Opening in 2015, The American Museum of Torts is housed in a former bank just minutes from Main Street in Winstead, CT. The location makes more sense when you realize that Winstead is Ralph Nader's hometown and that he is behind the museum.
Tort law is the area of law that protects individuals from the bad acts of others - whether they are other people, a group of people, or a corporation. Created in England in medieval times, this was borne from common law and was even listed as a undeniable right of the people in the Declaration of Independence.
If you've seen and enjoyed such movies as Erin Brockovich, A Civil Action, or The Insider, then you are already familiar with the importance of tort law in the United States.
The Museum is a short but immersive look at the history of torts and examples that illustrate their importance in history. There are interactive displays including touchscreen information panels about seminal cases, some of which you may know about. [The "Erin Brockovich" case is one such example that is featured].
One antechamber features recalled dangerous toys displaying some famously unsafe examples (remember lawn darts?).
There is a theater space with two short films on a loop. One is an overview of tort history and tort law narrated by Phil Donahue and featuring sound bites by Ralph Nader. The other is a famous case involving a 7-year old's adverse and horrific almost deadly reaction to Children's Motrin - which the company didn't cite on their warning label because "it would lead to a decrease in sales." This case was only settled after 10 years in 2013.
The main room's centerpiece is a showroom-model Corvair automobile - which was made famous (and called out as unsafe) in Ralph Nader's seminal book "Unsafe at Any Speed."). This room also tells the stories of other David vs. Goliath tort law cases including Ford's exploding Pintos, the tobacco industry's complicity and deception in promoting & marketing cigarettes, and the landmark McDonald's "scalding coffee" lawsuit from the late 80's.
The Museum has partnered with renowned political cartoonists and graphic artists to display the information in oversized, Lichtenstein-esque pop art comic book style on the walls, with funny yet bitingly satirical details included in each illustration.
As you go through the museum, it takes about 30-40 minutes to see it all. But in such a short time period it teaches you just what tort law is and why the people that signed the Declaration of Independence cited it just after "no taxation without representation" in the document.
The museum debunks what one thinks they know about personal injury law. It's not only ever about a client extracting money in a frivolous lawsuit. It's about speaking truth to power and calling out the corporations that value their bottom line and profits over the welfare of their consumers and the citizenry. Every one of these cases led to corporations being forced to make safer, more ethical decisions about their products, and not write off human lives to increase their profit margin.
If you are ever traveling through New England en route to Hartford, or Western CT/MA, it's well worth the time to take an hour to visit this museum.
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