Posted 30/6/04

Egg on their Faces

Those that have an interest in making the justice system inaccessible to consumers have for years circulated lawsuit myths with outlandish facts and absurd results for the purpose of discrediting it.

"Man injured when cutting beard with hedge-trimmer sues and wins $10 million from manufacturer." You know the sort of thing. And yes, it's all fake and it's all designed to get you to say: "Gosh our legal system is bad. Let's fix it by preventing consumer lawsuits."

Former Brisbane Lord Mayor Jim Soorley used a fake story to support an attack on injury compensation in his Sunday-Mail column. To reinforce his demand that wrongdoers should escape accountability for some injuries they cause, Soorley rattled off the bizarre (but fake) account of a driver who was supposedly awarded $2 million in a nonsense lawsuit.

Another who became an unwitting accomplice to the fabricators was Qld Chief Justice Paul de Jersey who was caught out by an ABC radio expose on the lawsuit myths. He quoted the same nonsense case among others at an international legal conference.

Let's hope the egg on their faces will prove a sober lesson - that there are people who have a huge amount to gain from a weakened civil justice process. If Lord Jim and the Qld Chief Justice can be so convincingly fooled, so can politicians and so can the public.