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" <br />Whatever happened to the assumption of innocence and the right not to incriminate oneself? What about the old corpus delicti? When did that become superfluous?<br /> <br />Now, in civil courts at least, it appears that defendants are often assumed to be guilty and obliged to prove their innocence beyond a shadow of a doubt. In the meantime, they&rsquo;re compelled to furnish truckloads of evidence against themselves and to finance the fishing expeditions of their accusers.<br /> <br />Worst of all, they can be penalized for imaginary torts, anticipated damages, harms that haven&rsquo;t yet &ndash; and may never &ndash; occur.<br /> <br />This is not a trend to be tolerated.<br /><br />The abuse has so far been confined mostly to big bad chemical companies and tobacco, paint, and gun manufacturers, but don&rsquo;t these corporations and their managers, employees, and stockholders have rights, too? If their rights are so easily overridden, how secure are ours?<br /> <br />Marshall County Circuit Court Judge David Hummel has given preliminary approval to a class action settlement providing more than $6 million in free medical examinations for workers at coal and water treatment plants. Plaintiffs lawyers will receive roughly the same amount in attorneys fees.<br /> <br />The workers were exposed on their job sites to polyacrylamide, a water treatment chemical also known as &ldquo;flocculent&rdquo; or &ldquo;floc,&rdquo; which allegedly increases their risk of developing certain cancers, as well as sensory and autonomic nervous system problems.<br /> <br />Assuming that these claims can be substantiated and are not merely speculative, they certainly warrant attention. The floc-exposed workers might very well want to have themselves tested and to consider finding employment with less potential hazard.<br /> <br />But why should the manufacturers and distributors of the chemical in question be compelled to pay for examinations that may lead to more court cases and more settlements?<br /> <br />Was their agreement to this settlement truly voluntarily, or was there not quite a lot of coercion involved? Is this really how our justice system is supposed to work?<br /><br />"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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