NU Online News Service, May 17, 3:45 p.m. EDT–No credible evidence exists to link civil litigation activity to the nation's economic ills, according to a think tank report released today.
Sponsored by Washington, D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute, the study was prepared by economist Lawrence Chimerine and attorney Ross Eisenbrey. They reported their research found no indication that imposing tort reform measures would create an economic benefit.
"Instead, our analysis shows that the so-called tort litigation crisis is based on wildly overstated cost estimates that have been wildly cited by lawmakers and the media as support for calls for legal change," said a spokesperson for the Washington-based institute.
The study examined reports prepared by Tillinghast-Towers Perrin that have been cited by advocates of tort reform.
Mr. Chimerine said that insurance consultants have spun a few high-profile but unrepresentative incidents into a horror story that is almost entirely unsupported by facts.
"It is cobbled together out of gross exaggerations, shreds of fact plucked out of context and 'secret' data that cannot be examined by anyone but them," he said. "The result is a mishmash that bears little resemblance to actual research."
The insurance industry was quick to respond.
David Snyder, assistant general counsel of the American Insurance Association, said there was "no doubt that the tort system is a huge drag on the American economy, in terms of payouts in questionable circumstances, lost jobs, higher prices and denied product innovation."
But the exact amounts are difficult to determine because of the "deliberately opaque" nature of the tort system, he said.
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