It took years for trial lawyers to beat the tobacco companies. They practiced patience and persistence because they knew a big payoff awaited them.
Since we know their pattern of practice in the past, maybe we can come up with counter-act plans to prevent their greedy actions now.
Maybe the targeted industries should form a coalition to battle them. It will be a lot cheaper to kill the monster while it is small now before it controls the public opinion.
The targeted industries I see now are:
The list is getting long. It is scary, isn't it? Is your industry one of them?
Perhaps there should be a Web site started with pictures of people suing out of greed. Having a dead relative has become a slam-dunk for making big bucks off anybody.
Bottom line, this is taxation by alternative means. The trial lawyers get their fee; but the states get a large portion that they can spend as they wish. Note well what happened to the tobacco settlement - it went into state coffers, and how it is being spent, nobody knows.
As state budgets get tighter, and the public resists overt tax increases, you may indeed expect more taxation by civil suit.
I'm not sure about red meat. There is no big deep-pocketed company for the lawyer.
The targeted industries:
The problem is who is making the law. Lawyers. Of course, they are exempted from the laws for the peons. In addition, good lawyers don't have a big incentive enough to go after bad lawyers yet.
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