Tort Reform Record: June 2008
The Tort Reform Record (PDF | 384 kb) is published each June and December to record the accomplishments of the latest legislative year. It includes a two-page, state-by-state summary of the ATRA-supported reforms enacted by the states since 1986.

ATRA White Paper Details Plaintiff Bar's Multi-State Effort to Roll Back Tort Reform
The American Tort Reform Foundation's latest white paper, Defrocking Tort Deform: Stopping Personal Injury Lawyers from Repealing Existing Tort Reforms and Expanding Rights to Sue in State Legislatures (PDF | 828 KB), documents a well-orchestrated campaign by tort lawyer lobbyists and allies to undo years of tort reform at the state level.

In a news release, ATRA President Tiger Joyce said: "The front-page prosecutions of Bill Lerach, Mel Weiss and Dickie Scruggs, coupled with various tort reform court victories in recent years, make it easy enough for some in the media and elsewhere to believe that the plaintiffs' bar is in retreat. But as our white paper makes clear, personal injury lawyers and their allies are still aggressively, if subtly, on the march, particularly at the state level. Their drive to expand liability and litigation markets has been quiet, but it's robust and as opportunistic as ever."

Latest $54 Million Lawsuit Revolves Around Missing Laptop
In light of another absurd consumer protection lawsuit filed in the District of Columbia, ATRA President Sherman "Tiger" Joyce has sent a letter to the mayor and city council, urging reform of D.C.'s Consumer Protection and Procedures Act before late-night comics dub D.C. "Home of the $54 Million Lawsuits." Read full text of Joyce's letter here.

Trial Lawyers' Misleading Internet Solicitations Pose Risk to Public Health
A new report from the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest shows that Internet searches for medical information predominantly lead to trial lawyer-run Web sites designed to gin up lawsuits. The often inaccurate and misleading information offered on these sites, says the report, frightens some patients away from beneficial drugs and treatment and thus endangers public health. Read ATRA's op-ed column, including its call for a crackdown by state bar associations, in the Providence Journal.

Most Unfair Civil Court Jurisdictions Cited by 'Judicial Hellholes® 2007' Report
The American Tort Reform Foundation has issued its Judicial Hellholes® 2007 report, citing first-time Hellholes Clark County, Nevada and Atlantic County, New Jersey. They join perennial Hellholes South Florida, the Rio Grande Valley and Gulf Coast of Texas, Cook County, Illinois and West Virginia among the nation's most unfair civil court jurisdictions.

"Besides naming two new Judicial Hellholes this year, the biggest headline may be the fact that Madison County, Illinois is no longer a Hellhole," noted ATRF president Sherman "Tiger" Joyce. "In each of the last five years Madison County was cited as a leading Hellhole. But courts there have undertaken several positive reforms which justify moving the county this year to the report's 'Watch List.'"

Read the full report, a national news release summarizing the report, or several regional news releases.


2007 Judicial Hellholes

1. South Florida
2. Rio Grande Valley and Gulf Coast, Texas
3. Cook County, Illinois
4. West Virginia
5. Clark County, Nevada (Las Vegas)
6. Atlantic County, New Jersey (Atlantic City)

ATRA President Testifies About 'Fraud & Abuse' within Railroad Workers' Compensation System
During an Oct. 25 hearing before the full House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, ATRA president Sherman "Tiger" Joyce cited examples of unlawful fraud and abuse by plaintiffs' lawyers within the litigation-based system currently used to compensate railroad workers for injuries sustained on the job.

Joyce urged the committee and Congress to consider moving toward a no-fault system more like the workers compensation programs throughout much of the rest of government. His testimony is summarized in ATRA's news release, but you can also read the full testimony.

CALA Charter Support
Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) groups are non-profit grassroots watchdog organizations dedicated to educating the public about the costs and consequences of lawsuit abuse. They work actively within their communities to encourage personal responsibility, challenge those who seek to abuse the legal system and fight for civil justice reform. Support CALAs here.

