Senator Bernie Sanders, champion for people like me
By Donna Smith
No one is talking about it. Not one of the presidential candidates has mentioned that the taxpayers of this country pay to operate the civil justice system that largely protects wealthy and powerful interests. It is another form of corporate welfare that not even my preferred candidate, Bernie Sanders, talks about directly, though Bernie does talk about how expensive it is to be poor in America. It sure is – in so many ways. If you or I or any other working class person in this country is harmed in a way for which there might be civil recourse under the law, it is often nearly impossible for us to access any level of justice at all.
You hear it all the time when someone is wronged in business, in real estate, in medical care, in automobile accidents and beyond – Americans often threaten to sue. The wealthy do. Those of us who are not wealthy must rely on finding a decent attorney, affording a retainer and convincing that attorney that our cases have merit, standing and that we have sustained enough damage to make it worth a lawyer’s time. Really? Without much further explanation, it is clear that working class folks with working class incomes and assets incur lowered levels of damages in absolute dollars and cents. Even when our lives have been brutalized and upended by some who ought to be held accountable, accountability has a price – and that price is often too high to right the wrongs that destroy so many lives.
Just a year ago after months of poor management and investigation of a serious medical issue by my primary care physician, I suffered a severe internal hemorrhage that nearly claimed my life followed by a hospital acquired MRSA infection. The MRSA flooded my system with infection, including pulmonary embolisms that I would never have had if my original problem had been handled appropriately. After surgery to remove the vein along the IV site where the MRSA took hold, nine more days in the hospital, and weeks more of IV antibiotics, oxygen therapy and nursing care at home, my long road to recovery could finally begin. It was horrible.
Almost from the start of my first, hemorrhage-related hospitalization, people around me called on me to pursue legal action. Because I know and work with a lot of medical folks, many physicians told me that the care I had received was nothing short of negligence and malpractice and that Kaiser (my insurer and medical care provider) would surely settle rather than lose such an obvious case. One of the Kaiser docs on my case had even told my husband he was sorry to have botched my care. But that is a tactic, we are told, often used by providers as a way to avoid being sued. Apparently lots of patients are placated by a sincere apology from a physician who has wronged them. Some others around me said that based on the pictures I took and the records I kept that at least one of my doctors ought to lose her license to practice, so I knew that the damage done to me would not go without someone or many someone’s being held to account.
But because those who urged me to seek recourse in the civil justice system were not working class people, they didn’t understand that a working class woman like me does not have the same recourse the wealthy and powerful can take for granted. I spoke to a highly recommended attorney whose first comment to us was that cases like mine are expensive to pursue. He said that even though his legal fees would be paid on a contingency basis, the costs could well exceed $100,000-$200,000 for expert testimony, depositions, investigations, etc., and he wanted to know if we were prepared to spend that. The lawyer also spoke about my damages, and while the damages to my income, my career and my long-term health were and are devastating to me, the total dollar value of this working class life disrupted wasn’t really worth pursuing my case legally. Ouch. You see, a wealthy person might have a much smaller medical error or omission result in much less severe trauma to their lives than I did, but because those wealthy people can afford access to the legal system and because their damages will be much higher than mine, my life’s value is diminished to the point that most lawyers cannot be bothered with riff-raff like me. Until we address this disgraceful process, lawyers will only take cases they believe are large enough to be worth their while.
While my concerns relate to medical error and neglect, ask any working class person who has been bilked in any number of other ways if they have any real recourse in court. Sometimes we can find lawyers (the classic ambulance chasers) to pursue motor vehicle accident cases or class action suits in which the mega-millions go not to the plaintiffs but to the plaintiffs’ attorneys. We’ve all seen those commercials. But ask those same working class people who have other legal concerns– like family court issues or employment law troubles – if they can afford to be heard, and most will give you an earful about how corrupt the whole legal system is in the United States. Wrong-doers already know this and count on it. In closed door meetings, they laugh off any real legal challenge from someone like me who is too poor to purchase justice.
Is that really what we want so many millions of people thinking about the legal system that is supposed to help frame our society and support civility? People often think we are too litigious in our society, and I agree. But that is certainly not driven by legitimate cases brought by working class people.
I love it when I hear Bernie and other candidates talk about reforming the criminal justice system. Without a doubt, that must be done. But what I believe is that the whole court system needs attention. The taxpayer supported systems that are paid for by all of us should be equally accessible by all of us – including our civil court system. We must figure out a way for civil wrongs to be heard when those civil wrongs happen to working class taxpayers and to have the damage done to us weighted somehow to be on par with the large economic losses of those with the greatest wealth. I may not have a lot of money, a home or many other physical assets, but I work hard for what I do have. When that hard work is disrupted because of the reckless behavior of someone else, I think having the right to seek a just outcome should not be denied.
