FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: Linda Okun
PHONE: (626) 824-8927
May 11, 2004
As the Presidential campaign heats up there’s
likely to be more debate over whether President Bush’s tax
cuts helped or hurt the economy. Whatever the differences of opinion
on that issue, Americans deserve an immediate break on one particularly
ugly tax that even our children pay. It’s called “The
Lawsuit Tax.” We pay it every time we go to the doctor,
to the grocery store, or to our favorite restaurant, and until
our legal system is fixed to end the abuses within it, that tax
bill will only get higher every year.
The lawsuit tax is the cost built into the price
we all pay for goods and services. It’s the price manufacturers
and retailers incur when they pay for liability insurance, or
when they pay out settlements and jury awards. These costs are
simply passed on to us in the form of higher prices. According
to a study published last year by Tillinghast-Towers Perin, the
U.S. civil justice system costs every American $809 per year,
or more than $3,200 per year for a family of four. At current
levels, the study says, these costs amount to a five percent tax
on wages.
In the view of most Americans, I’m sure
that’s money that could be better spent on groceries, healthcare,
clothing or recreation. While some of these costs may be necessary
to ensure injured victims have access to swift justice, too much
of this cost comes from lawsuit abuse.
Lawsuit abuse is the filing of lawsuits for greed
or harassment instead of justice. Local businesses are often victims
of abuse, but they aren’t alone. Local governments are often
viewed as “deep pockets,” and are routinely sued over
everything from cracks in the sidewalk to road conditions. It
may not seem a big deal for your city to settle a lawsuit for
$1 million, until you realize that taxpayer dollars are paying
that settlement. That’s our money, and so is the money that
pays for the court system.
The costs of lawsuit abuse aren’t limited
to dollars either. When a plague of frivolous lawsuits forces
a business to close, people are put out of work, creating an additional
strain on the community. It also takes away a source of tax revenue,
as well as a valuable entity that contributes to the quality of
life in a community.
Our legal system is obviously flawed and we cannot
simply “leave it” to our elected officials to reform
it. The personal injury lawyers who profit from the status quo
have used their enormous wealth to fund the campaigns of many
elected officials, and pleas for legal reform fall on deaf ears.
Common sense changes in our legal system, such
as requiring proof of injury before a lawsuit can be filed, could
take a large swipe at the lawsuit tax. And holding personal injury
lawyers — the only major industry that is unregulated by
anything other than itself — more accountable for the damage
they do with lawsuit abuse could remove the financial incentives
for abusing the system.
A cut in the lawsuit tax may not make the difference
between prosperity and poverty in our economy, but it could give
us peace of mind that our hard earned dollars can be invested
in our children’s future instead of a personal injury lawyers’
bank account.
For more information on these issues, please contact Los Angeles
CALA at (626) 824-8927 or maryann@maryannmaloney.com
.
Linda Okun is the Executive Director of Citizens
against Lawsuit Abuse in Los Angeles, a nonprofit, grassroots
public education organization. Write to her c/o CALA at P.O. Box
262 - Glendora, CA 91740, or via email at maryann@maryannmaloney.com.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you would like a CALA
speaker to address your organization or some information for your
organization's newsletter, let us know today.
CALA is a nonprofit, grass roots, public education
organization dedicated to serving as a watchdog over the legal
system and those who would seek to abuse it for undeserved gain.
More than 9,000 citizens and taxpayers are Los Angeles CALA supporters.
