Not the sexiest of heroes, you say? A man who has made some questionable political choices? While that may be, due to my history, there is no way that I can let news of Ralph Nader’s Tort Law Museum opening pass without commemorating it here.
As the daughter of a trial attorney who fought for plaintiff’s rights, Nader has always meant a lot to me. I know, I know, there were his ineffectual and divisive Presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004, which led to the widely debated Nader effect. When George W Bush won the 2004 election, like others, I was pretty pissed at my childhood hero.
Time has passed, and some of those wounds have healed (mostly). It certainly helps that Nader has gone back to doing what he does best: showing how important our legal system is in protecting consumers from corporate shortcuts and wrongdoing. That’s the goal of Nader’s ambitious new museum in Winstead, Connecticut. Here’s a good synopsis from John Culhane in Politico:
AMTL is meant, at least in part, to counter the narrative of the so-called “tort reformers.” Nader is puzzled and infuriated by their one-two punch, which has staggered the civil justice system by reducing the number of cases brought, and slashing the recovery of the plaintiffs who remain. Given the deterrent effect baked into tort law, these high barriers to litigation bleed off the incentive to make products, safety protocols and medical practice better.
Lest that sound dry, well, it’s not—great care was taken to make it eye-catching and interesting. From the same article:
Part of the reason for the museum’s success is the visual pop it achieves with outsized, dramatic illustrations of the cases. This dynamism isn’t surprising considering how Eisterhold Associates, the firm responsible for the National Civil Rights Museum and the Jurassic Park exhibit at Universal Studios, designed the AMTL.
It makes me leap for joy to see Nader try to set the record straight on the importance of giving the little guy his day in court against big corporations. After all, I am my father’s daughter—here’s a quote from his law firm Arthur, O’Neil, Mertz, Michel, & Brown:
Rod's fundamental belief, which drove many of his accomplishments as a plaintiffs' attorney, was that it was a privilege and responsibility to stand up for those who could not stand up for themselves.
I love you Dad.
Thank you Ralph Nader, for continuing your decades-long fight against corporate greed that endangers peoples’ lives and safety. Thank you for opening a museum so that people can learn the truth about how moneyed interests have turned important consumer lawsuits—like the McDonald’s hot coffee case—into propaganda. Thank you for inspiring trial attorneys around the country, and for standing up for them. And thank you for giving spark and a sense of purpose to my Dad as he tackled his work each day.