[Shadow_Group] Fw: Father continues crusade against closed court records

[Dean HICKAM]

Father continues crusade against closed court records

By WALT WILLIAMS<mailto:wwilliams at dailychronicle.com> Chronicle Staff Writer 
HELENA -- Two years ago, Richard Barber of Manhattan took his fight for consumer protection to the state Capitol, carrying a picture of his son Gus, who was killed by a defective rifle at age 9.

Working with Bozeman lawmakers, Barber pushed two bills that would have prevented courts from sealing information about dangerous products that had been dug up in lawsuits. Such information in the right hands may have saved his son's life.

Barber came to the Queen City only to see his hopes crushed. Both bills were killed by lawmakers.

Shortly afterward, Barber confronted the industry lobbyists who had worked to defeat both pieces of legislation.

They simply laughed, he recalled in a recent telephone interview.

"To laugh at a man who is principled, focused and dedicated is just a big mistake," he said.

He may have the last laugh. Both bills have been resurrected in the 2005 session by the same lawmakers who sponsored them last time, and both said they are seeing new support for the legislation.

House Bill 58, sponsored by Rep. Chris Harris, D-Bozeman, would prevent courts from sealing documents containing information about a deceptive financial practice, hazardous substance or product that is likely to cause injury.

Such documents are often sealed as part of settlements in civil lawsuits. Harris argues that the public has the right to know about any dangerous products or practices that have the potential to harm people in the future.

"If the real reason the company wants to settle is to keep secret a defective product, that's where we're saying 'no,'" he said.

Sen. Mike Wheat, D-Bozeman, is carrying a similar bill in the other chamber. He has named it the "Gus Barber Anti-Secrecy Bill" after Barber's son, but it has yet to be assigned a bill number.

Wheat's previous bill was killed in the Senate. One of the arguments made against it was there was a misplaced comma in the text, muddying the meaning.

While control of the Senate has since switched parties, Wheat blamed the bill's 2003 failure more on confusion about what the bill did, and he has since gotten at least one of its opponents to change his mind.

"I think people now have a better idea of what I'm trying to accomplish," he said.

Representatives of various business groups argued against both bills last time, saying they failed to take into account that legal settlements are agreements between both parties, and that closed documents sometimes hide embarrassing information about the victims.

Barber isn't likely to buy that argument. He found out after his son's death that the rifle's manufacturer had known for years about a defect in the trigger mechanism.

He has fought for four years to get an open-documents law on the books, and his disappointment in the 2003 session hasn't blurred his focus.

"I do this in my son's memory really," he said. "To me that's important because all I have left is memories."

A hearing on HB 58 is scheduled for Monday.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/shadowgroup-l/attachments/20050110/82767aee/attachment.html>