Center for Justice & Democracy
About CJ&D
The Center for Justice & Democracy is the only national consumer organization in the country exclusively dedicated to protecting our civil justice system.
We are:
- Working full-time to make sure average Americans get a fair shake in court, even against the country’s most powerful special interests.
- Exposing unscrupulous attacks by special interests on judges, juries, injured consumers and the attorneys who represent them.
- Raising public awareness of the value of our civil justice system and the dangerous campaign behind the so-called “tort reform” movement.
CJ&D Who We Are PDF
Our Challenge
As American consumers and citizens, we are challenged as never before in history by a corporate-led attack against independent judges and on our precious right to trial by jury in civil cases.
With money and politics already dominating the executive and legislative branches of government, America's civil justice system is one of the only places left in America where individual citizens can successfully challenge powerful industries and institutions and hold them accountable.
Insurance companies, manufacturers of dangerous products and chemicals, the tobacco industry and other major corporate interests are engaged in a nationwide campaign to weaken our civil justice system - to make it easier for them to escape responsibility for the harm they cause.
This so-called "tort reform" movement has sunk multi- millions of dollars into hundreds of industry-sponsored conservative groups. These "think-tanks," public relations, polling and lobbying firms are setting legislative agendas, devising strategies and purchasing expensive media to undermine consumer rights.
Their goals are to take power away from independent judges and juries and to enact laws that let corporations off the hook for their misconduct.
Our Work
CJ&D is standing up to some of the country’s most powerful, well-funded and aggressive special interests by:
- Documenting Attacks on Civil Justice
- Testifying and Speaking Out
- Pioneering Legal Analysis
- Serving as a Key Media Resource
- Giving Victims and the Public Interest Community a Voice
- Additional Projects
CJ&D’s many publications and studies cover a wide range of critical civil justice issues and are widely distributed to opinion leaders, public officials, journalists and organizations across the country. CJ&D's Issues/Fact Sheets section of the website includes an up-to-date list of many civil justice topics that we cover.
At the national and state level, CJ&D works with public officials to protect the civil justice system. CJ&D is often asked to testify before Congress and state legislatures and conducts briefings for legislators and their staff on a range of civil justice issues.
CJ&D is taking the lead on groundbreaking civil justice issues, including the first law review to challenge the constitutionality of “health courts”, the first law review on “tort reform” and racial discrimination, and a major study on the civil justice system’s role in environmental protection.
CJ&D studies, analysis and commentary have been quoted in newspapers nationwide, including: New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times. In addition, CJ&D has appeared on many TV and radio networks. as a civil justice expert, including: ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC, NPR and PBS. Visit CJ&D’s Press Room for a full list of CJ&D’s articles.
CJ&D organized and maintains regular contact with a closely-knit network of victims/clients and public interest organizations from around the country.
CJ&D has formed two coalitions: Americans for Insurance Reform (AIR), comprised of over 100 public interest groups fighting for better insurance industry oversight; and Civil Justice Resource Group (CJRG), a collaboration of over 20 scholars from law and graduate schools across the country.
Our History
The Center for Justice & Democracy was founded by consumer advocates in March 1998. Originally known as Citizens for Corporate Accountability and Individual Rights (CCAIR), the organization was formed with seed money from filmmaker Michael Moore and received a significant grant from the Stern Family Fund as a recipient of the Public Interest Pioneer award. An independent office for CJ&D was established in New York in 1999.
Over the past decade, CJ&D has grown into an organization of talented staff working in two different offices. CJ&D has released hundreds of studies, White Papers and fact sheets on civil justice issues, presented testimony before Congress and state legislatures, and helped organize countless press events advocating the rights of consumers and patients.
Through groundbreaking research and legal analysis, grassroots mobilization and effective advocacy, CJ&D is fighting to protect the civil justice system.
Our Support
The Center for Justice & Democracy is a non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt organization founded by consumer advocates to protect the civil justice system.
CJ&D relies on support from individual contributors to make our work possible.
Join CJ&D today!