www.SickofLawsuits.org Launches Voter Education Campaign Focused on Impact of Lawsuit Abuse on the Economy and Health Care
Presidential Candidates Must Address Problem of Frivolous Lawsuits
August 20, 2008 – Austin, TX – More than 165,000 citizens concerned about the economy and health care system rallied today behind a national project of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, www.SickofLawsuits.org, as it launches a voter education campaign to bring lawsuit abuse to the forefront of the Presidential campaign. As the economy and health care continue to dominate the candidates’ domestic policy agendas, addressing the problem of lawsuit abuse should be a key component of their proposals.
“Lawsuit abuse is a key driver in the problems plaguing our economy and health care system,” said John Merchant, Chairman of California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. “For too long, the American civil justice system has been under attack by personal injury lawyers who game the legal system for personal profit in the name of ‘consumer protection,’ but the reality is that consumers are the ones getting cheated. Junk lawsuits harm the economy and job creation, and threaten our access to affordable, quality health care. Lawsuit abuse hurts all of us and the American people ought to know what the next President of the United States plans to do about it.”
Small businesses, which are responsible for 75 percent of new jobs in the United States, are often the hardest hit by the threat of a frivolous lawsuit. The average small business spends over $17,000 per year due to the out-of-control legal system. Even when lawsuits are baseless, the cost to fight them typically costs a small business owner over $5,000.
“As Americans struggle to cover the rising costs of gas and groceries, they can no longer tolerate the hidden, individual cost of lawsuit abuse, which costs each citizen $825 per year ,” added Merchant.
Lawsuit abuse harms American patients and health care workers – adding to the rolls of the uninsured and leading physicians and other health care workers to leave the field of medicine:
- Ten cents out of every dollar spent on health care is attributable to medical liability and defensive medicine, amounting to over $200 billion per year in wasted health care expenditures.
- Forty-five percent of hospitals nationwide say that the liability crisis has resulted in the loss of physicians and/or reduced coverage in emergency departments.
- Nearly half of all women in the U.S. report disruptions in obstetric care due to the medical liability crisis.
“If we are serious about job creation and expanding health care access, we must face the problem of lawsuit abuse problem head on,” said Merchant. “America is sick of lawsuits.”
About Sick of Lawsuits
www.Sickoflawsuits.org is a nonpartisan, grassroots campaign of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. We have more than 165,000 supporters across the country including doctors, health care professionals, small business owners, attorneys and people from every walk of life. Visit us online at www.Sickoflawsuits.org
