Terry Fleming's got guts. Standing before a ballroom filled with attorneys and insurers, the vice president of the Risk and Insurance Management Society suggested that to get lawyers out of our hair, we should establish a nationwide law governing workers' compensation, administered by the states.

Mr. Fleming–who I recruited as the keynote speaker for NU's National Trends program at the Workers' Compensation Educational Conference last month in Orlando–knew his proposal would not be popular with this crowd. "I have some things to say that might be less than politically correct," he warned. "But as long as you didn't bring anything sharper than ripe tomatoes, I can take it."

Understandably fed up with lawyers–what with an outrageous 70 percent of his comp claims being litigated–Mr. Fleming insisted a federal law establishing national standards for compensability and claim dispute resolution is the only way to squeeze litigation out of the system.

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