Short article that reminds us of what we already knew (if you have been paying attention)

Anyone who reads this blog knows my position on "tort reform."  It is directed at eliminating the right of people to have a chance to recover for injuries.  It is an attempt to either eliminate the chance to recover or to limit how much people can recover for no justifiable reason.  And, more than anything, it is not meant to eliminate frivolous litigation but valid claims.  Those are the ones that tort reformers really want to get rid of.  In short, tort reform is a load of crap designed to hurt victims of accidents and it disproportionately hurts women, the poor and the elderly.

Today, Joanne Doroshow, who has written extensively on the subject, published a short comment on the issue here.  It starts as follows,

For years, Big Business lobby groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have been advancing a legislative agenda to limit the liability of corporations that cause injuries (also known as "tort reform.") One of their principal arguments is that tort restrictions are needed to save jobs, and to allow small businesses, "the engines of job growth," to survive. Yet internal business surveys have consistently shown this view to be utterly groundless. For years, liability issues have hardly appeared on lists of actual business concerns (as opposed to views expressed by paid lobbyists and other hired staff.) Small businesses virtually always put issues like "lawsuits" "liability" "tort reform" or the cost of "liability insurance" at the bottom of any list of concerns -- that is, if they mention them at all. They usually don't.

Go here to read the full article.