ATRA Offers 'Transparency Code' to Govern Contracts between State AGs & Private Sector Lawyers
With increasing regularity, state attorneys general are hiring personal injury lawyers from the private sector to perform legal work for the state, and hundreds of millions of dollars in contingency fees are sometimes at stake. Yet often enough, some state AGs award such lucrative contracts to their political supporters without competitive bidding and with little or no oversight from the public or state legislatures.

So ATRA has proposed a Transparency Code designed to improve government accountability whenever state AGs hire outside counsel to litigate on behalf of state residents. "We hope all attorneys general will closely examine our code and begin a constructive dialogue about the good-government principles it embodies," says ATRA President Sherman "Tiger" Joyce.

Read more about ATRA's Transparency Code for state AGs in Joyce's Sept. 17 National Law Journal commentary and in ATRA's news release from the same day. And learn about the activist agendas of certain state attorneys general at ATRA's specialized AGAgendaWatch Web site.

ATRA Critical of Hellhole Lawyer's 'Heart Attack' Ad
Palm Beach, Florida-based personal injury lawyer Craig Goldenfarb has taken trolling for new clients to an arresting new low - cardiac arrest, that is. His advertisement, appearing on some taxi cabs, suggests that people who have heart attacks in public places should sue others for liability.

Neither Goldenfarb's ad nor Web site offers any information about the personal choices that can lead to heart attacks, such as eating or drinking or smoking too much and not getting enough exercise. Apparently he'd rather we blame someone else for our problems, and that mindset helps make Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties the collective judicial hellhole they are (see ATRA's Judicial Hellholes® 2006 report which cited South Florida among the nation's worst, most unfair jurisdictions in which to be sued).

In a news release, ATRA director of communications Darren McKinney said he found the ad's "opportunistic, ambulance-chasing mentality" to be "truly sickening" and rhetorically asked: "So who can I sue?" He added that "ATRA intends to keep reminding consumers, taxpayers and voters in judicial hellholes that they ultimately bear the costs for the lawsuit abuse that the Craig Goldenfarbs of the world foment."

'Pantsuit' Plaintiff Persists in Perversion of Consumer Protection Law
Though a trial judge's June ruling went wholly against him, Legal Times reports that District of Columbia administrative law judge Roy Pearson Jr. has decided to take the internationally infamous $54 million "pantsuit" he's relentlessly waged against his neighborhood dry cleaners for more than two years to the D.C. Court of Appeals.

ATRA co-hosted a successful July fundraiser for Jin & Soo Chung, the hardworking owners of Custom Cleaners, in an effort to offset some of the legal bills they had accrued (and will now continue to accrue throughout the appeals process). Those wishing to contribute to the cause still can at www.chungfundraiser.com.

In the meantime, learn why ATRA calls the case a perversion of D.C.'s consumer protection law by reading what ATRA president Tiger Joyce had to say during the fundraiser. And to learn why ATRA opposes Pearson's reappointment to his judgeship -- with a six-figure salary at D.C. taxpayers' expense -- read Tiger's recent Washington Times commentary or this Washington Post letter to the editor from ATRA director of communications Darren McKinney.

ATRA's Ballpark Billboard Condemns 'Lawsuits Outta Leftfield'

As the latest in its series of billboards that remind residents of Judicial Hellholes® that they pay an economic price for lawsuit abuse, ATRA has posted a baseball-themed message along the leftfield wall of the Cook County, Illinois, ballpark that's home to the Schaumburg Flyers, an independent minor league team playing in the Northern League. The family-friendly Flyers boast a sizeable suburban Chicago fan base and will be featured in an upcoming reality TV series on a major cable network, so ATRA's 8' x 24' sign is sure to get plenty of exposure throughout the season.

Click here to read ATRA's news release and learn why ATRA's Judicial Hellholes 2006® report ranked Cook County (along with two other Illinois counties, Madison and St. Clair) among the six worst jurisdictions for lawsuit abuse in the country.

Survey: Americans Want Transparency & Accountability from Attorneys General
As the American Tort Reform Association renews its drive to make state attorneys general more accountable to the public, its newly released survey shows that sizeable majorities of Americans want greater transparency and oversight when it comes to the contracts these powerful state officials often enter with private sector personal injury law firms.