Tuesday, July 25, 2017

"The Era of Tort Lawsuits Is Waning"

Via Drudge:  Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, an arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, says that while state measures have “weeded out some frivolous lawsuits,” litigation abuse remains a problem. “The American public wholeheartedly agrees there are too many lawsuits in the country,” she says.

At the same time, the falling number of tort filings, coupled with the broader decline in civil jury trials, has some judges concerned that Americans with garden-variety cases no longer see courts as an affordable way to seek redress for their injuries.

“People are just not filing cases like they used to. They are not seeking trials like they used to,” says Senior Judge Gregory Mize of the District of Columbia Superior Court, a local trial court. “It’s so expensive and time-consuming.”

(Link to the entire WSJ article)

2 comments:

Amartel said...

This has been true for decades. Laws which are increasingly complicated and courts which are more expensive to access every year will lead to fewer lawsuits. Pretty soon civil litigation will be all class actions in which the actual victims get pennies on the dollar, and have 90 days to sign up and later 99 days to collect or they're SOL And the lawyers get all the money.

edutcher said...

"Americans with garden-variety cases no longer see courts as an affordable way to seek redress for their injuries"

Consider all the ambulance chasers on TV. They do not instill confidence.

Looks like tort reform is coming, one way or t'other