CALIFORNIA TAKES A PASS ON PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

San Diego - With a party line vote that killed AB 173 (Houston) -- California's version of "the cheeseburger bill" -- California lawmakers loyal to the personal injury lawyers lobby have taken one more step to ensure California leads the nation in frivolous lawsuits and the abandonment of personal responsibility.

AB 173 would have prevented lawsuits in which overweight individuals try to extract money from restaurants and food manufacturers, seeking to blame them for their own bad decisions.  It's ridiculous that a civilized society would even need such a protection, and even more absurd that personal injury lawyers would oppose it, but that clearly illustrates how out of control our legal system has become.

Personal injury lawyers claim the bill was unnecessary because these so-called obesity lawsuits are usually dismissed.  That ignores the fact that victims of these lawsuits must still spend valuable time, money and resources getting suits dismissed when arguably they never should have been brought. 

California, which has a reputation for leading the nation on important issues, is already lagging behind several other states that have enacted "cheeseburger" bills.  It's unfortunate our state is so willing to drop the ball when it comes to leading the nation in common sense. 

Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) is a non-profit, educational, grassroots organization composed of small business and professional people, consumers and others dedicated to the reform of our civil justice system. If you would like to be added or deleted from this list, or to request a CALA action kit, please reply to Andy Kotner at sdcala@sbcglobal.net.   Feel free to forward this communication and visit our website at www.sdcala.org

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