Center for Justice & Democracy Announces Hilarious 'Top 10 Zany Immunity Law Awards, 2004'

Center for Justice & Democracy Announces Hilarious 'Top 10 Zany Immunity Law Awards, 2004'

12/13/2004 11:10:00 AM

To: National Desk and Entertainment Reporter

Contact: Joanne Doroshow, Geoff Boehm, Laurie Beacham, 212-267-2801, all of the Center for Justice and Democracy

NEW YORK, Dec. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In Indiana, the morticians lobby has made sure it can't be liable if the coroner puts someone's body parts in your great aunt's coffin. Real estate agents lobbied for a law that protects them if they sell you a house that's "psychologically affected."

Those are just a couple examples of how our nation's special interests line up before Congress and state legislatures each year, not to make the world a better place, but to get special legal entitlements -- immunities from liability -- and sometimes for the weirdest things.

Now that the Bush administration has made granting such legal entitlements a number 1 priority for the new Congress (euphemistically called "legal reform"), the Center for Justice & Democracy (CJ&D) thought it a good time to announce the first- annual Top 10 Zany Immunity Law Awards, a new report that can be found on CJ&D's web site, http://www.centerjd.org. The Top 10 includes such hilarious "awards" as the "Let's Put the FUN Back in FUNerals" Award (morticians in Indiana), the "Make Mine Extra Crispy" Award (tanning parlors in Colorado) and the "One Strike, You're Out...Cold" Award (baseball park owners in Arizona).

CJ&D's Executive Director Joanne Doroshow said, "Whether we're talking about the health care industry before Congress or funeral directors before state legislators, it's the same absurd problem. Any industry with money or clout lines up every year to get their own special laws ensuring they are never held responsible for what they do wrong. The people who are harmed are average Americans who do not have these same privileges, and do not even know these laws have passed until they are hurt and then learn there's nothing they can do."

"Corporate freeloaders are always looking for a handout and these kind of immunity laws are no different," said filmmaker Michael Moore, a CJ&D Advisory Board member. "And they are doing everything they can to convince decent, hardworking Americans to go along as their legal rights are simply taken away. How long are we going to tolerate this?"

Continued Doroshow, "These laws say something about our lawmakers as well, who should be spending their time trying to make life better for their constituents, rather than creating legal roadblocks for the sick and injured at the request of special interest groups."

The Center for Justice & Democracy is a non-profit consumer rights organization that educates the public about the importance of our civil justice system. More information and a copy of the report can be found at http://centerjd.org.

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