06/25/2007
NFIB's fight against legal injustices threatening small-business owners continues
CONTACT: Melissa Sharp, 202-314-2068
Washington, D.C.--The madness is finally over for the Chungs, owners of Custom Cleaners the D.C. dry cleaning shop dragged into D.C. Superior Court this month by Roy Pearson in an outrageous lawsuit over a pair of pants. Pearson, a D.C. administrative law judge, claimed the Chungs owed him more than $50 million for misplacing his pants and violating D.C. consumer protection laws. The decision issued today determined that Pearson failed to prove his case beyond a preponderance of the evidence and awarded court costs to the Chungs.
"This lawsuit is a prime example of what is wrong with our civil justice system, and why we need legal reform," said Karen Harned, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business Legal Foundation. "The Chungs should have spent the past few weeks in their dry cleaning shop serving their customers and growing their business. Instead, they were hauled into court to defend an outrageous and unnecessary lawsuit.
"Sadly, this case is not an isolated occurrence. Small-business owners like the Chungs, live in fear everyday that they will be the next victim of a frivolous lawsuit and could possibly lose their business," Harned continued. "The reality is that small businesses do not have attorneys on staff to fight these lawsuits. They don't have the time or resources to defend them making small businesses easy targets for unscrupulous lawyers like Roy Pearson. Our legal system should not operate this way.
"The National Federation of Independent Business is committed to bringing common sense back to our justice system so that small-business owners can operate and expand their businesses without fearing a frivolous lawsuit. Stories like the Chungs are instrumental in raising the profile of the injustices that small businesses suffer every day at the hands of our legal system. We encourage everyone who was outraged by the Chungs' case to visit NFIB's Web site at www.NFIB.com to learn more about frivolous lawsuits and join the fight for common sense legal reform," Harned concluded.
