Fun with legal reform

From the Smoking Gun:

Lenny Kravitz's leaky toilet has sprung another lawsuit. The rocker is being sued, for the second time, in connection with an overflow incident last August in his swanky Manhattan penthouse. In a New York State Supreme Court complaint filed Monday, Allstate Insurance contends that Kravitz owes it $9387, the amount the firm paid to policyholder Daniel Pelson for damage to his 4164 square-foot, third-floor loft (purchased in 2001 for about $2.5 million, Pelson's apartment sits a few floors below the star's Soho penthouse). Allstate charges that Kravitz is guilty of "negligence and carelessness" for allowing the loo to become "blocked, clogged, and congested." Last October, the Kravitz commode triggered a lawsuit by an insurer that paid a $333,849 water damage claim from businessman Joel Disend, whose fourth-floor apartment is directly above Pelson's pad. That six-figure complaint is pending.

What did we hear last year during the campaigns about legal reform? It was all tortreform, tortreform, tortreform, triallawyers very bad, John Edwards ambulance chaser, tortreform, tortreform. These "tortreform" efforts were spearheaded by the [organization I technically work for that is the largest business lobby in the country] and by the Bushie cronies who are trying to institute a corporatocracy in this country. Yet, where is the outrage at corporate lawsuits like this one? These people don't want to give citizens the right to sue corporations for faulty products and negligence, but corporations are allowed to sue citizens for overflowing toilets? Come on.

The [organization I technically work for that is the largest business lobby in the country] has partial ownership in a newspaper on tortreform in Illinois that you can read at wwwdotmadisonrecorddotcom. The [organization I technically work for that is the largest business lobby in the country] does not have its name anywhere on the paper. See this for more info.

Yes, we need serious legal reform in this country. One only has to look at the Stella Awards for evidence. But! Legal reform must not benefit only one side or the other. Allstate is suing Kravitz for an overflowing toilet. That is as ridiculous as it would be for Kravitz to sue the manufacturer of the toilet for its overflow.