The legal rights of Americans are threatened as never before. In No Contest, Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith reveal how power lawyers--Kenneth Starr perhaps the most notorious among them--misuse and manipulate the law at the expense of fairness and equity. Nader and Smith document how corporate lawyers
File baseless lawsuits
Use court secrecy to their unfair advantage
Engage in billing fraud
Nader and Smith sound the warning that this system-wide abuse is eroding our basic legal rights, and propose a positive, commonsense vision of what should be done to reverse the corporate-inspired corruption of civil justice. Timely, incisive, and highly readable, this is a book for all citizens who believe that prompt access to justice is the backbone of democracy, and a precious right to be reclaimed.
American attorney, author, lecturer, political activist, and candidate for President of the United States in five elections, including the last election 0f 2008, with his role in the 2000 election in particular being subject to much debate.
Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer rights, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government. Nader is the first Arab American presidential candidate in the U.S.
I read this as a teenager just forming my political opinions. I wasn't old enough to vote, but knew Nader was running every election that I could remember. Found it at a used book sale and read it from cover to cover. It really opened my eyes. At sixteen, I was thinking to myself - you mean there are some companies that KNOW THEIR PRODUCTS HURT PEOPLE and they DON'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!? Even try to shut them up so they can CONTINUE SELLING THE PRODUCT?! I credit this book with helping me to shape my beliefs at that young age, and it still sits on my shelf.
The most controversial section of this ringing denunciation of corporate law is that on tort reform, which Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate and 1996 Green Party Presidential candidate, and Wesley J. Smith denounce as "tort deform" measures sure to further insulate corporations from the damage wrought by pollution and dangerous products. But Nader has never shied from controversy, and this series of case studies attacks confidential settlements in injury cases, state ethics boards, and links between high-power corporate lawyers and government officials with an equal measure of indignation and reformist zeal.