Legal Reform Issues

America's litigation system is the world's most expensive, costing the average family more than $3,200 per year. The Chamber and the Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) are determined to change this.

 

Over the past decade, class action lawsuit filings rose more than 300 percent in federal courts and more than 1,000 percent in state courts. We called on the 109th Congress to pass the Class Action Fairness Act, which reduces venue shopping and frivolous cases by moving many state class actions to federal courts. Thanks to the hard work of Chamber members and staff, this bill passed and has become law--a major victory for businesses throughout the U.S.

 

Asbestos litigation reform will also be a top priority in 2005. Runaway asbestos lawsuits have driven almost 70 companies into bankruptcy, eliminating as many as 60,000 jobs. The Chamber and ILR will work to construct a solution that is acceptable across the business community— one that helps the truly sick while stopping frivolous cases and limiting further damage to American industries and jobs.

 

We will work to pass the Small Business Liability Reform Act, which provides caps on punitive damage awards and proportional liability for small businesses. Medical liability reform is also essential to improving our legal environment as well as our health care system.

 

Congress should enact bankruptcy reform, a long-standing business priority, to crack down on abuses. And, in response to the explosion of lawyer-driven litigation against food companies, the Chamber supports legislation that would prevent frivolous "obesity" lawsuits.

 

Last year, ILR was a leader in enacting comprehensive legal reform in Mississippi, the worst state in legal fairness according to the ILR/Harris State Liability System Ranking Study. This success provides a blueprint as we turn our focus to other problem states and jurisdictions— especially Madison County, Illinois, and West Virginia. In March 2005, we will release the latest results of the Harris Study.

 

We will continue our initiative to curb global forum shopping whereby cases from around the world are brought in U.S. courts in order to take undue advantage of our more lenient laws and legal procedures.

 

The Chamber will work to reduce frivolous securities fraud and investor-related class actions, defending existing reform legislation while also filing high-quality amicus briefs in key securities class actions.

 

We will continue investigating allegations of improper conduct between a small segment of fraudulent or abusive short sellers and plaintiffs' lawyers to attack and manipulate stock prices. The expanding role of state attorneys general will be closely scrutinized.

 

The National Chamber Litigation Center (NCLC) will continue to pursue efforts to apply the punitive damage standards set by the U.S. Supreme Court in its landmark State Farm decision of 2003. In punitive damage cases, NCLC has already produced tremendous savings for member companies.

 

NCLC, which entered a record 75 cases in 2004 and helped secure 30 victories to date, will vigorously represent our members' interests in court and before regulatory agencies.