The Vancouver Columbian newspaper rightly points out the financial burden placed on taxpayers thanks to the legislative agenda of the trial lawyers.

The newspaper shines a bright light on two areas of liability where “Washington taxpayers are taken for a ride by trial lawyers.” The article discusses the unfairness of joint and several liability and failure of Washington to adopt a seatbelt defense law.

Tort reform advocates, such as the LRC, face well-funded opposition from trial lawyers. In fact, there are 10 trial lawyer political action committees (PAC). Each PAC is capable of raising substantial amounts of money and these groups are not shy about wielding their political clout in Olympia. In fact, over the past six years the trial lawyers, through their PACs, upped their political spending by more than 200 percent.

The LRC’s special report, “Tracking the Trial Lawyers,” details trial lawyer PAC spending. The analysis clearly reveals the influence in Olympia of this special-interest group.

Washington ranks as a sinner in Pacific Research Institute’s recently released study on the legal climates of all 50 states. The report, U.S. Tort Liability Index: 2008 Study, takes a look at tort costs and tort laws. (See state rankings.)

The free-market think tank’s analysis defines a sinner state as one that has “relatively high monetary tort losses and/or high litigation risks and relatively weak tort rules on the books.” The study, offered as a resource for elected officials and businesses, makes the point that a state’s economic performance is directly tied to the health of its tort system.

Washington is one of several states highlighted in a recent white paper detailing the multi-state effort of personal-injury lawyers to roll back recent tort reform.

Read the American Tort Reform Association’s (ATRA) white paper, Defrocking Tort Reform, Stopping Personal Injury Lawyers From Repealing Existing Tort Reforms And Expanding Rights to Sue in State Legislatures.

In a recent LegalNewsLine interview, Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna said out-of-line tort laws cost taxpayers millions. Because the legislature and the governor rejected reforms he proposed in 2006, McKenna does not plan to introduce further tort reform without indications the governor and key legislators will take such action seriously.

LRC executive director Dana Childers is quoted in the Legal News Line article also.

•To limit expansion of tort  liability
•To reduce lawsuit defense  costs
•To speed resolution of lawsuits
•To improve fairness & certainty of
  civil justice system

The LRC membership is a broad coalition of
 •Business
 •Government entities
 •Nonprofit organizations

See our member list of over 70 Washington organizations

Sign up for the free LRC E-News, providing supporters of liability reform with quick, concise reports of the latest state and national liability information. To be added to the distribution list, e-mail LRC Executive Director Dana Childers.