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"Lawsuits have gotten out of control in America and something needs to be done to rein them in." - U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, "Revised lawsuit-reform bill wins Democratic converts", The Washington Times, November 25, 2003
Lawsuit Abuse News
more lawsuit abuse news in Sick Of Lawsuits
Civil Wars
"Americans will sue each other at the slightest provocation… Many of these cases do not belong in court. But clients and lawyers sue anyway, because they hope they will get lucky and win a jackpot from a system that allows sympathetic juries to award plaintiffs not just real damages - say, the cost of doctor's fees or wages lost - but millions more for impossible-to-measure 'pain and suffering' and highly arbitrary 'punitive damages.'" Newsweek, December 15, 2003
Senate Hopeful Wants Towns Safe For Doctors
"Neither doctors nor jobs can survive in an atmosphere in which civil justice is treated as a legal lottery.
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Yes, some hit the jackpot under that system. But this is the price of those few jackpots: Quality medical care and good jobs wither away and die." - Andy McKenna, candidate for U.S. Senate, Chicago Sun Times, December 6, 2003
Opinion Editorial: This Year, Legislature Must Close Tort Reform Loopholes
"Greedy personal injury attorneys can still easily combine unrelated lawsuits and unrelated plaintiffs together to create a 'mass tort' of thousands of plaintiffs, which is more likely to result in outrageous verdicts…Have you wondered why access to healthcare is hard to come by in Mississippi's rural areas? The combination of thousands of unrelated plaintiffs into one mass lawsuit is a key reason why." The Sun Herald, December 13, 2003
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Sick Of Lawsuits
In Action
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Dr. Betty Connell, Senior Counselor to the Sick Of Lawsuits Campaign, recently published an Opinion Editorial in the December 15 issue of Ob.Gyn. News that outlines the devastating effects of frivolous lawsuits on women's health. Read an excerpt of her piece below.
What We've Lost to Frivolous Lawsuits
"Frivolous lawsuits have adversely affected the development and availability of reproductive medical technology in the United States. As a result, we have lost access to several safe and effective medications and devices, and others will never be realized…People need to become aware of what's happening to their healthcare. Our medical-legal system is broken and our patients are paying the price." Ob.Gyn. News, December 15, 2003, vol. 38, no. 24
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Legislative Update
Congress is closer to passing legislation to curb class-action lawsuits now that three more Democrats are supporting the effort. Due to changes brokered by Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist, New York's Charles Schumer, Connecticut's Chris Dodd and Louisiana's Mary Landrieu announced on November 25 that they would back the bill and a vote on the legislation could occur as early as next February. Reuters News, December 15, 2003
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Our Broken Healthcare Liability System
The Stats
76 percent: percentage of Americans who feel that excessive medical liability lawsuits threaten access to quality healthcare. Survey Finds Tort Reform Enjoys Bipartisan Support; Personal Injury Lawyers Viewed as Problem, American Tort Reform Association, February 27, 2003
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$1003:amount that the "lawsuit tax" is expected to cost each U.S. citizen by 2005 if our civil justice system goes unchanged. U.S. Tort Costs: 2003 Update; Trends and Findings on the Costs of the U.S. Tort System, Tillinghast - Towers Perrin, December 2003
2,050: the percentage that class-action lawsuits increased in Madison County, IL from 1998 - 2001. Bringing Justice to Judicial Hellholes 2003, American Tort Reform Association, November 2003
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For press inquiries, please contact Rossanna Salazar at: 1-800-476-1442
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