Lead Priorities
Tort Reform and Judicial Fairness
Tort reform is of great interest to NPCA and its membership. For example, the current state of asbestos litigation is enormous, with hundreds of thousands of suits being filed by uninjured plaintiffs. The onslaught of such litigation has forced more than 60 major companies into bankruptcy and imposed severe hardship on untold numbers of shareholders, employees, creditors, and other stakeholders. It is also becoming a real issue for certain NPCA members as it spreads, affecting NPCA members whose products or raw materials allegedly contained asbestos.
In a major advance for business, President Bush signed legislation into law on Feb. 18, 2005 that will restrict class action lawsuits. This step is projected to serve as an impetus for even greater tort reform that will shield businesses from the threat of over-massed litigation. NPCA championed this and other tort reform measures that will curb the onslaught of abusive lawsuits that imperil large and small businesses’ viability.
The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 will shift most large class-action lawsuits involving parties from different states to federal courts, removing them from the jurisdiction of state courts that historically have been more receptive to such suits. According to some statistics, filings of class-action suits has surged 1,300 percent in 10 years nationwide, and 5,000 percent in certain "magnet" jurisdictions.
NPCA has carved out a recognized role as a leader for tort reform on behalf of small and medium-sized businesses and supported individual member initiatives. These measures are designed to expedite payments to legitimate claimants, and even the playing field in a way that prevents massive lay-offs and unnecessary bankruptcies.
“A procedural reform like the Class Action Fairness Act is easier to pass into law by Congress, than the other measures, like asbestos reform, where substantive legal rights and expectations are altered, involving billions of dollars” speculated NPCA’s Vice President and General Counsel Tom Graves. With passage of class action reform, however, there is revived hope for an Asbestos Liability Resolution Trust Fund, as well as medical malpractice reform, where medical liability damage awards caps would help bring down escalating medical costs for everyone, including businesses.
For more information on these initiatives, please contact Tom Graves. For information on the Federal Grassroots program and pending legislation, please contact Heidi McAuliffe.
