Know Your Rights
Commemorating Law Day
Editorial: Trial Lawyers Care is a Celebration of Law Day's Meaning
by David S. Casey, Jr. and Martin W. Edelman
May 1st, marked a celebration that too often goes unnoticed. It's Law Day, set aside by Congress in 1961 to honor our nation's great heritage of liberty, justice and equality under law.
Like good health, we often take our unique system of laws for granted. President John Adams took the analogy a step further in 1774: "Representative government and trial by jury are the heart and lungs of liberty."
Fittingly this foundation of a healthy society -- our justice system -- affords us the means to improve the health and safety of individuals by removing criminals from our streets and by monitoring the marketplace.
For most people, the "legal system" conjures up television images of tense criminal trials where justice is served between commercial breaks. But for a nation of consumers, it is our civil laws that have provided protection against irresponsible individuals and corporations.
The American people believe in personal and corporate responsibility and accountability. And it is citizen juries that stand up for consumers injured by defective products or reckless actions and send the message that such misbehavior is unacceptable.
Take the case of the manufacturer which knowingly sold children's pajamas that were highly flammable. Only after children were severely burned and the company's reckless behavior was brought to light in court by the civil justice system was the manufacturer motivated to remove the pajamas from the marketplace.
There are numerous examples of positive changes secured by our system of civil laws:
„X Although, surprisingly, asbestos is still legal, it is no longer widely used as a building material, because our legal system revealed that it injures and kills.
„X Young athletes are better protected by the helmets they wear only because our legal system spurred safer designs.
„X And women no longer die from toxic shock syndrome because jury verdicts prompted manufacturers of defective tampons to take them off the market.
Justice does have its rewards. Juries, acting as the conscience of our communities, have spurred manufacturers to do better: trucks now have back-up beepers; farm tractors have roll bars; and many machines that once amputated fingers, toes, hands and feet now have safety guards.
All Americans benefit from our legal system. As U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall said: "The very essence of civil liberty consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the law when he receives an injury. One of the first duties of government is to afford that protection."
Our government does in the Seventh Amendment to our Constitution, which affirms every citizen's right to trial by jury.
Law is the great equalizer -- allowing ordinary citizens to seek redress in our too-often unequal society. Even the large multi-national corporation can be brought down to size by an average American family in the illuminating light of the courtroom.
We look to our fellow citizens sitting as jurors -- and not to government bureaucracy -- to force wrongdoers to mend their ways. This is the essence of democracy.
For all those who use farm equipment, heavy machinery and everyday household products, our laws -- and the ability of every citizen to use our courts and the decisions of citizen juries to right wrongs -- have made life less a roll of the dice.
As we mark Law Day, we can take pride in our system of justice and celebrate its role in helping to keep our families safe.
Martin W. Edelman, president of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, is a partner in the New York law firm of Edelman & Edelman, P.C.
David S. Casey, Jr., president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, is a partner in the San Diego, CA law firm of Casey, Gerry, Reed, and Schenk.
