Ask most New Mexico personal injury lawyers and they’ll tell you how politicians, pandering for popular votes, target injury lawyers and threaten changes that help large corporations at the expense of injured New Mexicans. For the most part, New Mexico has dodged this national tort reform trend and fought to protect those injured by medical malpractice, slip and fall, andNew Mexicans injured by car accidents truck accidents or motorcycle accidents.
I was surprised to hear that Obama, heralded as the champion of the left, has supported in the past and continues to support forms of tort reform.
Sebastian Mallaby with the Washington Post recently wrote an article, that although referenced a, “grotesque tort system” had some nonetheless valuable reflections on the two presidential candidates. The article mentions that Obama voted in favor of the Class Action Fairness Act. Although the bill did not implement obscene limits is such cases, it did increase the Federal Court’s jurisdiction, giving executive appointed judges more control over case originally in state court. Critics claim the bill makes limits access to the legal system and makes it easier to monitor and control.
The question is whether Obama voted for this bill because he believes in even broader tort reform, or this was an attempt to garner some bipartisan support. If it is the former, New Mexico may be seeing its tort reform defenses begin to weaken.