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Discussion of legal fear in America on NPR's Talk of the Nation December 18, 2003 On December 18, NPR's "Talk of the Nation" did a segment on legal fear in America.
Guests included Michelle Mello, professor at Harvard's School of Public Health
and panelist at both of Common Good's forums on law and health care and Richard
Arum, sociology professor at New York University, member of Common Good's education
advisory boad and panelist at our most recent forum on the effects of law on public
education. Hosted by Neal Conan, the discussion focused on the impact that fear
of lawsuits has had on our society.
One listener, Susan, shared her story of how legal fear has made it nearly impossible
for her to help the blind. After 29 years as a social worker Susan was ready for
a career change. A lifelong Braille user, she hoped to teach Braille to the newly
blind in an area where no such service existed. She qualified but found that she
had to take liability insurance in order to go into people's homes. Enough insurance
to cover up to $1 million per incident, $3 million total. Susan dipped into her
savings to take out the insurance and joined a professional organization to get
a group rate. However when it came time to renew insurance and she just couldn't
afford it. Without the liability insurance, she is considered ineligible to teach
Braille in people's homes.
Click here to read the entire transcript of the show. | |
