Defending civil justice in three simple steps.

As ATLA fuels up its campaign to protect the civil justice system against attacks by the insurance industry and big business, your help is needed more than ever. Now, the Grassroots Development department has made it easy for you to assist. Here are three things you can do today.

Introduce five clients to the People Over Profits Action Network. Download fact sheets and brochures from the People Over Profits Web site (www.peopleoverprofits.org) and put them in your waiting room. Take a few minutes to talk to your clients about the attack on their rights. Encourage them to sign up on the Web site to receive alerts when legislation is considered in Congress and to respond to it. If every ATLA member recruits just five clients, we will have 300,000 more voices for civil justice.

Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. Sample letters to the editor on a host of current civil justice issues are available on the People Over Profits Web site, along with contact information for hundreds of newspapers across the nation. Send a letter yourself, or recruit a client to tell his or her story in a letter. Your clients' stories put a human face on the issue and demonstrate how the civil justice system allows regular Americans to get a fair shake.

Look for opportunities to speak out in your community. Are you a member of a local service organization, such as Rotary or Lions Club? Seek opportunities to speak about the civil justice system to these and other groups and in schools and churches. Many people have never heard a defense of civil justice.

For talking points, contact Kristin Keckeisen, director of grassroots development, at [phone], ext. 543, or [e-mail].