Greedy Trial Lawyer
U.S. Chamber Of Commerce President - His Name Rhymes With Hypocrite
Category: Gaming The System
Let's spend a few minutes discussing Tom Donohue, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who is determined to see a national cap on medical malpractice verdicts. Is he the man who should be lecturing us on the evils wrought by greedy trial lawyers? Only if we should listen to a man whose companies have perverted the American judicial system.
Business groups vow to keep pressing for malpractice caps
Legislation limiting non-economic damages fails to pass SenateLegislation to cap non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases failed to clear a procedural hurdle in the Senate, but business groups promised to keep fighting for the bill.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce contends high malpractice insurance premiums contribute to the health care affordability crisis. Plus, doctors are "fleeing plaintiff-friendly jurisdictions," said Tom Donohue, the chamber's president and CEO. Donohue said the chamber will "redouble its efforts" for reform. The bill has passed the House several times.
Opponents contend that high medical malpractice rates are due more to insurance companies recouping investment losses than excessive malpractice verdicts. They say the damage caps are unfair to patients who suffer life-changing injuries due to malpractice and homemakers who don't qualify for economic damages.
Public Citizen gives us a glimpse of Tom Donohue's credentials to speak on these issues:
As president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Thomas J. Donohue leads a national campaign to limit plaintiffs' rights in civil lawsuits, seeks to defeat judicial and attorney general candidates whom he deems as insufficiently pro-business, and opposes regulatory oversight of businesses and other measures that would lead to increased accountability for American companies.Donohue's message has a constant drumbeat: Businesses are the victims of greedy trial lawyers and overzealous regulators. Donohue claimed the Chamber was forced to abandon its traditional political neutrality in the 2004 presidential campaign solely because Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards was a former trial lawyer and, therefore, a threat to business. He said New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer was guilty of the "most egregious and unacceptable form of intimidation that we have seen in this country in modern time." Meanwhile, he has praised American business as "the one thing that works in this country."
Donohue acknowledges the responsibility of board members to make sure companies hold up their end of the bargain. "The due diligence issues of board membership suggest that you damn well better do your homework, you better understand the issues, you better be in communication between meetings, because you need to give your best advice," Donohue told Directors & Boards magazine in 2000.
"Boards have to support the chief executive, but they also have to cajole, they have to prod, they have to help the CEO be successful. Save me from a bunch of people on a board who are going to tell me what I want to hear." But Donohue himself sits on the boards of two publicly traded companies - Qwest Communications International Inc. and Union Pacific Corp. - that have committed numerous egregious acts since Donohue's arrival. Between them, the two companies have engaged in a monumental deception of investors, violated federal and state regulations on a massive scale, jeopardized public safety, and perverted the American judicial system through alteration and destruction of evidence.
In other words, Donohue is a steward of two companies that serve as vivid examples for why we need a strong civil justice system and vigorous regulatory oversight.
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