Our Work

Now celebrating our 25^th year, the Center for Justice & Democracy (CJ&D) remains the only national consumer rights organization dedicated exclusively to fighting attacks on the civil justice system and educating the public, lawmakers and the media about the important work of trial lawyers. (Look back at our history here.)

CJ&D is also a leading national voice for accountability of the property/casualty insurance industry.

While CJD has more than two decades of work to celebrate, here are some recent highlights to help illustrate how CJ&D operates for maximum impact. This is what we do!

CIVIL JUSTICE OVERVIEWS

Civil Litigation and the Tort System

·       Providing authoritative resources for policymakers and the media on the state of the civil justice system such as regularly updated fact sheets like How Low Can They Go? State Civil And Tort Caseloads And Jury Trials, State Covid-19 Health Care Immunity Laws, Caps On Compensatory Damages: A State Law Summary, and our website's broad FAQ. 

·       Showing the damage of “tort reform” laws on everyday people with studies like The Importance of Civil Justice to Sexual Assault Survivors and the Devastating Consequences of Tort Reform and Unsafe Harbors; The Problem with Unsafe Immunity Proposals, as well as multiple fact sheets and Spotlights on Justice (found on our Issues page).

·       Providing frequent commentary on the civil justice system and specific tort issues including Tort Law Day 2022, Workers Comp and Covid: An American Failure, The Assault on the Civil Justice System, Workers and Forced Arbitration, Pop Torts and the Ready-Made Virality of "Frivolous Lawsuit" Stories, Looming Threats to the Tort System, and Brain Trauma and Sports (with more examples in our Press Room).

Supporting the Plaintiffs’ Bar

·       Providing ammunition to those fighting back against attacks on plaintiffs’ lawyers and how they fund cases including Forced Invasions of Privacy: The Attack on 3rd-Party Litigation Financing, Courthouse Cornerstone: Contingency Fees and Their Importance for Everyday Americans.

·       Responding to a growing drumbeat of corporate reports and articles hyper-focused on plaintiffs’ lawyers with How Corporate Groups Are Humiliating Their Own Attorneys, highlighting corporate defense counsel’s ineptitude.

·       Responding to film projects that mislead the public about the role of trial lawyers, with backgrounders like Worth, Ken Feinberg and Trial Lawyers: The Real Story.

ISSUE AREAS

Medical Malpractice

·       Successfully fighting Congressional and Executive Branch efforts to federalize medical malpractice law, most recently during the pandemic, by producing materials and organizing coalition efforts (Patient Safety Letter Opposing Corporate Immunity, Group Letter to U.S. House Opposing Health Care Immunity Bill), as well as past threats (Trump’s Top 50 Anti-Civil Justice Scorecard, A “Retort” To The White House Budget's Medical Malpractice Proposals, Top 15 Things We Learned From Our Deep Dive Into CBO’s New Medical Malpractice Working Paper).

·       Regularly publishing an up-do-date med mal briefing book, Briefing Book: Medical Malpractice By the Numbers, with the latest information about medical malpractice litigation cost, access to doctors, insurance, and patient safety, as well as publishing multiple fact sheets and Spotlights on Justice (found on our Issues page).

·       Exposing the medical liability insurance industry’s misinformation with studies like Inventing Social Inflation 2023, How the Cash Rich Insurance Industry Fakes Crises and Invents Social Inflation, and Premium Deceit: The Failure of “Tort Reform” To Cut Insurance Prices.

·       Revealing problems with anti-patient state efforts particularly those proposing alternative compensation systems, including studies like The New Patient Compensation System–Government Harming Patients, and testifying against state bills such as Maryland's No-Fault Injury Fund Proposal.

·       Fighting attacks on med mal jury verdicts and showing how cases can benefit large numbers of people with studies like Nuclear Fizzle: How Jury Grievance Reports Whitewash Corporate Misconduct and Dehumanize Victims and our series, Lifesavers: A Guide to Lawsuits that Protect Us All.

