The media and politicians tell us about a financial crisis, a terrorism crisis, a debt crisis, a crisis of confidence, blah, blah, blah. I spent some time today in one of the foreclosure divisions in the Palm Beach County courthouse. We have recently filed several class actions dealing with the massive overcharging of force placed insurance policies.
Today is the 100th anniversary of the fire that killed 146 young women and girls in 18 minutes. In the aftermath of the tragedy, where employers “compensated” the victims families by paying them $10.00 per dead person, the workers compensation laws in the United States was born.
The general public expects that the government, federal, state, and local, is really “watching the store”, and will aggressively prosecute and punish wrongdoers. That just isn’t the case.
Since 2004, I have had the privilege, along with my good friends, our lead counsel Robert Axelrod, Scott Russell, Jay Dean, and John Mills to represent several terrific Florida citizens and homeowners in class action cases against three of the largest Title Insurers in Florida.
Now, of course the insurance industry and it lobbyists are asking the legislature for more “reform”. Now who do you think that “reform” will favor? A great word, “reform” too bad that in most cases, “reform” hurts the little guy, and instead “reforms” the bottom line of big business.
Over the years, we’ve all seen an explosion of TV advertising for injured people. Almost all of the ads involve a variation of a promise to get the injured person what they “deserve”.
Having spent much of our practice representing folks against health insurers and HMO’S, we know first and why the health system is broken and needs reform. It is astounding how anyone can vote against their own best interests.
Maybe because of inertia, maybe because it is easy, maybe because we simply don’t put 2 & 2 together, folks do things the same old way, even if that way is not the best way... It seems that almost every day in USA Today, there are several Class Action notices, filled with way too much, and too little information about a Class Action. It’s like the old Pogo cartoon: “We have met the enemy, and he is us!”.
I haven’t posted on this blog in a while, but I read this Op Ed by Bob Herbert in the New York Times last week that I just had to share. Mr. Herbert in a few words, without any political hyperbole, described how the leaders of our country are disconnected with how bad things really are for Americans.
How many consumers recognize that when they “agree” to a licensing agreement, when they get a new cell phone, when they open an account at a bank, when they buy a new computer, or a new software program, that they are “agreeing” to waive their rights to go to court.
