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Tort Law: More Interesting Than You Might Expect

Tort Law: More Interesting Than You Might Expect
Learn about America’s most famous lawsuits through comic-book style graphics at the American Museum of Tort Law, which reopens on April 1. Illustration courtesy American Museum of Tort Law

Not every day trip in our region has to be to someplace scenic or historic. There is also the town of Winsted, Conn., and the American Museum of Tort Law.

Yes, that’s right. A day trip to Winsted, to the tort law museum.

Perhaps you’re unsure what tort law is; essentially, all interesting lawsuits that don’t involve crime are torts.

Examples you can find now on the museum’s website at www.tortmuseum.org include possible suits against gun makers, holding them accountable for mass shootings; and a related court case that found Alex Jones liable for claiming the Sandy Hook mass school shooting was a hoax.

Yes, the website for the museum is very complete, and during the worst of COVID-19, you had no choice: If you wanted to visit the museum, you had to do so virtually.

But the physical museum is about to open up again, on the weekend of April 1 to 3, from 1 to 5 p.m. After the opening weekend, you can visit on Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m.

Tours are available. The exhibits on historic tort law cases are explained with fun, cartoon-style graphics. You can learn about the woman who sued McDonald’s when her hot coffee spilled and burned her leg. You can learn about suits against tobacco companies who knew cigarettes caused cancer, but claimed they didn’t.

And of course you can learn about Ralph Nader’s famous campaign against automobile manufacturers who were making and selling unsafe cars. It was Nader who founded the museum; he sited it in Winsted because this is the town where he grew up.

Find out more about visiting the museum at www.tortmuseum.org, or just come by on the weekend of April 1 to 3.

Cynthia Hochswender
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