This is a post about what is not there. Right here in River City, a federal court jury found in favor of Adidas Corp. on its trade infringement claim against Payless Shoes, finding damages in excess of $300 million.  The Chamber of Commerce and its allies have long shouted out major screeds about the civil justice system, claiming that it is horribly unfair because juries award too much money.

But when a business got a huge award, the Chamber sat silently. I suppose this should come as no surprise, but the Chamber and its friends have nothing on their websites about the Adidas verdict.  Neither does the American Tort Reform Association.

Nope, their attacks on the civil justice system focus on cases brought by injured consumers.  And some–like the magic pants guy–are grounded in half truths. In the assinine case of the judge who sued the drycleaner for his lost pants–the magic pants guy–anyone who follows the whole story learns that the system works just fine.  But that won’t stop the Chamber from parading it as a horrible or the American Tort Reform Association’s ridicule.

So one thing that this deafening silence suggests is that the Chamber and the American Tort Reformers only complain about lawsuits brought by individuals. Another is that their complaints–too much money awarded in civil lawsuits–are really not complaints about the amount of money so much as they are about who gets the money.

I’ve got nothing in the Adidas case. They have a right to enforce the value that they’ve poured into their brands. But let’s be fair. When the Chamber wants the rest of the world to believe that its war on the civil justice system is honest and open, it will call foul when a corporation gets the outsized verdict. Anything else just smells really, really bad.

David Sugerman

Tags: Adidas lawsuit, Chamber of Commerce, verdict