Insurance Industry

·       Through CJ&D’s coaltion, Americans for Insurance Reform, working with insurance experts at the  Consumer Federation of America, fighting for property/casualty insurance industry accountability with studies like Inventing Social Inflation 2023, How the Cash Rich Insurance Industry Fakes Crises and Invents Social Inflation, and Premium Deceit: The Failure of “Tort Reform” To Cut Insurance Prices.

·       Publishing and widely distributing “explainers” to help lawmakers, the media and the general public understand the property/casualty insurance industry, with brochures like Insurance: The Essential Guide to a Bewildering Industry and Welcome to Insurance Isle, which shows how insurance companies worked the pandemic for maximum greed, as well as Hurricanes and Insurance: Learning from the Past and Reinsurance: A Secretive Foreign Industry That Can Cause Great Harm In The United States, while supplementing these with multiple fact sheets and Spotlights on Justice (found on our Issues page).

·       Exposing the hypocrisy of major insurance companies that actively work for “tort reform” laws but do not hesitate to use the civil courts to protect their own profits, with our “Tort Reform” Hypocrites series.

Transportation

·       Issuing studies that examine the dangers of various transportation systems, horrific crashes, weak government regulation, insurance price-gouging, the importance of lawsuits and juries, and why juries decide what they do, including Big Trucks - An Avoidable Public Safety Crisis, Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Other Transportation Hazards, and Litigation’s Safety Role; Auto Recalls and Beyond as well as publishing multiple fact sheets and Spotlights on Justice (found on our Issues page).

·       Fighting federal preemption of tort claims under state law by organizating coalition letters and agency comments like Group Letter to Congress to Protect State Law Aviation Claims and Group Letter to FMCSA Opposing WA Trucking Petition.

·       Assisting in federal efforts to ban forced arbitration clauses in driverless cars (Fact Sheet: Autonomous Vehicles and The Importance of Banning Forced Arbitration Clauses).

·       Fighting attacks on transportation related jury verdicts and showing how cases can benefit large numbers of people with studies like Nuclear Fizzle: How Jury Grievance Reports Whitewash Corporate Misconduct and Dehumanize Victims (cars, trucks, boats) and our series, Lifesavers: A Guide to Lawsuits that Protect Us All (cars, trucks, planes).

·       Exposing the hypocrisy of automakers, ride-sharing companies and railroads that actively fight for “tort reform” laws but do not hesitate to use the civil courts to protect their own profits, with our “Tort Reform” Hypocrites series.

Asbestos

·       Taking on the asbestos industry with constantly updated materials, including Backgrounders like How Secondary Asbestos Exposure Devastates Families and FAQ: Asbestos - The Awful Truth, as well as publishing multiple fact sheets and Spotlights on Justice (found on our Issues page).

·       Helping to lead the fight against anti-victim asbestos legislation through coalition organizing and letters, such as Groups Oppose H.R. 1927, The “Fairness in Class Action Litigation and Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency Act of 2015" and National Organizations Oppose Legislation That Would Destroy Class Actions and Harm Asbestos Victims.

·       Fighting attacks on asbestos jury verdicts and showing how cases can benefit large numbers of people with studies like Nuclear Fizzle: How Jury Grievance Reports Whitewash Corporate Misconduct and Dehumanize Victims and our series, Lifesavers: A Guide to Lawsuits that Protect Us All.

·       Exposing the hypocrisy of major corporations including asbestos companies that actively fight for “tort reform” laws but do not hesitate to use the civil courts to protect their own profits, with our “Tort Reform” Hypocrites series.

Drugs/Bankruptcy Abuse

·       Exposing problems with big pharma with studies like PILLS; Big Pharma, the FDA, and Problem Medicine as well as publishing multiple fact sheets and Spotlights on Justice (found on our Issues page).

·       Showing how some drug victims’ legal rights have been stripped away due to federal preemption with studies like Protecting the Legal Rights of Generic Drug Victims as well as overseeing student memos sent to Congress about the importance of federal action to remedy both this problem and current immunity for Class III medical device manufacturers.

