A court system in crisis

By Ashley E. Allen

Kyle Morrison's article in the Feb. 26 Southeast Missourian on how the public defender system is failing to provide adequate legal counsel for criminal defendants represents just one side of the growing crisis for Missouri and its court system.

In the current political climate, the civil courts are turning a deaf ear to normal families who are injured by well-to-do companies, professionals and other wrongdoers. Sometimes, these assaults on individual rights are direct. In other cases, average Missourians simply cannot get private legal counsel to protect their rights after they are damaged.

The assault on our rights peaked in 2005 but likely will continue as more and more special interests take advantage of the new climate favoring the wealthy and powerful in Jefferson City. Last year alone, the legislature and Gov. Matt Blunt eliminated the right of the elderly and minors to gain much compensation except for medically necessary care when they are injured by negligent hospitals, doctors and other providers. Even their ability to get medical treatment has been endangered because of the way victims themselves must pay to get legal help in Missouri.

Families, private insurers, Medicaid and Medicare all too often will have to pay for these unnecessary medical costs caused by blatant medical errors.

The legislature and Governor Blunt also reduced the ability of workers injured on the job to get medical care and lost income. Free legal advisers who provided minimal protection and guidance for workers were eliminated, and private attorneys no longer can charge reasonable fees for their services.

Nevertheless, a system that was established to provide more friendly venues than the courts has been changed under the new law to adopt the same legal barriers to fair treatment of workers.

And now your home is no longer your castle. Under a new law effective Jan. 1, you can no longer protect your home in civil courts. Legislation passed last year sets up a maze of legal rights designed to protect negligent contractors from lawsuits, all at the expense of the homeowner, who is saddled with the costs of temporary repairs while paying out of pocket for legal help and mediation proceedings.

The burden on Missouri families is just becoming apparent. According to the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the first five months under the new worker's compensation law saw the number of claims or disputed cases drop by 20 percent. When 80 years of existing law is undermined and new, undefined eligibility rules are created, no one expected the number of disputed cases to drop unless workers, who already operate at a disadvantage because of their injuries, simply cannot navigate the complex system alone or find legal representation.

The pressures on the state public defender system affect persons that the public regards as criminals and likely will do little to fund properly without a court order.

But public resentment should mount as the voting middle class faces a hostile court system when residents are damaged by negligent doctors and hospitals, shoddy home builders and employers and worker's compensation insurers who fight payments they owe for medical care and permanent disability.

Ashley Allen is the director of Missouri Watch Inc., a consumer-advocacy coalition in Jefferson City, Mo.