But there was no question that these were risks worth taking for Jennifer. The other side was counting on the Campbells to walk away intimidated, but they were wrong. A jury eventually agreed, and awarded the Campbells enough to make sure Jennifer’s parents would never have to worry about her care.
These days it’s fashionable for people to complain that the courts are clogged with frivolous lawsuits, and to dismiss the legal profession as a bastion of greed. In a nation as large as ours, it isn’t difficult to find an outrageous case here and there. They draw publicity, and it’s easy to come away with the impression that the court system is hopelessly broken.
I can tell you from long experience that it is not. Before I was elected to the United States Senate, I spent nearly two decades as a lawyer standing up for people who needed a voice. During that time, I worked on hundreds of cases, big and small. I’m proud of the work I did, and the people I represented. There was nothing frivolous about the families who came to me for help. Like the Campbells, many were in very difficult places in their lives. Often, they found themselves up against powerful opposition–insurance companies, large corporations–who had armies of lawyers to represent them. Giving them a chance for justice was very important to me. I was more than just their lawyer. I cared about them. Their cause was my cause.
And that’s what good lawyers–I would say most lawyers–do for their clients all the time. I am a strong believer in the courts as a place for ordinary people to be heard, often when other institutions have failed them. People have criticized the jury system, saying jurors can’t be trusted to consider the facts. I couldn’t disagree more. Juries are a vital example of democracy in action. The people who sit on juries are the same people who decide who the president should be. People who are entrusted to choose the leader of the free world are capable of weighing evidence in a courtroom–and they do, every day across America. I found again and again that they take their service seriously, and follow the law even when the law is at odds with what they personally believe.
That’s not to say the system is perfect. Frivolous lawsuits waste good people’s time and hurt the real victims. That’s why I have proposed to prevent them: Lawyers in medical-malpractice lawsuits, for example, should have to bring their cases to independent experts who certify that the complaints have merit before they are filed. And lawyers who bring frivolous cases should face tough, mandatory sanctions, with a “three strikes” penalty.
The solution isn’t to restrict access to the courts, or to cap awards. Those steps wouldn’t stop the bad cases. They would leave modest families like the Campbells struggling to pay for the negligence of others.
But it isn’t just about money. Lawsuits often have results that reach well beyond the courtroom. Just one example of many: because of the Campbells’ case, hospitals in North Carolina began changing their procedures to make sure the kind of mistakes that injured Jennifer were less likely to happen again. By any measure, you can certainly call that justice.