·       Helping to lead the fight against bankruptcy abuse legislation through coalition organizing and letters, such as Group Letter to House Judiciary on Bankruptcy Abuse Bill as well as overseeing student memos sent to Congress about the importance of federal action to stop bankruptcy abuse.

·       Fighting attacks on jury verdicts against the drug industry and showing how cases can benefit large numbers of people with studies like Nuclear Fizzle: How Jury Grievance Reports Whitewash Corporate Misconduct and Dehumanize Victims and our series, Lifesavers: A Guide to Lawsuits that Protect Us All.

·       Exposing the hypocrisy of pharmaceutical companies that actively fight for “tort reform” laws but do not hesitate to use the civil courts to protect their own profits, with our “Tort Reform” Hypocrites series.

Workers

·       Exposing how poorly workers were treated during the worst of the pandemic with studies like System Letdown: Worker Safety, Harm and Compensation in the Age of Covid-19 and Bad Actors Opening Badly - Why Legal Accountability Is So Important as well as publishing multiple fact sheets and Spotlights on Justice (found on our Issues page).

·       Leading the fight against federal immunity laws by organizing coalition letters such as Patient Safety Letter Opposing Corporate Immunity and Group Letter to Congress Opposing Business Immunity.

·       Fighting attacks on construction, product safety, and other worker-related jury verdicts and showing how cases can benefit large numbers of people with studies like Nuclear Fizzle: How Jury Grievance Reports Whitewash Corporate Misconduct and Dehumanize Victims and our series, Lifesavers: A Guide to Lawsuits that Protect Us All.

·       Providing commentary on workers and civil justice such as, Workers Comp and Covid: An American Failure and Workers and Forced Arbitration.

Class Actions and Forced Arbitration

·       Maintaining regularly-updated compilations of important class actions, like First Class Relief: How Class Actions Benefit Those Who Are Injured, Defrauded and Violated, How Consumer Financial Class Actions Help and Protect Americans and Cases Tossed Out of Court Because of Forced Arbitration Causes and Class Action Bans, as well as publishing multiple fact sheets and Spotlights on Justice (found on our Issues page).

·       Helping to lead the fight against anti-victim class action legislation through coalition organizing and letters, such as Groups Oppose H.R. 1927, The “Fairness in Class Action Litigation and Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency Act of 2015" and National Organizations Oppose Legislation That Would Destroy Class Actions and Harm Asbestos Victims.

·       Helping to lead the fight against forced arbitration through coalition organizing, fact sheets and letters, such as Group Letter to House Supporting FAIR Act, Group Letter to Congress to Ban Forced Arbitration for Service Members, Coalition Letter to House on AVs and Forced Arbitration, and Fact Sheet: Autonomous Vehicles and The Importance of Banning Forced Arbitration Clauses.

·       Dispelling myths about forced arbitration and class action waivers with fact sheets like Forced Arbitration Clauses and Class Actions Waivers, By The Numbers, as well as publishing multiple fact sheets and Spotlights on Justice (found on our Issues page).

·       Providing commentary on forced arbitration such as Joanne Doroshow on Forced Arbitration Ruling.

Businesses/Costs

·       Successfully fighting Congressional and Executive Branch efforts to immunize businesses during the pandemic, producing materials such as Unsafe Harbors; The Problem with Unsafe Immunity Proposals and organizing coalition efforts like Group Letter to Congress Opposing Business Immunity.

·       Taking on “tort reform” groups who falsely claim that tort system costs are ballooning, with reports like False, Inflated Drivel: What’s Wrong With The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce’s “Tort Cost” Report.

·       Dispelling myths about the state of civil litigation focusing on specific issue areas (Spotlight: Securities Class Actions Have Been Dropping For Years), the importance of legal accountability for businesses (Bad Actors Opening Badly; Why Legal Accountability Is So Important), and the actual impact of liability on small businesses (Limiting Lawsuits; Small Businesses’ Least Concern).

·       Exposing the hypocrisy of major corporations, including throughout the financial and other sectors, that actively fight for “tort reform” laws but do not hesitate to use the civil courts to protect their own profits, with our “Tort Reform” Hypocrites series.