| Diagnosis
The underlying causes for
the flood of lawsuits include:
- the lack of individual
acceptance of responsibility;
- a flood of plaintiff
attorneys all too ready to file lawsuits without appropriate
investigation into the merits of the case;
- an overused lawyer's
contingent fee payment system with no perceived cost or risk to the
plaintiff
- a lack of
understanding by the public at large on the true costs of frivolous
litigation; and
- a generally
ineffective system of laws and rules that rewards abuse to the
detriment of consumers.
CALA is NOT against
litigation involving genuine disputes between parties.
However, CALA is against frivolous and abusive lawsuits. It is against
those lawsuits in which the plaintiff has no downside and has an ability
to extract a settlement due to the high costs of defense. CALA is against
frivolous lawsuits resulting from matters in which the plaintiff bears
much of the responsibility. CALA believes that modifications to our civil
litigation system are needed to bring fairness and responsibility back
into our concept of justice. Highlighted below are some of the changes
which will provide a more equitable balance.
Prescription:
Meaningful civil justice
reform would include the following five elements:
- Rational limits on the
amount of money juries can award for non-economic damages for
subjective injuries such as "emotional distress," and
"pain and suffering."
- Establishing fair
limits on the currently expansive liability rules in the areas of
product liability, wrongful termination, construction defect and class
action lawsuits.
- Responsible limits on
the amount of money that can be awarded as "punitive
damages" and empower judges to determine the amount of such
damages.
- Require explicit up
front disclosure of contingency fee arrangements and reasonable
reforms of how such fees are assessed.
- Adopt a common sense
"loser pays" approach to attorneys' fees, in which the
losing party would have to pay all or part of the prevailing party's
attorneys' fees. Currently, in most cases, each side bears its own
attorneys' fees.
|
