WASHINGTON, D.C., July 21, 2000 - The United States Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) launched the "Sunshine Express" today by filing an Open Records Request to determine what culpability the City of Milwaukee has as it considers whether to sue the former manufacturers of lead pigment and lead-based paint. Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C., July 14, 2000 - The United States Chamber of Commerce called today's decision by a Florida jury, awarding defendants in a tobacco case $145 billion dollars in punitive damages, "an obscene symptom of a court system that is out-of-control. "Trial lawyers have subverted the legal system for their own financial gain," said Bruce Josten, Chamber Executive Vice President. "Legitimate, but politically out-of-favor businesses have been attacked by attorneys driven by the prospect of absurd punitive damage awards." Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 8, 2000 - In testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, the United States Chamber of Commerce today criticized the Fairness and Voluntary Arbitration Act, H.R. 534, for undermining contracts and forcing businesses that have agreed to work through the arbitration process into the congested court system. Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 16, 2000 - The United States Chamber of Commerce today called the House Judiciary Committee's passage of the Fairness in Asbestos Compensation Act (H.R. 1283) an important step toward resolving billions of dollars in compensation claims.
The asbestos litigation reform bill is designed to speed settlements, unclog courts and restore a measure of predictability for affected companies. The proposal establishes federal authority to speed compensation to the hundreds of thousands of people physically harmed by asbestos. Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 1, 2000 - The United States Chamber of Commerce called on Congress to maintain the current binding arbitration system for workplace disputes, in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 16, 2000 - Legislation passed by the House of Representatives today will reform product liability laws to protect small businesses from costly and frivolous lawsuits that could jeopardize their future, the United States Chamber of Commerce said. Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 10, 2000 - The United States Chamber of Commerce today warned Congress that American workers want and need expanded access to health care coverage and greater benefits, not expanded access to attorneys and courtrooms. "It's simple health care economics 101: lawsuits equal higher costs, which equals less coverage," said Bruce Josten, Chamber executive vice president. "Three out of four workers now receive health care coverage through their jobs, but new government mandates and expanded liability risks will make doing so increasingly cost prohibitive." Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 24, 2000 - The United States Chamber Institute for Legal Reform says a new website, "Tracking the Trial Lawyers," tracks how trial lawyers are pouring massive contributions into political campaigns to prevent the election of pro-legal reform candidates. Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 24, 2000 - The United States Chamber of Commerce warned that overly lenient state courts are becoming magnets for class action litigation, in an amicus brief filed today in the Supreme Court of Illinois on behalf of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. State Farm was hit with a billion-dollar judgment after a state trial court certified a class action suit involving nearly five million plaintiffs in 48 states.< Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 23, 1999 - The Interstate Class Action Jurisdiction Act (H.R. 1875) passed the House of Representatives 222 to 207 to the applause of small and large businesses across the country, according to the United States Chamber of Commerce. Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 23, 1999 - The Interstate Class Action Jurisdiction Act currently before Congress is essential to address the frivolous lawsuits currently undermining both small and large businesses, according to the United States Chamber of Commerce. "This bill will stop abusive cases that trample the rights of defendants and do little more than line the pockets of unscrupulous trial lawyers," said U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Bruce Josten. "HR 1875 is bi-partisan lawmaking at its best." Read More
Recognizing the urgent need to address the potential for products to experience glitches upon the arrival of the Year 2000, President Clinton signs the Y2K Act in 1999. The Act limits the liability of companies that experience Y2K problems and deters unwarranted Y2K lawsuits. Read More
In the late 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s, several states—including Alaska, Florida, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, Wisconsin, South Carolina, and Oklahoma—adopt comprehensive legal reforms. For example, Mississippi’s 2004 tort reform package includes stricter limits on establishing venue, caps on noneconomic damages, liability protection for “innocent sellers” of products, and lowered caps on punitive damages. Read More
The U.S. Supreme Court in Amchem Products, Inc. v. Windsor, 521 U.S. 591, 597 (1997) refers to the asbestos litigation as a “crisis.” In Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp., 527 U.S. 815, 821 (1999), the Court notes the “elephantine mass” of cases generated by for-profit screening companies in this era of asbestos litigation. Read More
The Illinois Supreme Court in Best v. Taylor Machine Works, 689 N.E.2d 1057 (Ill. 1997) strikes down a comprehensive 1995 tort reform package after holding that some of the law’s provisions violated the state’s constitution. The Ohio Supreme Court invalidates a sweeping 1996 tort reform law in State ex rel. Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers v. Sheward, 715 N.E.2d 1062 (Ohio 1999). Such rulings exemplify several state courts that have chosen to “nullify,” or strike down on state constitutional grounds, the reasonable exercise of legislative public policymaking in the area of civil justice reform. Most courts have not followed this approach and do not substitute their own views of public policy for those of legislatures. Read More
Congress overrides President Bill Clinton’s veto and enacts the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) to limit abusive securities lawsuits. Three years later, President Clinton signs the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998, which requires securities class actions involving nationally traded securities based on allegedly false or misleading statements to be brought exclusively in federal court under federal law. This law precludes plaintiffs’ attorneys from attempting to circumvent provisions of the PSLRA by filing securities class actions in state courts. Read More
Congress enacts the General Aviation Revitalization Act (GARA), 49 U.S.C. § 40101 note, which establishes an 18-year statute of repose (an outer time limit) for lawsuits against manufacturers of noncommercial general aviation aircraft and their component parts. The manufacturing and sale of general aviation aircraft in the United States had faltered due to the skyrocketing cost of liability insurance. As a result of GARA, the industry rebounds. See Victor E. Schwartz & Leah Lorber, The General Aviation Revitalization Act: How Rational Civil Justice Reform Revitalized an Industry, 67 J. Air L. & Com. 1269 (2002). Read More
A New Mexico jury awards a woman nearly $3 million in a lawsuit against McDonald’s in which she claimed she was injured after spilling the company’s hot coffee in her lap. Read More
Mississippi sues to recover the public costs of treating sick smokers. Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore hires Richard “Dickie” Scruggs to bring the lawsuit on a contingency fee basis; other states join with such arrangements. In a 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, tobacco companies agree to pay more than $200 billion. Subsequent partnerships between state attorneys general and private contingency fee lawyers target lead paint manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and financial services providers, among others. Read More