‘InJustice’ blasts class action lawsuit abuse, the bane of the tort reform movement

“How does this happen? Is this real?” he asked of the kind of lawsuit abuse found in the article. And then he went to work to find out. He uncovered characters like Scruggs, convicted of bribing a Mississippi judge, and a jurisdiction in Illinois which served as the “epicenter” for class action filings for nearly a decade.

“The more we looked, the more we found,” he says.

Some of the issues he researched started out innocently enough, with Davids going toe to toe with Goliaths for some well deserved justice.

“Asbestos is a horrible product. At the beginning of this process there were very valid cases against the manufacturers,” he says.

Then, over time, lawyers see these “massive torts at work,” he says, and companies slowly realize there’s little they can do to adequately defend themselves so they start settling. The film also shows how the trial bar funds the election campaigns of sympathetic judges.

The lawsuit abuses often fall neatly along ideological lines, but there’s money spread all around, he says. (REVIEW: ‘The Undefeated’ is a narrative buster and choir preaching event)

“The trial bar, if you called it an industry, is by far the largest industry supporting the Democratic party. Corporate America fighting for tort reform supports Republicans,” he says. “There’s so much money that goes into influencing both sides.”

Sometimes it takes a single event to start a national conversation, like how the O.J. Simpson trial got people talking about domestic abuse.

Kelly hopes “InJustice” can have some impact on how citizens think about the current legal system.

“Hopefully, this film gets people thinking,” he says.

That may be an uphill battle. Kelly conducted “man on the street” interviews for “InJustice” and found an “ingrained apathy” that may be hard to shake.

“That’s just what lawyers do,” he says. But lawsuit abuse touches many people‘s lives in ways they don‘t imagine.

“It’s bigger than the card you get in the mail saying you get a discount on your new printer cartridge,“ he says.

“InJustice” will also be shown at 11 a.m. July 16 and 4 p.m. July 26. All times EST.