Trial Lawyers Inc. K Street: A Report on the Litigation Lobby, 2010

Manhattan Institute for Policy Research ^ | James R. Copland

[EnderWiggins]

America’s litigation-friendly legal system continues to impose a heavy burden on our economy. The annual direct cost of American tort litigation—excluding much securities litigation, punitive damages, and the multibillion-dollar settlement reached between the tobacco companies and the states in 1998—exceeds $250 billion, almost 2 percent of gross domestic product.[1] The indirect costs of excessive litigiousness (for example, the unnecessary tests and procedures characterizing the practice of “defensive” medicine, or the loss of the fruits of research never undertaken on account of the risk of abusive lawsuits) are probably much greater than the direct costs themselves.[2]

Of course, tort litigation does do some good, and it does deter some bad behavior. The problem is that it deters a lot of good behavior, too. Indeed, the legal system does such a poor job of distinguishing between good and bad behavior that the high cost of litigation is effectively a “tort tax” paid by every American. The share of America’s economy devoted to lawsuits is far higher than that of other developed nations such as Germany and Japan (see graph, left). Yet America is hardly safer as a result.

[antidemoncrat]

Many bright US students opt for a Law Degree over many others because of the money they can make as Attornies. The US is graduating record numbers of Lawyers these days. Laws firms depend, basically, on lawsuits for the big bucks. I don’t think Tort Reform will come soon enough to help this Republic.