Trial Magazine

As the grandson of an immigrant who started a small business on the Haymarket in Louisville, Ky., I have been blessed with an entrepreneurial spirit and a deep-seated interest in business and economics. After studying business and law and then spending my career representing victims of negligence, I’ve never understood the virtual uniformity of the business community’s antipathy toward trial lawyers. In many ways, we are the ones who keep good businesses in business. Trial lawyers and civil justice are vital to the proper functioning of America’s capitalist economy.

An unrestricted free market economy often facilitates a corporate culture of impunity. In such an environment, companies may decide to compete in a way that endangers the health of consumers in the interest of boosting profits. For example, a toy company chooses to reduce manufacturing costs by using inexpensive materials, but those materials turn out to be toxic and extremely hazardous to a child who ingests them.

In that case, trial lawyers and civil justice ensure that the negligent manufacturer pays the costs of the child’s medical and long-term care. Otherwise, the manufacturer gets a competitive market advantage while creating harm and shifting the costs of that harm to the government, insurance, or worse, an innocent family. This is where trial lawyers step into the void. We hold negligent companies accountable and help level the playing field, allowing the responsible companies to operate and thrive in a fair environment.

AAJ was founded in 1946 to advocate for workers who were injured on the job. Businesses that took advantage of labor by paying unfair wages or requiring long hours in dangerous workplaces attempted to gain a competitive advantage at the expense of the worker. Inevitably, workers were injured, and the existing system put the cost of the employers’ negligence on the workers.

Following in those trial lawyers’ footsteps, AAJ members today shift costs back to negligent businesses in areas of personal injury such as products liability and nursing home negligence and also in areas such as class actions, antitrust, consumer privacy, and data breaches.

And, as always, AAJ is actively working to preserve the constitutional right to a jury trial, which helps consumers and workers injured by negligent corporations, as well as small businesses that suffer from unfair competition by larger companies.

In this month’s Trial, which focuses on corporate accountability, read articles on employment race discrimination (p. 20); tips for corporate officer depos (p. 40); dangerous pressure cookers (p. 48); and contaminated infant formula (p. 28).

Take advantage of AAJ’s other resources, including the upcoming Winter Convention in Phoenix, Feb. 4–7, where you can network with other trial lawyers and attend litigation-specific business meetings and education programs (www.justicewinterconvention.org).

AAJ has always sought to make sure greedy corporations answer for their negligence and intentional conduct that harms workers and consumers. It is through the courtroom and legislative advocacy of trial lawyers that negligent businesses are held accountable, and costs are shifted back to the wrongdoer instead of the community and the victims. Good businesses doing good work shouldn’t fear trial lawyers. In fact, they should embrace us. We are their allies, not their enemies.

Tad Thomas is the founder and the managing partner of Thomas Law Offices in Louisville, Ky., and can be reached at tad.thomas@justice.org.