A Civil Justice System That Works for Working People

Serial wrongdoers'generally, large corporations'have sought to make it more difficult to get into court and, if you get in, to make it more difficult to get cases before juries, the one decision-making institution they have not been able to buy. Their efforts have worked. Lay people decide cases increasingly less often. Power has been transferred from citizens to elites.

The courts have been starved of funding. And jury trials are disappearing to the benefit of serial wrongdoers. The incoming administration and Congress profess to be on the side of working Americans. Here are three things they can do to make the civil justice system more fair: (1) feed the courts; (2) restore the original intent of the Federal Arbitration Act; and (3) Restore the power of juries.