CBS' "Eye on America" needs corrective lenses.

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 19, 1996--In a pair of poorly researched, unbalanced and deceptively edited "Eye on America" segments, CBS News rehashed old attacks on consumer attorneys who represent ordinary people against large corporations.

The Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles issued the following:

CBS STATEMENT: In his introduction, Dan Rather assured viewers that CBS would "look beyond the heat, to try to shed some light on a growing national problem -- Americans who, some of them, will sue at the drop of a hat."

FACT: Americans are not suing "at the drop of a hat."

o Suits for personal injury or damages are only 9 percent of

all state court filings.

o Product liability suits are only 4 percent of that 9 percent.

(According to the National Center for State Courts.)

The growing trend is actually businesses suing other businesses. Corporations sue each other at ten times the rate they're sued by ordinary people.

CBS STATEMENT: Reporter Richard Threlkeld mocked "silly lawsuits, runaway juries," citing "the New Mexico woman who sued and won a lot of money from McDonald's after spilling hot coffee in her lap."

FACT: The McDonald's case showed how the civil justice system helps

consumers.

o McDonald's served coffee 30 degrees hotter than other fast

food chains.

o McDonald's had settled more than 700 prior claims of hot

coffee burns.

o The 79-year-old woman -- a passenger in a parked car at the

time of the accident -- suffered third-degree burns on her

buttocks and vaginal area, requiring hospitalization and

numerous skin grafts.

o Only after McDonald's refused to reimburse her for her

hospital expenses of $20,000 did she take them to court.

o The jury found that McDonald's had deliberately decided to

continue serving scalding hot coffee that it knew injured its

customers. The jury hit McDonald's with $2.7 million in

punitive damages (later reduced by the judge) -- equal to two

days of coffee sales.

o After the verdict, McDonald's turned down the temperature of

its coffee.

The McDonald's hot coffee case was not a "silly lawsuit," and it made a product safer for consumers everywhere.

CBS STATEMENT: One "tort reform advocate" was quoted as saying "We're paying more for products" because of lawsuits.

FACT: Product liability lawsuits save money -- and lives.

o According to a 1995 report by the Consumer Federation of

America, product liability insurance accounts for only about

0.0026 percent of the price of all U.S. products.

o On the other hand, the economic cost of preventable death in

the United States is $399 billion a year, according to the

National Safety Council.

o The Consumer Federation of America estimates that product

liability laws prevent 6,000 deaths and millions of injuries a

year, although more than 21,000 Americans still die every year

from faulty consumer products.

CBS STATEMENT: CBS mocked the Consumer Attorneys of California for changing its name from "California Trial Lawyers Association." The program indicated that this was done because it was ashamed of its name.

FACT: Consumer attorneys changed their name because the public thought they were criminal defense attorneys.

o In a 1994 poll, 70 percent of Californians thought "trial lawyers" were criminal defense lawyers -- like O.J. Simpson's defense team, or even Perry Mason.

Consumer attorneys don't defend criminals; they go after corporate criminals on behalf of ordinary citizens. The new name accurately defines who they are and what they do.

CBS STATEMENT: Dan Rather said that these reports were "on the cutting edge of the news. It's our effort, also, to give context and perspective to the growing trend of using lawsuits to settle many claims."

FACT: CBS parroted corporate press releases that created the false premise stated above -- "the growing trend of using lawsuits." By promulgating this fiction, CBS ignored a real problem: corporations making products, from cigarettes to the Ford Pinto to asbestos to the Dalkon Shield to flammable children's pajamas, that injure and kill people. When the public and their attorneys finally hold them accountable in court, the corporations lie, cover up, and trot out public relations campaigns against consumer attorneys.

The tobacco companies scared off CBS once, when they stopped a "60 Minutes" story cold. Now the pro-corporate mentality has trickled down to the nightly news.

CONTACT: The Hemingway Media Group

James Goldin, 213/462-8152