WP/AP: Tort Trials Fall by Nearly 80 Percent

[DeepModem Mom]

Tort Trials Fall by Nearly 80 Percent
By PETE YOST
The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 17, 2005


WASHINGTON -- The number of tort trials in federal courts has fallen by nearly 80 percent in less than two decades, a government study found Wednesday, a trend the Bush administration would like to see duplicated at the state and local levels.

Legal experts attribute the drop to Supreme Court rulings in the 1990s that made it much more difficult for people bringing lawsuits in federal courts to prevail....

***

Nine out of 10 tort trials in federal courts involve personal injuries such as product liability, car accidents and medical malpractice cases, and the estimated median award by people who won their lawsuits was $201,000 in 2003, the latest year for which figures are available, the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics reported.

President Bush signed legislation in February to have federal judges take most large class-action lawsuits away from state courts. In a nine-minute White House signing ceremony, Bush said a half-dozen times that the legislation was only a beginning in his drive to end "the lawsuit culture."

The implications of this new study "are ominous _ victims of corporate misconduct or negligence may have great difficulty obtaining redress in the federal courts," said Nan Aron, president of the Alliance for Justice, which opposed the class-action legislation Bush signed....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/17/AR2005081701501.html

[Sanity Claws]

1. Are more cases being filed in state courts?

Or are people simply not filing suits? My guess is that it's some of both.

[Rose Siding]

2. I don't see how we'll ever get that power back from govt

:(

[HadItUpToHere]

11. lots of things tend to change...

after bloody, voilent revolutions.

[SpiralHawk]

3. "All your justice are belong to us." - BushCo

neener, neener, neener

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

19. You have no chance to litigate make your time.

Ha ha ha.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. And civil corruption is up. You all catch that?

[Sgent]

5. Why shouldn't

multi-state, multi-plantiff litigation be heard in federal court?

I'm sure this is a bad bill (since * started it), but in theory what's wrong with it?

[Sanity Claws]

6. I'm an attorney

representing plaintiffs and I do my darndest to stay out of federal court. The bench has been packed with Repugs since the 1980s. But I don't do multi-state, multi-plaintiff litigation.

[WeRQ4U]

18. The Federal Bench can be considered "anti-class action" in a way.

Plaintiff's attorneys have always tried to stay out of the federal court for this reason.

[truthpusher]

7. Number of tort trials falls by nearly 80 percent

http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3735553

Number of tort trials falls by nearly 80 percent
--------------------
WASHINGTON A government study finds the number of tort trials in federal courts has fallen by nearly 80 percent in less than two decades.

Tort lawsuits are those filed for civil claims such as injury.

Legal experts attribute the drop to Supreme Court rulings in the 1990s that made it much more difficult for people bringing lawsuits in federal courts to win.

President Bush signed legislation in February to have federal judges take most large class-action lawsuits away from state courts saying it was only a beginning in his drive to end "the lawsuit culture."

The head of the Alliance for Justice, which opposed that legislation, says the study shows victims of corporate misconduct may have "great difficulty obtaining redress in the federal courts."

link to story: http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3735553

[skooooo]

8. Kiss your rights goodbye

[barb162]

15. Did that in November 2000.

[DeepModem Mom]

16. Yep -- lest we forget. nt

[barb162]

20. I was reading an editorial this morning on what laws can

be expected to fall with monkeyboy's S.C. nominee...there were about 10 things for starters, like reproductive choice, more environmental laws, etc

[Parche]

9. trials

Kellogs Pop Torts

[acmejack]

10. What a joke, this is obscene!

Oppression, anyone? Makes me want to engage in some sailor talk.

[Roland99]

12. Doesn't this mean corporations are being better citizens?

:rofl:

[Gyre]

17. Good one!

:thumbsup:

[damntexdem]

13. The blather was always that in a market system we could:

(1) vote with our feet; and (2) get ultimate redress through tort suits in the courts. They don't seem to believe in either, anymore: (1) how can we vote with our feet if the only places to put the feet are owned by a few corporations; and (2) how can we get ANY redress if we can't sue? If they destroy too many safety valves, will the whole system blow apart?

[wli]

14. more civil rights down the toilet n/t