{"id":458277,"date":"2010-03-22T11:43:18","date_gmt":"2010-03-22T15:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"tag:www.cjac.org,2010:\/\/1.1043"},"modified":"2010-03-22T11:55:44","modified_gmt":"2010-03-22T15:55:44","slug":"new-report-finds-california%e2%80%99s-lawsuit-climate-is-near-nation%e2%80%99s-worst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/458277","title":{"rendered":"New Report Finds California\u2019s Lawsuit Climate Is Near Nation\u2019s Worst"},"content":{"rendered":"

CJAC <\/span>says state needs more jobs, not more lawsuits, calls on lawmakers to enact reforms
\n LOS ANGELES <\/span>– A new national study released today found that California continues to be one of the least-balanced states in the nation when it comes to dealing with lawsuits – which the Civil Justice Association of California warned jeopardizes the state’s economic recovery.
\n\tThe report by the U.S.<\/span> Chamber Institute for Legal Reform found that California’s lawsuit climate was ranked 46th in the nation, down from 44th in 2008, the last time the survey was taken.
\n\tCJAC<\/span> President John H. Sullivan said the most troubling part of this ranking is the negative impact the state’s legal climate has on job creation.
\n\t“California policy makers should take this study’s message very seriously,” Sullivan said. “When two-thirds of the top attorneys at large companies say that a state’s litigation climate is likely to affect business decisions, it must be noted that these attorneys are among the company’s leaders who make these decisions – decisions that affect location, expansion, and jobs.
\n\t “At a time when California continues to grapple with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country – and a chronic state budget deficit of some $20 billion a year – job creation and economic growth has to be our top priority. It’s high time that policy makers take a serious look at fixing the issues that make California such a magnet for lawsuit abuse.”
\n\tThe study found that 67 percent of respondents said the litigation environment would make it less likely that their companies would locate or do business there, with 42 percent saying it would be “very unlikely” their firms would do so.
\nThe report was based on a survey of 1,482 in-house general counsels, senior litigators or attorneys, and other senior executives knowledgeable about litigation matters at companies with at least $100 million in annual revenues. The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive, one of the oldest and most prestigious polls in the world.
\n\tThe survey was formally released in Huntington Park, a working-class suburb south of downtown Los Angeles, at a restaurant owned by an immigrant from Mexico who has been the victim of numerous shakedown lawsuits for alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
\n\tSullivan noted that lawsuit abuse seriously affects large and small businesses alike.
\n\t“When it comes to excessive litigation’s effects on jobs and economic health, there’s no real economic division between large and small business. If class action lawsuits drive a large company to reduce its exposure in California, the many small businesses that produced goods and services for that company and its employees are going to suffer. Likewise, a small business forced to devote time and money to fighting shakedown disability-access suits is going to see its costs go up – leading to price increases that affect large businesses and their employees,” he said.
\nThe study found that California received an overall score of 47.2 out of 100 on 10 issues affecting litigation. Delaware received the most favorable ranking with a score of 77.2, followed by North Dakota, Nebraska, Indiana, and Iowa.
\n\tThe four states ranking lower than California were Alabama (45.5), Mississippi (40.0), Louisiana (39.6), and West Virginia (35.1).
\n\tIn all, 43 states earned scores of 50 or higher, and 27 states earned scores of 60 or above.
\n\tThe survey also asked respondents which jurisdictions have the least fair and reasonable litigation environments. Chicago was ranked the worst, followed closely by Los Angeles and the state of California generally. San Francisco was found to be the sixth-worst jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

The Civil Justice Association of California is a non-profit, membership supported coalition of citizens, taxpayers, businesses, local governments, professionals, manufacturers, financial institutions, insurers, and medical organizations. Founded in 1979, CJAC <\/span>is the only statewide association dedicated solely to improving California’s civil liability system. It is active in both the Legislature and the courts, working to reduce the excessive and unwarranted litigation that increases business and government expenses, discourages innovation, and drives up the costs of goods and services for all consumers. For more information, visit www.cjac.org.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CJAC says state needs more jobs, not more lawsuits, calls on lawmakers to enact reforms LOS ANGELES – A new national study released today found that California continues to be one of the least-balanced states in the nation when it comes to dealing with lawsuits – which the Civil Justice Association of California warned jeopardizes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6444,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-458277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6444"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}