Tort Reform

[cadet]

I'm doing a research paper on something that's supposed to really bug me, I at first was writing about the "Moral Decline of the United States."
My teacher asked what this would entail, and I told him I would be bringing up dumb Court cases. He mentioned I should write about tort reform, but i can't figure out what it actually is. At least, i need a source that's not Wikipedia.

Just a definition would be nice. So far as i can see, it's about changing the court system to cut back on lawsuits that do more harm then good. I'm not exactly 100% sure on this though.

[fj1200]

I think this will really help you out:

Tort Reform and why it is essential to the future existence of our republic. (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=tort+reform)

[revelarts]

you might want to check out these books too

To the point, if you don't do anything wrong you have nothing to worry about Here are couple of interesting books as far as what's considered criminal these days.

Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...ryptogoncom-20 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594032556/ref=nosim/cryptogoncom-20)


The average professional in this country wakes up in the morning, goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, and then goes to sleep, unaware that he or she has likely committed several federal crimes that day. Why? The answer lies in the very nature of modern federal criminal laws, which have exploded in number but also become impossibly broad and vague. In Three Felonies a Day, Harvey A. Silverglate reveals how federal criminal laws have become dangerously disconnected from the English common law tradition and how prosecutors can pin arguable federal crimes on any one of us, for even the most seemingly innocuous behavior. The volume of federal crimes in recent decades has increased well beyond the statute books and into the morass of the Code of Federal Regulations, handing federal prosecutors an additional trove of vague and exceedingly complex and technical prohibitions to stick on their hapless targets. The dangers spelled out in Three Felonies a Day do not apply solely to “white collar criminals,” state and local politicians, and professionals. No social class or profession is safe from this troubling form of social control by the executive branch, and nothing less than the integrity of our constitutional democracy hangs in the balance.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.







Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything
http://www.amazon.com/Go-Directly-Ja...ref=pd_sim_b_1 (http://www.amazon.com/Go-Directly-Jail-Criminalization-Everything/dp/1930865635/ref=pd_sim_b_1)

a commentor

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Honest Person Should Read this Book, January 4, 2005
By
Crime & Federalism "Crime & Federalism" (California) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything (Hardcover)
You're an honest businessperson with a strong moral compass. You don't cheat on your taxes, or your spouse. You regularly consult with your attorney to ensure that you're complying with the myriad regulations governing your business. You even go the extra mile, talking with children at "Junior Achievement" programs about how to achieve success. The possibility of a criminal prosecution is the last thing on your mind. "The government only goes after real criminals," you think to yourself.

The latest offering from the Cato Institute says: Think again.

In Go Directly to Jail: The Criminalization of Almost Everything, six essays catalog decent people caught in the indecent web of over 4,000 federal criminal laws.

In "Overextending the Criminal Law," Professor Eric Luna introduces us to the expanding federal criminal code, which now includes, to the extent that scholars can even count them, over 4,000 crimes. Worse, these crimes have come loose from the common law moorings that punished the evil, and acquitted the good. By eliminating the traditional requirement that a person is guilty only of he commits a guilty act motivated guilty mind, "legislators" are turning traditional "criminal sanctions" into "another tool in their regulatory toolkit." As the book jacket explains, "an unholy alliance of tough-on-crime conservatives and anti-big-business liberals has utterly transformed the criminal law" into a trap for the unwary.

In "The New 'Criminal' Classes: Legal Sanctions and Business Managers" James DeLong discusses the general principles of criminal law that affect all cases, especially the lack of a "guilty mind" requirement in most modern criminal laws. Thus, someone who acts in good faith (even consulting with a lawyer before acting) can end up in prison. Which is what happened to David McNab.

McNab was a seafood importer who shipped undersized lobsters and lobster tails in opaque plastic bags instead of paper bags. These were trivial violations of a Honduran regulation - equivalent to a civil infraction, or at most, a misdemeanor. However, using creative lawyering, a government prosecutor used this misdemeanor offense as the basis for the violation of the Lacey Act, which is a felony. The prosecutor then used the Lacey Act charge as a basis to stack on smuggling and money laundering counts. You got that?

