I have never understood why some people are so against suing to protect your rights. Punititve damages are designed to deter willful violations of law. Pain and Suffering are real. Do folks not realize we are approaching a very dangerous event horizon in the world where we are nothing but pieces of data? Do we not realize that while there are some very honorable corporations out there. That others will result to every tactic, that permits them to gain at the expense of other peoples lives and livelihoods? Do you know that Employers in many states pull credit reports and make hiring decisions based off them and if the information is inaccurate, misleading, or fails to tell the whole story that some people may not be able to get jobs they otherwise qualify? Why do you think corporations love data? 1. It makes it easier to develop a strategy to manipulate the masses, and control their behavior and move them like pieces on a chess board? Your mind, your soul, your desires, needs and wants are manipulated by advertisers, Your life and your privacy, is being put out there for all the world to see. If there is no way to make these corporations pay in a way that really hurts them, they have no incentive to stop. Are you guys aware that some companies are well aware of illegal, or immoral, or ethically questionable operating procedures, and that for many of them they count what profits they can make, and minus the cost of lawsuits, and if it ends up that the fines and fees they pay for when they ""Bleep" up are less than the gains they made from saying "f" u to the law, they will simply treat it as a business expense, like the cost of office equipment, salary, insurance, etc, and continue on with business as usual? And who pays the cost? Never forget folks, People can exist without corporations, corporations cannot exist without people. Most of us only care about our own individual comfort and can easily turn a blind eye or downplay the seriousness of an organizations behavior so long as the resulting pain in that chain of consequences doesn't land on our doorstep. Same thing with diseases like cancer, ms, lupus, sickle cell, and other disabling conditions, we can pity folks who have them for a few moments and return to our daily living until, we're the ones that are suffering. My basic point is we often rush to judgment about things when our lives are relatively unimpacted or when we have the stamina, resources, or state of mind to withstand the blows, but what about when the suffering becomes intolerable? I had a few accounts that had fallen behind but had been paid, and realistically and legally should have gone away years ago, but Experian kept reporting them even though the law grants me the right to have the removed after a period of time, thother 2 bureaus had removed them almost 6 years ago. But low and behold in my state 90% of credit decisions are made using Experian data, I also have a chronic condition and could not find housing for almost 2 years despite having enough income, and satisfactory landlord references. Now I ask you, If you have a chronic conditions, struggle could you imagine the mental pain and suffering I went through? Could you imagine the humiliation, the depression, and suffering chronic pain and having no place to lay your head all because Experian refused to respect the recovery mechanism in place that legislators wrote into the law so that people could recover if they found themselves in debt and then reformed? Their not giving a"bleep" could place millions of people at risk for being denied basic life necessities, and if they don't recieve any retributition, there is no incentive to change their behavior. When legislation is written, the idea is that those ideas contained in 'that bill will flow out in waves much like radio waves, micro waves etc, the "waves" ideally are meant to influence the behavior of all who are subject to the will from which those waves flow. If people can just violate a justifable rule, then there is no respect for the laws that have made this one of the most properous countries on earth. I remind you corporations are citizens too, corporate citizens and are bound just like you and I by the rules, when we pay parking fines, speeding tickets, bail, and other citations. But don't be drugged by some pollyanna perception into believing a contrived narrative just because it sounds nice and is convenient to where you stand at any particular moment in time. Your situation and circumstances could change by some unforeseeable course of events and make you much more vulnerable to the actions of others than you might be at present and then you might see the value of "making them pay". Believe you me, corporations will often change their narratives to whatever is convenient to save their butts from humiliation, pain, embarrassment and suffering and give less than a rats ass about your pain and suffering they are in it for the money not the service, the service is only a means to enrich their coffers, customer satisfaction? I mere metric to ensure that processes we will continue to bring on money for them, the narratives, another hedge against getting a bad reputation not because a particular operating procedure is painful to others, but to avoid a backlash that could kill the money. So why then should the corporation be shielded? because some nuts will file a frivilous law suit? Be real, most cases are settled and rarely make it to trial, courts have screening mechanisms and Lawyers have a tool called summary judgment, in which if there is no possible theory or set of facts on which a Plaintiff can recover, a well trained lawyer could get a summary judgment or a successful motion to dismiss lickety split. Moreover when the individual can suffer pain humiliation and embarrassment, as a result of the corporations violating action or inaction, what should they do then? Lay down their"arms" and pretend their lives and livelihoods are less important than that corporations profits' I don' t think so! A small fine is tantamount to a minor annoyance and these legislators, and lobbyists, and exec's know it how you say? Because they were often businessmen or lawyers who represented these punks and had the inside view. What they say in the board room will be very different than the PR campaign, and clever marketing, and contrived and manipulated messages they feed to "suckers" who prefer things to be simple and complex. Well let me tell ya, a quote often attributed to Einstien is appropriate here "Everything should be as simple as possible but not simpler". In other words simplicity is good where the exigencies of surrounding conditions can be solved by something simple, however when things become complex whether by the design of nature or by the intervention of human agency ( positive or negative) Countermechanisms must be designed to ensure the balance of health wealth for both the individual real person and the ficitious money making machines we create called corporations. Try to understand that few corporations will be honest enough to not throw a red herring and a diversion to keep you from knowing the real nitty gritty, if there is a dollar to be gained from questionable behaviors, trust me as someone who worked closely with a CEO of a multimillion dollar corporation I have seen the shade. Finally, if anyone wants to know about how law works, don't make assumptions based off narratives you have heard from the grapevine, or seen on a 5 minute news piece, if you want to know how consumer law works go to better sources, like your local law library many court houses have them open to the public, some local colleges and universities do, and even some public libraries have books. Same thing goes for anything else, while you agree with a position at one time upon further information and experiences that impact you consider that your beliefs might change when it happens to you. Shout out to Punitive Damages... Mic Drop....
