Straight talk about vaccines.

Lawyer jokes and uninformed statements bashing the civil justice system have dogged plaintiff attorneys through many a golf game, PTA meeting, or dinner party. When a question about civil justice rears its head, you need to respond with the facts.

Q: Why do I keep hearing about families with children injured by vaccines trying to sue drug companies when the government has a program that's supposed to take care of them?

A: You've probably been hearing about the more than 5,000 families with parents who witnessed a drastic change in their children after they received common childhood vaccines. These loving parents are demanding answers in court about their children's immediate onset of autism symptoms after receiving vaccines of questionable safety.

The federal Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) was created in 1988 to provide financial aid to victims of vaccine side effects, but it isn't working well.

Congress created the Office of Special Masters within the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to hear all vaccine claims. Instead of providing a just method of investigation and restitution, VICP requires families to confront powerful pharmaceutical companies in this "special court system" that circumvents both a judge and a jury.

Congress intended VICP to be an alternative to the traditional tort system-one that would speed compensation to children injured by vaccines and make the manufacturers' liability predictable and thus less disruptive to the vaccine market. But VICP is not the fair and level playing field it was meant to be.

VICP needs an immediate fix that would allow victims to pursue restitution if a vaccine manufacturer is negligent.