Top 10 Ways the U.S. Chamber Hurts Americans

New web feature highlights actions taken by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at the expense of American consumers, taxpayers, businesses

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the U.S. Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) holds its annual policy parade on how to eliminate Americans' rights, the American Association for Justice (AAJ) details the top 10 most notorious ways the U.S. Chamber has hurt Americans.

In its newest web feature, Top 10 Ways the U.S. Chamber Hurts Americans, AAJ exposes the U.S. Chamber's actions to bail out Wall Street, close the court house door on American consumers and businesses, protect polluters and drown elections in corporate money.  The list focuses on efforts that have had a direct, negative impact on Americans. 

"The U.S. Chamber is a front group for corporations that want to weaken basic rights of American workers, consumers and small businesses," said AAJ President Mary Alice McLarty.  "It is time to expose the U.S. Chamber's actions that put corporate profits over Americans."

A key focus in AAJ's list is the actions taken by the U.S. Chamber to limit access to justice.  Number Three on AAJ's list details how ILR spent more than $226 million in the past decade lobbying the federal government to restrict Americans' ability to hold corporations accountable when they are harmed by dangerous products and services. At the same time, the Chamber's National Chamber Litigation Center engaged in an average of two lawsuits a week on behalf of its multinational corporate members.

"The last thing our country needs is to give corporations a free pass for their negligence and misconduct," said McLarty.  "Year after year the U.S. Chamber tries to fool the public into believing that good American jobs and accountability are mutually exclusive, and at the same time uses the judicial system to push its own agenda.  This is hypocrisy at its worst."

The irony does not end with lawsuits.  Despite its name, the U.S. Chamber has gone to bat for foreign corporations at the expense of American businesses.  Number Five explains how even being a U.S. corporation is not always enough to win the U.S. Chamber's favor.

Top 10 Ways the U.S. Chamber Hurts Americans can be found online at www.justice.org/USChamber.  Previous reports by AAJ on the U.S. Chamber include Do As I Say, Not As I Sue: Exposing the Lawsuit-Happy Hypocrites of U.S. Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform, The Chamber Litigation Machine: How the Chamber Uses Lawsuits to Keep Americans Out of Court and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Invents the News.

Top 10 Ways the U.S. Chamber Hurts Americans

1. First in Line for a Bailout
2. The Leading Denier of Climate Change
3. Do As I Say Not As I Sue
4. Big Business Only
5. Beholden to Foreign Corporations
6. Drowning Elections in Corporate Money
7. Tampering with Juries
8. Stepping Up for the World's Worst Polluters
9. Pushing the Corporate "Get Out of Jail Free" Card
10. Funneling Special Interest Money into Washington
    

As the world's largest trial bar, the American Association for Justice (formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) works to make sure people have a fair chance to receive justice through the legal system when they are injured by the negligence or misconduct of others--even when it means taking on the most powerful corporations.  Visit http://www.justice.org.

SOURCE American Association for Justice