People have an absolute right to know… Whether the water they are drinking is safe or not.
As many of you Pittsburgh residents know, there is a water crisis going on at the present time in the City of Pittsburgh.
In fact, just yesterday in the local newspaper the headline read that 27,000 households may be ineligible for a free water line lead test.
That was shocking in itself.
So it was not at all surprising, that the following day local government officials came forward to say that ALL Pittsburgh residents were now eligible to have a FREE water line lead test.
Everyone is entitled to have leadfree drinking water in their homes.
And yet the fact is that unless a big stink was made about it, the likelihood is government officials would NOT have guaranteed everyone was entitled to a free water lead test.
And again you can be sure that it wasn’t because of the government suddenly becoming righteously indignant about everyone’s right.
No instead it had to do more with what we talked about yesterday concerning the cruise ship setting up a lifeguard at every pool on the ship.
The reason is the same in both cases.
It was the fear of a lawsuit being filed and the defendants being held liable for their inactions.
The government rightly feared the possibility of a class-action lawsuit being filed on behalf of the 27,000 households who were ineligible for the free test.
If that were to happen, the city would be responsible for a lot more than just the cost of a free test.
The City of Pittsburgh for example could be hit with punitive damages for their actions or lack of actions in this case.
Again it was the threat of a lawsuit that prompted the city officials to act in this matter.
Not because it was the right thing to do at all.
Rather it was because of the threat of losing millions of dollars by their inaction.
And the ironic part is, if that were to happen, guess who would be sitting on the jury in the case?
You guessed it. Residents of the City of Pittsburgh.
That’s right.
The very people who would be most affected by polluted water would be the ones who would decide whether the City of Pittsburgh should be hit with millions of dollars in fees and expenses related to the unclean water and lead.
I absolutely love the irony of this.
So it’s a great testament to our system of government, that there are checks and balances in protecting the rights of citizens of the Commonwealth.
And the principle is the same whether we are dealing with the current water crisis or mold in homes or paint chips on the walls of old houses or any other public health scare problem.
If the government will not do the right thing because it IS the right thing to do, then they will do it because they are afraid of the consequences of not doing it.
In plain English, they will do it to protect themselves from being sued.
That is the somewhat limited value of having a personal injury attorney whom you can rely upon.
Because by and large personal injury lawyers have your backside on issues of public safety.
Having safe clean water to drink from in a city the size of Pittsburgh should be a foregone conclusion.
Unfortunately as recent headlines have shown, that is not the case at all.
Pittsburgh class-action, personal injury and auto accident attorney Bernie Tully is here to help you if you feel the water you are drinking is unsafe in any way.
You deserve nothing less than that.
Thanks for reading.
Bernie the attorney.