FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: John Kabateck, California State Director,  john@kabstrat.com
Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, anthony.malandra@nfib.org

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Dec. 11, 2024—Comment from John Kabateck, state director for NFIB in California, on yesterday’s release of the 2024-2025 Judicial Hellholes report from the American Tort Reform Foundation that ranked California fifth in the nation.

“A deal forged this year reformed the state’s horrendously bad anti-employer law, the 20-year-old Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), but it took the threat of a ballot initiative, the Fair Pay and Employers Accountability Act, to bring some of the reluctant parties to the table. Given the outcome of a ballot measure such as Proposition 36, which showed people fed up with a lot of California’s current system, it was probably wise for the much-too-powerful attorneys’ lobby in this state to bargain rather than block. Still, we can’t claim to be out of the lawsuit woods yet.”

From the ATRA news release

In the California section of the report, California’s Judicial Hellhole® Status: Where Innovation Meets Litigation, Tiger Joyce, president of the American Tort Reform Association, says, “California’s legal system continues to be the trial bar’s laboratory for innovative liability theories, burdening businesses and ultimately hurting consumers. It’s not just legal jargon for lawyers in courtrooms – lawsuit abuse drives up the cost of everyday essentials for hard-working Californians, from groceries to gas.”

The news release said, “Lawsuit Abuse Costs Every Californian $2,300 Annually, Kills 825,000 Jobs,” and cited the Gilead Tenofovir decision, which imposed a new duty to innovate on manufacturers, as an egregious example of the Golden State’s twisted tort climate. “It found that even if a product is not defective or unreasonably dangerous, a company can be held liable if it was researching and developing another product that it ‘knew’ was ‘safer’ and did not release that product fast enough. The California Supreme Court agreed to review the decision.”

Added Joyce, “The Gilead decision is a prime example of judicial overreach, creating liability for companies even when their products are not defective or dangerous. This new ‘duty to innovate’ could force companies to rush potentially unsafe products to market, prioritizing speed over safety and thorough testing. We urge the California Supreme Court to reject this dangerous theory and prevent further abuse of the state’s legal system.”

Keep up with the latest California small-business news at www.nfib.com/CA. Follow us on X @NFIB_CA and on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/NFIB.CA

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For 80 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven association. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.

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