"Why The Editorial Silence On Tort Reform"

Bush tops Gore on tort reform

Michael Arnold Glueck

Orange County is one of the most litiginous regions in California and the entire nation. Legions of county trial attorneys and their firms have pocketed previously unheard of obscene sums in their greedy little wallets. On the issue of tort reform one major candidate has an exemplary record and the other a dismal one. Why then have the press, editorial and op-edwriters been so relatively silent on this issue which daily affects every aspect of the lives and lifestyles of every county resident?

Vice President Gore once met with personal-injury attorneys in Texas, and you can bet there was nothing unpleasant going on. He has received healthy contributions from trial lawyers, and the Clinton-Gore administration has been no friend of tort reform. The president's vetoes of Republican-sponsored tort reform measures clearly have put donation-assuring grins on the faces of lawyers nationwide.

George W. Bush does not get along nearly as well with Texas trial lawyers,or with trial lawyers elsewhere in the nation. After being elected governor, he began negotiating with Democrats to fulfill a campaign promise and craft a bipartisan and comprehensive tort reform measure that, among other provisions, imposes penalties for frivolous suits, caps damages beyond out-of-pocket losses and says you do not have to pay for what you did not cause.

Says Maryanne Maloney, Executive Director of Orange County Citizens Against Law Suit Abuse (OC-CALA), "The current system costs every citizen in Orange County somewhere between $1200-$1800/year according to different studies and estimates. We all pay. We all lose." That is except for the attorneys!

The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) reports that, while the amounts of jury compensation have been going up nationally, they have been going down by roughly an equal amount in Texas. It's not so stupid a guess that tort reform has had something to with that fact.

Why is this important? Because, as the tort reform groups, ATRA & CALA, point out, the aggregate amount of the top 10 jury verdicts each year in this nation has gone up 1,200 percent since 1997, and because, as a spokesman says, the civil justice system should not "foster a lottery mentality for non-deserving claimants." It's his hardly astonishing view that the system should be "balanced, fair and predictable."

It hasn't been. It has been a system that has undermined business stability and innovation, a sense of self-accountability, neighborliness and justice itself. It costs consumers billions of dollars.

No one wants to do away with legitimate suits and reasonable verdicts, butit is time to restore sanity to the system. On this issue, the distinction between Gearge W. Bush and Al Gore is clear. On a clear day (hopefullyNovember 7, 2000) lets hope this point will be visable forever across our county and land.

Thank you.

Glueck, of Newport Beach, writes a national column on medical and legal reform issues.
Michael Arnold Glueck, MD
1208 Somerset Lane
Newport Beach, CA 92660
949-645-5183

Background
Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) was formed in the fall of 1993 as a California corporation to combat the current bureaucracy that perpetuates the state's costly avalanche of lawsuits. This grassroots organization was formed in response to a civil justice system that encourages both people to sue and lawyers to take advantage of victims. Our leadership is a group of small business and professional people from the greater Orange County area who are all united in our passion for meaningful reform of an out-of-control civil litigation system. We believe that tort reform has not been adequately addressed by our lawmakers because of the influence of special interest groups on the legislative process. We feel the public must become engaged in the debate over legal reform before California can solve it's lawsuit crisis.

Mission Statement
CALA's mission is to educate the public about the impact of lawsuit abuse on consumers and California's economy, thereby creating a climate for change.

Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) is a nonprofit corporation. Contributions or gifts to CALA are not deductible as charitable contributions. However, they may be deductible as a business expense as indicated under provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. Checks should be made payable to Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA). You may also donate with your credit card via PayPal. Thank you.

© 1993-2007 Orange County Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse