Blog

Her pension lost money when managers put ESG ahead of their fiduciary duty. He lost a promotion for not fitting into a DEI box. A teenager was manipulated into damaging surgeries based on gender ideology. When big woke institutions violate people’s rights, what can we do?

In our American system, when all else fails, we can sue. A person harmed by an irresponsible or illegal action can go to court seeking to recover damages and perhaps court costs and penalties.

Then again, lawsuits are expensive—even ones that should win in the end. Big woke institutions have plenty of lawyers and can afford to hire more. Can you? They hope not, and they have a plan to make it much harder for you to beat them in court.

A common way to pay for a lawsuit is to find someone else to put up the money in exchange for part of the judgment or settlement. Usually, this is done by the law firm hired for the case, which is called “working on contingency” (because getting paid is contingent on winning). Yet most big law firms are either woke themselves or else too cowardly to go up against the woke left. So what if a person can’t find a law firm willing to take their case on contingency?

The other option is to find an investor to do the same thing—pay for the case in exchange for a share of the judgment or settlement. This is exactly what law firms do, except when an investor does it, it’s called “litigation financing” (or sometimes, “litigation funding”). Big woke companies want to shut this down, cutting off the funding for lawsuits that hold them accountable.

Sadly, they’ve found allies among some Republican state legislators who either have an “all lawsuits are bad” or “all big businesses are good” mentality. Perhaps they haven’t been paying attention? Big banks and other giant corporations have pushed everything from sex changes for kids to shutting conservatives out of financial services. It has been lawsuits, or credible threats of lawsuits, that have pushed them back.

Justice needs a functioning justice system, which starts with access to courts. Lawmakers should look for ways to make litigation less expensive and root out abusive suits. At the same time, they must ensure that small business owners, retirees, parents, and other everyday Americans can bring meritorious suits against big, woke institutions.