The Drug Dealer Liability Act: An Idea Whose Time Has Come (as quoted)
If you are a citizen of one of the 39 states that have not yet passed the Drug Dealer Liability Act (DDLA), you can have a significant impact by helping to fill a gapping hole in our civil justice system. Let me explain.
Today, under existing law in 39 states, it is not clear that families who lose a child to drugs can compel dealers in their community to pay for the injuries they cause. This is so, even though in those states a producer of other products that injure a consumer can be liable for injuries resulting from the use of those products. The DDLA fills the gap by making drug dealers liable under civil law for the injuries to the families of drug users.
Michigan, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois, Hawaii, California, South Dakota, Utah, Georgia, Indiana and Louisiana have passed the Model Drug Dealer Liability Act. The first lawsuit under the Act resulted in a judgment of $1 million against two Detroit drug dealers in favor of a drug baby. The proceeds were for the baby's siblings. You see, the baby was not only born addicted to cocaine, but at age two was bludgeoned to death. Her drug-using mother was charged with murdering the baby. In Utah, a wife sued her husband's drug dealer for the devastating impact that her husband's drug addiction had on her family. That case settled just before trial.
The DDLA is a products liability act for illegal drugs. It establishes a form of “market liability” so that the individual plaintiff need not prove a particular defendant's illegal drugs were distributed to him or her, a near impossible task. Instead, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant was distributing illegal drugs in the community at the time of his or her exposure and injury by that dealer's type of drug.
Current federal and state drug forfeiture laws require that money seized, even from convicted drug dealers, be returned to them, unless it is directly connected to their drug crimes. The DDLA makes all of a dealer's assets recoverable to pay for medical treatment and injuries caused by illegal drugs in the dealer's community. THE DDLA permits parents of children in drug treatment, state and county public agencies that pay for drug treatment and/or illegal drug related medical care, hospitals caring for drug babies, and others who are financially injured because of illegal drugs to collect damages.
In the Michigan case, the Detroit Sheriff's Office also won a judgment of over $7 million for its expenses in addressing drug activity in Detroit, recovering any assets in the hands of drug dealers who had distributed drugs in Detroit communities. Without the DDLA it would be difficult, if not impossible, for such recovery to be obtained.
Current laws clearly permit those negligently injured and requiring medical treatment in virtually every other aspect of our lives to recover from the negligent party. However, in the states that have not yet passed the DDLA, laws do not provide for compensation from those who cause injury by intentionally distributing illegal drugs.
Established civil law principles allow civil recovery from manufacturers of hazardous materials for injury caused by such materials that effect health, even where a particular plaintiff cannot determine which manufacturer manufactured the particular product that caused him or her injury. This is called “market liability.” Yet, except for the states that have passed the MODEL DDLA, existing law does not now clearly establish such recovery for injuries caused by hazardous illegal drugs. The DDLA would change this legal anomaly by imposing liability, including “market liability,” on dealers of illegal drugs.
When the Model Act was drafted, it was subject to review and comment nationally by more than 50 members of the legal, law enforcement, drug prevention, civil rights, business, and other communities. It has now been closely examined by the legislative process in the 11 states that have enacted it. The American Legislative Exchange Council has adopted the Act as its model legislation. In addition, the Model Act is now before a number of other legislatures and is receiving growing interest in still other states.
Once enacted throughout the United States, every dealer would know that law enforcement and criminal prosecution is only part of their problem. Injured parents and families will have the tools to make dealers with identifiable assets pay everything they own for the injury they cause, and civil justice will then be more complete.
29-04-2007, 02:50
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