Responses to the recent Newsweek cover story "Lawsuit Hell." December 9, 2003 Letters to Newsweek: Readers respond to "Lawsuit Hell"
"Lawsuit Hell," your Dec. 15 cover story, is an excellent description of a civil-justice
system run amok. The good news is that it doesn't have to be this way. There are
some common-sense legal reforms that can protect victims and hold professionals
and businesses accountable without turning our civil-justice system on its head.
A recent bipartisan compromise on class-action lawsuit legislation in theSenate
is an excellent example. The bill, which is expected to pass early next year,
would curb venue shopping by moving large nationwide class-action lawsuits to
federal court, where they belong. It would also stop abusive coupon settlements
in which consumers receive coupons and their lawyers get all of the cash. Democrats
and Republicans can and should work together to bring reason back to what is,
after all, the greatest civil justice system in the world.
Thomas J. Donohue, President, CEO
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Washington, D.C.
Click here to read more letters.
Newsweek vs. ATLA: Stuart Taylor, Jr. Responds
Newsweek, as is typical for a newsweekly, published only a terse editorial response
to the litigation lobby's concerted attack on its reporting. However, Stuart Taylor,
Jr., the distinguished veteran journalist who (with Evan Thomas) was principal
author of the feature, has kindly consented to let us reprint his more detailed
point-by-point rebuttal to ATLA's official gripe catalogue, published under the
title "Spin or Facts? A Look Behind Newsweek's Series 'Lawsuit Hell'". Because
of the length of Taylor's response, we've split it into two posts, the first responding
to the first six points of ATLA's critique and the second responding to the rest.
Check out in particular, under heading #6, ATLA's false (and remarkably brazen)
assertion that the Tillinghast study's $233 billion estimate of the cost of the
liability insurance sector includes "the cost of the entire property/casualty
insurance industry" and in particular the cost of hurricanes and similar damage.
(It doesn't.)
Click here to read Taylor's rebuttal on Overlawyered.com. (Scroll down to the middle of the page to the entries dated January 9, 2004).
Underestimating The Value of Common Good's Agenda: What Newsweek's "Lawsuit Hell"
Didn't Tell You
FindLaw.com's Anthony J. Sebok gives a detailed critique of the Newsweek cover
story. He had this to say about Common Good:
"As I understand Common Good's agenda, they do not deny -- as more traditional
tort reformers tend to do -- that many people suffer wrongs that should be redressed
by the tort system. On the contrary, they are worried that the current system
no longer provides those victims with real redress. And they seek a serious, non-partisan
inquiry into why the system has broken down for so many.....
Hopefully Common Good and those who want to find a "third way" out the current
crisis in American tort law will, in end, be able to transcend this sort of media
coverage."
Click here to read the entire article.
Litigation Fact Sheet
Last week's cover story in Newsweek on legal fear generated a furious response
from trial lawyers. Hurling inaccurate or misleading facts and figures like brickbats,
the trial lawyers ignore the truth on the ground--that Americans do not trust
our system of justice, and, fearing possible claims, no longer feel free to act
on their best judgment.
Click here for a fact sheet on what Newsweek calls our "litigation nation."
CG Chair Responds to John Edwards
Philip K. Howard responds to Senator Edwards' piece on the benefits of lawsuits
in recent Newsweek cover story.
Click here to read Howard's response.
Discussion of legal fear in America on NPR's Talk of the Nation
On December 18, NPR's "Talk of the Nation" did a segment on legal fear in America.
Guests included Michelle Mello, professor at Harvard's School of Public Health
and panelist at both of Common Good's forums on law and health care and Richard
Arum, sociology professor at New York University, member of Common Good's education
advisory boad and panelist at our most recent forum on the effects of law on public
education. Hosted by Neal Conan, the discussion focused on the impact that fear
of lawsuits has had on our society.
One listener, Susan, shared her story of how legal fear has made it nearly impossible
for her to help the blind. After 29 years as a social worker Susan was ready for
a career change. A lifelong Braille user, she hoped to teach Braille to the newly
blind in an area where no such service existed. She qualified but found that she
had to take liability insurance in order to go into people's homes. Enough insurance
to cover up to $1 million per incident, $3 million total. Susan dipped into her
savings to take out the insurance and joined a professional organization to get
a group rate. However when it came time to renew insurance and she just couldn't
afford it. Without the liability insurance, she is considered ineligible to teach
Braille in people's homes.
Click here to read the entire transcript of the show.
Live Talk with Stuart Taylor, Jr., author of "Lawsuit Hell."
After the release of the Newsweek cover story, Newsweek readers were able to
pose their questions to Stuart Taylor, Jr. which were posted with his responses
on Newsweek's website.
Click here to read those questions and Taylor's responses.
Freespeech.com responds to Public Citizen critique of Newsweek
Click here for the thorough analysis offered by Freespeech.com in response to
Public Citizen's attack on Newsweek's "Lawsuit Hell" cover story.
The Cullen case and fear of lawsuits
Fear of litigation was also widely discussed in connection with the case of Charles
Cullen, the nurse who has now confessed to killing up to 41 people, but whose
references kept checking out as he moved from hospital to hospital throughout
New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
"What I'm coming to understand," said Dr. William Cors, the chief medical officer
of Somerset Medical Center in Somerville, N.J., where Cullen last worked and where
he may have killed up to 14 people, "is that, short of an actual conviction or
revocation of license, none of this information gets shared. If anything good
comes from this, it would be to reform the system where we're prevented from telling
one another what we know out of fear, quite frankly, of being sued."
Keeping the Courts Out of Education
On the heels of the Newsweek story, the Education Gadfly, a weekly newsletter
from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, discusses legal fear and Common Good's
work in education.
From the article:
"American society is groaning under a tide of litigiousness, and education is
one of the fields most profoundly affected by it. "Legal fear"--the paralysis
caused by frivolous lawsuits--has deprived "teachers and principals of the freedom
to use their own common sense and best judgment. Thanks to judicial rulings and
laws over the past four decades, parents can sue if their kids are suspended for
even a single day--for any reason--without adequate 'due process.'"
Click here to read the rest of the article.
Starting the Tort Reform Dialogue
In response to the Newsweek cover story, William Tucker gives an analysis of
the current debate on legal reform in The New York Sun.
Click here to read the piece. | 