McNab was guilty of smuggling since he shipped lobster tails in bags that you can see through, instead of shipping them through bags that would frustrate visual inspection. He was guilty of money laundering since he paid a crew on his ship to "smuggle the tails." Although it turned out that the Honduran regulation was improperly enacted and thus unenforceable, the government did not relent. A honest businessman lost his property and his freedom: McNab is serving 8-years in prison.

You might be thinking that my summary of the McNab case is fishy. Surely I'm keeping something from you, since no judge would really sentence an honest businessperson so severely. But as Professor Luna details in "Misguided Guidelines: A Critique of Federal Sentencing," prosecutors, not judges, set the terms of sentencing. A judge's hands are tied by the Guidelines. The judge in the McNab case could not weigh McNab's success as a businessperson, his age and family ties and responsibilities, or his lack of any criminal intent. Although McNab was a criminal by accident, not design, the Guidelines required the judge to treat him as a member of La Costra Nostra. Professor Luna ably demonstrates that the Guidelines are not only unconstitutional as a matter of separation of powers, but also as a matter of due process, and more generally, the Guidelines violate any sense of decency.

In "Polluting Our Principles: Environment Prosecutions and the Bill of Rights," Timothy Lynch (Director of the Cato Institute's Criminal Justice Project) talks about the world of environmental enforcement that even Joseph Heller could not have constructed. Lynch shows the irrational world facing a manager whose employee violates an environmental regulation. If an employee violates a law, the manager is liable, his ability to have prevented the illegal act notwithstanding. Yet if the manager does not report the employee (thus subjecting himself to criminal liability), the manager is guilty of a crime. Heads you lose. Tails you lose.

The manager also may not rely on governmental interpretations of the laws as a defense. An environmental enforcement official told one citizen that he could build him home on undeveloped land. One year into the project, the citizen was told that he was breaking the law. You can't rely on those enforcing the law to know the law.

Worst of all is that coming on the wrong side of the flip of an environmental enforcer's whim does not mean you lose a wager. It means you lose your freedom, and your dignity. Environmental laws put people who will be unlikely to defend themselves into prison with the hawks. And even doctors are not immune....






One Nation Under Arrest: How Crazy Laws, Rogue Prosecutors, and Activist Judges Threaten Your Liberty

http://www.amazon.com/One-Nation-Und...ref=pd_sim_b_2 (http://www.amazon.com/One-Nation-Under-Arrest-Prosecutors/dp/0891951342/ref=pd_sim_b_2)


Product Description
America is in the throes of overcriminalization: We are making and enforcing far too many criminal laws that create traps for the innocent but unwary and threaten to make criminals out of those who are doing their best to be respectable, law-abiding citizens. Key developments in criminal law and practice over the past few decades have raised troubling questions about the fairness of our criminal justice system as it affects the average American. It is time to confront these questions, analyze them, and subject them to serious, vigorous debate. One Nation Under Arrest highlights a major effort to return the criminal law to its traditional and proper role in society: to ensure public safety and protect the innocent. With first-hand stories from victims of overcriminalization, One Nation Under Arrest sheds light on an insidious problem that few recognize or care about but which is vital to the fundamental values of the Republic and our concept of justice. Overcriminalization should concern everyone in America, both as citizens and as potential accused. Much is at stake for our freedoms and the freedoms of future generations. Taking the steps necessary to ensure that American criminal law once again routinely exemplifies the right principles and purposes will require much work, but the alternative is to squander the great treasure that is the American criminal justice system.


You could be a criminal! Literally thousands of laws exist that most people don t know about and which penalize conduct that few would even imagine was criminal. This book tells the story of ordinary Americans who were prosecuted and even jailed for everyday activities that ran afoul of the multitude of statutes and regulations that can be used by governments to trap the unwary.
One Nation Under Arrest shines a spotlight on the problem of overcriminalization the skyrocketing trend at both the state and federal levels of criminalizing conduct that could be regulated through civil law or administrative action, or shouldn t even be regulated at all. It is a must-read for anyone concerned with modern attacks on our most basic liberties.
Mark Levin, host of The Mark Levin Show and author of Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto --Mark Levin







And we've got the high incarceration rate in the world there's something wrong with that
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/roots5.1.1.html

[ConHog]

I love a good apple tart.

[cadet]

Thanks guys!

(er... politically correct...)

Thanks people! It's really helpful!