Contact Information: For More Information Contact: Joanne Doroshow Executive Director or Amanda Melpolder Senior Organizer Center for Justice & Democracy 212-267-2801 www.centerjd.org
Civil Justice System Protecting Our Environmental Health: New Report From the Center for Justice & Democracy
| Source: Center for Justice & Democracy
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - December 5, 2007) - E-Wire -- For generations our government has
been involved in controlling pollution and protecting the average person.
According to the new report, How the Civil Justice System Protects
Environmental Health, released today by the Center for Justice & Democracy
(CJ&D), a non-profit, non-partisan consumer rights group, political forces
can undermine the effectiveness of these laws or impair the regulatory
system, which is why legal actions are so important.
"This report examines a variety of issues including why everyone should the
have right to take action in court when the health and the welfare of their
own communities are at stake, and polluters should be held accountable for
the harm they cause to ordinary people," said Joanne Doroshow, Executive
Director of CJ&D. "It also addresses how minority communities
disproportionately shoulder environmental burdens and often have very few
remedies; so laws that limit access to mass torts or class action remedies
erect yet another unfair barrier for these communities in their effort to
achieve environmental justice."
"Everyday private corporate interests violate environmental laws and
government agencies fail to enforce those laws. This study shows the
importance of defending the public's right to have access to the courts,
both to protect the environment where government fails, and to help the
ordinary people who are harmed by irresponsible polluters," said Joan
Mulhern, Senior Legislative Counsel at Earthjustice, a national
public-interest firm representing citizen groups, scientists, and others in
court to see that environmental laws are obeyed and enforced.
"Without the recourse of the court system, how many other options do
communities, neighborhoods and families adversely impacted by harmful
toxins and dangerous chemicals have when facing careless and less than
cautious polluters?" said Lois Gibbs, founder of the Center for Health,
Environment & Justice (CHEJ), who fought successfully to organize and
relocate over 900 families from the contaminated Love Canal, New York,
which led to the federal Superfund Law. "As we approach the 30th
anniversary of Love Canal in 2008, I am all the more reminded of the
importance of not only community organizing and public education regarding
human and environmental harm prevention, but I cannot envision an America
that does not give our citizens the right to bring these issues before a
court of law. To not have this option is un-American."
Report author Amy Widman said, "Courts provide a level playing field for
those that are harmed by pollution and these cases are often well known and
have far-reaching effects. Litigation forced asbestos companies to admit
that they knew how harmful their product was to human health and stopped it
from being used in ways that directly hurt people."
"However," said Widman, "corporate efforts have forced limitations on mass
torts and class actions, legal approaches especially suited to
environmental harm. Corporations also lobby for immunity that simply lets
them off the hook for environmental harm that they cause. Given how much is
at stake, leaving environmental control solely in the hands of elected
officials -- who are too often affected by campaign contributions from
powerful polluting industries -- is unwise."
A complete copy of How the Civil Justice System Protects Environmental
Health can be found at the CJ&D website www.centerjd.org.
Center for Justice & Democracy is a tax-exempt, non-profit, non-partisan,
public-interest organization that works to educate the public about the
importance of the civil justice system. CJ&D fights to protect the right
to trial by jury and an independent judiciary for all. CJ&D is not tied to
any business, political party, PAC or professional organization.