Litigation Provides Recourse

In a recent column, "Litigation Nation," writer George Will blasted what he called America's litigious "cult of safety" that threatens the very fabric of society. In response, Fred Orr, president of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association wrote that Will's column "contained grossly distorted examples of lawsuits and misconstrued the fundamentals of our Constitution and America's appreciation for basic safety." Orr said, "The Constitution ensures that all people have a fair chance to receive justice through the legal system, even when taking on powerful corporations." He added, "Try imagining a world in which injured persons were not permitted to seek compensation from the responsible party: children would still be wearing flammable pajamas, certain cars would still explode from minor impacts, unsafe pharmaceutical products would still be killing hundreds of thousands, the pipes in our homes would still be insulated with cancer-causing asbestos, no one would know the true dangers of cigarettes and business practices of unscrupulous corporations would be commonplace." Litigation is typically the only means of recourse for ordinary citizens to obtain a measure of justice.