Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
Good article about the dangers of amusement park rides.
Hey, I’m not opposed to the well-run outfits, but even the most-professionally run parks have had some problems. What really scares me to death are the traveling carnivals that set up in mall parking lots, at county fairs, and such. I worked on a case years ago involving a machine called the “Gravitron” at a state fair. It broke apart and spun kids all over the midway. Seems the carny who assembled the ride had not followed the set-up procedure in the instruction manual…then we learned during his deposition that the carny could not read.
Why such little safety oversight by the government? Follow the money (see the industry’s lobbying efforts described on page 3 of the article).
If you’re interested,
this consumer safety organization deserves a look.
Tags: consumer safety
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Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006
Caps on damages, legislative protection, shifting responsibility, immunity from lawsuits…the list just goes on. Here in Texas, it’s a bad time to be an injured consumer looking for relief through the civil justice system. Criticizing the effects of “tort reform” legislation passed by the Texas Legislature in 2003, a recent editorial in the Houston Chronicle summed up the problem well:
“If Texas was once a playground for litigious plaintiff’s attorneys, the pendulum has swung too far in the direction of their corporate counterparts. Instead, citizens are now being shut out of the civil court system by laws that effectively immunize special interests from responsibility for the consequences of their actions and products.”
Equally as bad, where the Legislature didn’t stick it to injured consumers, the Texas Supreme Court usually does. A recent study released by the pro-consumer group Texas Watch gave failing grades to all nine justices on the state’s high court when it comes to consumer cases. In the court’s latest term, it ruled against consumers 84% of the time.
Tags: consumer safety, consumers, lawyers, texas
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