Our sue-happy society is eating a hole in each of our household budgets, according to a recent poll of the US Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR). Lawsuits force the average American family to pay an additional $3,520 per year in goods and services, the ILR reports."Fifty-seven percent of the attorneys surveyed said that a state's litigation environment is likely to impact important business decisions made by the companies they represent, including where to locate," says ILR president Lisa Rickard.
Released April 25, Lawsuit Climate 2007: Ranking the States reports the results of a Harris Interactive Survey of 1,599 practicing corporate attorneys and general counsels.
The study asked respondents to name the most important issue that state policymakers who care about economic development should focus on to improve the litigation environment in their state. Reform of punitive damages was cited by 12 percent as the most important issue. Top issues that these lawyers identified also included timeliness of decisions, tort reform issues in general, elimination of unnecessary lawsuits, caps/limits on jury awards, and caps/limits on non-economic damages.
Respondents were asked to give states a grade from A to F in each of the following areas: having and enforcing meaningful venue requirements, overall treatment of tort and contract litigation, treatment of class action suits and mass consolidation suits, punitive damages, timeliness of summary judgment or dismissal, discovery, scientific and technical evidence, non-economic damages, judges' impartiality and competence, and juries' predictability and fairness. These grades were combined to create an overall ranking of state liability systems. Connecticut's rank is 14. Delaware's legal system was identified as best in the nation and West Virginia's, the worst.
Founded in 1998 by the US Chamber of Commerce, the US Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) is a national campaign, representing the nation's business community, seeking to make America's legal system simpler, fairer and faster for everyone.
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