Whistleblowers are individuals who exposes wrongdoing within a corporation with the hopes of stopping it. Whistleblowers typically do not speak for selfish reasons but instead do so in order to help others. Not surprisingly, corporations do not like it when their own stir the pot and reveal inside, dirty secrets. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for corporations to find a way to fire whistleblowers. While there have been changes in the law to try to help protect whistleblowers, there are always loopholes.

Lately, we are seeing courage from those inside both the Toyota “sudden accleration” and West Virginia mine tragedies. OnJanuary 16, 2010, Irving A. Miller, then the group vice president for environmental and public affairs at Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A, sent an email to a Japanese colleague in which he “urged his colleagues to ‘come clean’ and admit it had mechanical problems with sticking accelerator pedals three days before the company met with federal authorities to discuss a recall.” He said, “We are not protecting our customers by keeping this quiet… The time to hide on this one is over. We need to come clean.” Mr. Miller retired from the company shortly after he sent this, likely because he anticipated reperusions from his statement..

Shortly thereafter, NBC news reported that West Virginia miners are coming forward, anonymously so far, to confirm that the mine was so unsafe it should have been shut down at least until it could be made safer. One miner spoke in silhouette, a common choice for those fearing retaliation.

The only way to stop these big companies from bullying the public is to expose their wrongdoing. Typically, we try to do this through the justice system but to get there, we need information to make our case. Whistleblowers can provide the inside information we need to expose these wrongdoers. We should continue to do all that we can to protect whistleblowers as their words help us fight for the injured. If you have been injured and want to speak with a Missouri injury attorney, contact me at 1-800-517-0602.