5 64 A ppen d ix b: Usi n g L aw s to Fi g h t f o r En v i r o n m en tal R i g h t s
Will a lawsuit be useful even if it does not succeed in court?
Of course you want to win your lawsuit. But if you are unsure whether your
lawsuit can win, consider whether it will help or harm your cause if it does
not win. A lawsuit can bring public attention to a community’s problems
and can bring diverse environmental groups together even if it does not win
in court. If a lawsuit involving environmental damage and human rights
abuse is unsuccessful in your country’s courts, you may be able to take the
complaint to an international body such as the Inter-American Human Rights
Commission or the United Nations (see page 567). This still may not resolve
the problem, but it can bring more attention to your issues; however, it also
takes more time and resources.
Sometimes an unsuccessful lawsuit can make things worse. A bad result
can lead judges and lawyers to think that future lawsuits should not win
either. Negative publicity can cause people to think a community is unjustly
demanding money or other rewards. And like any failed organizing effort,
unsuccessful lawsuits can demoralize and divide a community.
Who will take the lawsuit to court?
The victim of harm, whether it is a person, a person’s family, or an entire
community, must be willing to take on the work and the risks of a lawsuit.
Usually an organization cannot bring a lawsuit against a company on behalf
of someone who was harmed but who is not willing to join the lawsuit.
Is there proof of harm?
For a lawsuit to succeed, you must be able to prove:
• The victims suffered physical or economic harm.
• The corporation caused or is responsible for the harm.
If there is not enough evidence to prove this, the lawsuit may do more harm
than good. Even when it is clear a company has violated the law, without
proof that they caused harm you may not be allowed to bring a case to court,
and if you do, you may not win.
Is the proof available?
Only proof that can be brought to court is useful in court. People who bring a
lawsuit because they have suffered harm must be willing and able to speak in
court, and they must have witnesses who are willing to speak as well. They
must be able to show through pictures, studies, medical records, or some other
evidence that harm was done to them by the corporation being sued. Harm
can be very hard to prove. For example, a company may hire a doctor to say
that it was not the chemicals it used that caused cancer among its workers,
but instead it was workers bad habits such as smoking tobacco, eating an
unhealthy diet, or just bad luck. It can be very hard to legally prove “cause
and effect” even if it seems obvious based on common sense.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012