How would you feel if you were sentenced to two years in prison for speeding because murder has gotten out of hand? Chances are you wouldn’t like it, since a petty offense like speeding doesn’t have anything to do with serious crimes. But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and tort reform supporters commit a similar bait-and-switch when pushing the tort reform agenda.

An April 28 Bloomberg article discusses the Chamber’s renewed push for tort reform and cites shocking statistics about the unfairness of arbitration proceedings for employees and consumers. The Chamber’s tort reform advertisements are pure propaganda. The Chamber cites lawsuits that sound frivolous. But the Chamber does not seek remedies that hold filers of frivolous lawsuits accountable. Instead, it seeks to put caps on recoveries in all cases, including for victims in legitimate cases with large damages. It’s like arguing that you should be put in jail for speeding because there is a murder problem. The public does not understand this distinction, which is how the Chamber wants it.

Tort reform passed in Mississippi years ago. The public does not understand what legislation passed or what it means. I have yet to meet a client or potential client who understood that tort reform caps damages for meritorious cases. Everyone just assumes that it only affects frivolous lawsuits, since that’s what the Chamber and other tort reformers talk about. Unfortunately, there has been no organization with the funding or marketing acumen to educate the public on the Chamber’s propaganda.

The Bloomberg article also cites a study that found what many lawyers have long suspected, that arbitrators favor business interests in the hopes of getting hired in future cases:

Alexander Colvin, a labor professor at Cornell University, published a study in January that examined employment dispute statistics from the American Arbitration Association. Employees won 31.6 percent of the time if the employer had no other case with AAA; 16.9 percent of the time if the employer had more than one case with AAA; and 12 percent of cases where an employer and a particular arbitrator were involved in cases more than once.

Colvin worries that “repeat player bias” is at work, with arbitrators favoring employers in hopes of being selected for future hearings

Of course, the Chamber argues for arbitration with claims that it is quicker, cheaper and just as fair as a court proceeding. In a previous post I criticized the costs of arbitration, but now there is solid evidence that arbitration is unfair in addition to being expensive. There is currently an arbitration fairness act pending in Congress that would ban pre-dispute arbitration agreements in some consumer agreements, such as nursing home admission agreements. Look for the Chamber’s propaganda push to fight this legislation. You can bank on the fact that the Chamber’s ads will be based on its frivolous lawsuit bait and switch tactics.