| FOR RELEASE: | Immediate — Tuesday, June 12, 2008 |
| Contact: | Mark Kriss 518.527.1148 E-mail: mkriss@krisslaw.com |
Legislators Beware!!! “Trial Lawyers Gone Wild”
“7 Days… 7 Deadly Sins”
Albany, NY — NYTortReformNOW.org is warning Governor Paterson and members of the New York State Legislature to be on the look out for New York’s trial lawyer lobbyists who’ve begun a frenzied push for new laws that would expand their access to frivolous lawsuits and line their own pockets at the expense of hardworking consumers and small businesses.
“With just seven days to go in the Legislature’s official session, the powerful trial lawyer lobby is working at a feverish pitch to pile-on to New York’s already vast, outrageous array of tort laws that make up a veritable grab bag of easy money for trial lawyers on the prowl,” said Mark C. Kriss, Executive Director of NYTortReformNOW.org, “We have identified a list of the seven deadliest bills that would seriously harm New York consumers, taxpayers and small businesses.”
- Expanding recovery of non-economic damages in wrongful death action.
Current law allows recovery for ALL economic losses arising from the death of a family member. This bill would give trial lawyers access to the “pot o’ gold” known as “pain & suffering” for those not directly injured. This flies in face of 200 years of New York law and would increase the cost of liability insurance. Businesses would pass those costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices for goods and services while local governments would pass additional costs onto property taxpayers. (S.1266/A.6420) - Prejudgment interest on personal injury cases.
This bill buys into two false assumptions; 1) failure to settle a claim before trial is necessarily the fault of the defendant; and, 2) juries do not already implicitly include interest with their awards. In truth, trial lawyers often employ delay tactics through plaintiff continuances, and studies of auto accident cases show that juries do in fact include interest in setting awards. This bill could lead to billions of dollars in additional costs to consumers including, higher auto insurance, homeowners’ insurance, health care services, and property taxes. (S.6365 of 2007) - Disappearing Privacy.
Current law provides that a plaintiff may bring a direct action for coverage only after there is a judgment against the insured defendant that has gone unsatisfied for thirty days. The current law is consistent with the law in virtually every other state and strikes the right balance between the parties. Insurance policies are private contracts. Third parties—hostile third parties-- should not be able to interject themselves at will into the private contractual relationship between a defendant and its insurer. (S.6306/ A.8363-A) - Creating an unequal playing field with respect to the discovery of evidence.
Generally, an individual’s medical condition and medical records are subject to stringent privacy protections under both federal and state law. However, in NY and all other states, an individual seeking to secure money damages for bodily injury waives medical privacy protections with respect to medical information bearing on the injury. This bill seeks to overturn a recent Court of Appeals decision by continuing to permit the gathering information by Plaintiff’s attorneys via ex parte communication with treating physicians while expressly denying the defense bar the same opportunity. As the Court said, “A party should not be permitted to affirmatively assert a medical condition in seeking damages… while simultaneously relying on a confidential physician-patient relationship as a sword to thwart the opposition in its effort to uncover facts critical to disputing the party’s claim.” (S.5256-B/A.8691-B) - Circumventing Workers’ Compensation.
New York’s Workers’ Compensation law grants injured workers loss of wages, reimbursement for medical costs for life, and an element of pain & suffering --- all without having to got to court --- much to the dismay of trials lawyers seeking a pay-day for themselves. This bill gives trial lawyers a way to circumvent Workers’ Compensation, in certain cases, by permitting them to recover additional monies from an employer who already paid workers’ comp claims. (S.2065/A.6310) - Giving Trial Lawyers MORE Than What Juries Award.
Current law says that no plaintiff may collect more than 100% of the money awarded by a jury. Even in multiple defendant cases, juries determine how much each responsible party shall pay. This bill would give trial lawyers the ability to collect more than what the jury awarded in cases where one party settles before trial, and thereby makes the non-settling party pay more. In the end, trial lawyers get a bigger hunk than what juries intended and consumers, professionals and businesses pay for it. (S.7482/A.9157) - Increase Trial Lawyers’ Fees in Medical Malpractice Case.
Current limits on attorneys’ fees diminish the incentive for trial lawyers to needlessly drag out litigation in the hope of achieving a larger fee as well as to discourage frivolous lawsuits. These limitations also help to assure that a plaintiff is fairly compensated for his or her injury and that major parts of the awards are not diverted to pay what are often huge attorney fees in addition to all other disbursements that a suing plaintiff must reimburse their attorney. Under the current law, attorneys are very substantially compensated in medical liability actions. In the case of a $1 million award, for example, an attorney will receive a fee of $237, 500. This brash move to fatten the wallets of trial lawyers will result in higher health care costs, more frivolous lawsuits and a backlog in our court system… with absolutely no benefit to plaintiffs.
A 2008 study by the Pacific Research Institute examining tort laws in the United States, gave New York extremely poor marks in comparison to other states. In fact, New York ranked dead last in 18 of 28 categories used to measure the efficiency of each states’ tort system and overall was ranked number 48 out of all 50 states.
“No longer can New York accept cost shifting “non-solutions” which provide band-aids instead of the surgery needed to attack New York’s cancerous “tort tax” — a tax which has created a significant impediment to the well-being of the State and its citizens,” said Kriss, “Our State needs systemic tort reform similar to the changes enacted in the State of Texas which in 2007 experienced economic growth three times the rate of growth in New York.”
“Among other reforms, New York needs joint and several liability repeal to protect against a Defendant paying 100% of non-economic damages, when the party is only 1% at fault. New York needs a reasonable cap on pain and suffering awards. New York needs to repeal Labor Law sections 240-241, the strict liability statute found only in New York which adds hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the cost of construction. Products liability reform is a key to economic development. We simply can no longer afford to let a special interest group (trial lawyers) enrich themselves at the expense of hard-working New Yorkers,” concluded Kriss.
Detailed memoranda in opposition to these seven bills may be obtained by visiting www.NYTortReformNow.org/legislativememos.htm
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NY Tort Reform Now.org, a broad based coalition of businesses, professionals, municipalities, not-for-profits, and concerned citizens dedicated to bringing commonsense reform to New York’s outrageous “pro-trial lawyer” laws that cost taxpayers and consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.