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[would-be Veep John Edwards
could use this]
A study of courts in two states and two
big cities found businesses file four times as many lawsuits as individuals.
Consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, which conducted the study, says the results show business groups are being hypocritical when they decry excessive litigation and push for limits on lawsuits. The report looked at court filings in Mississippi, Arkansas, Philadelphia and Cook County, Ill. The report also found that attorneys representing businesses were more likely than lawyers representing individuals to be sanctioned for filing frivolous claims. "Corporations think America is too litigious only when they are on the receiving end of a lawsuit," says Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. "But when they feel aggrieved, businesses are far more likely to take their beef to court than are consumers." The study's methodology was questioned by Sean McBride, spokesman for the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform. He criticized Public Citizen for "trying to draw national conclusions from four jurisdictions." "I don't accept their numbers, but needless to say, there's a lot of litigation in this country, some of which is legitimate and a vast amount of which is frivolous," McBride says. He blames "unscrupulous trial lawyers," not businesses, for clogging the courts and says many of these cases could be weeded out if all judges around the country imposed financial penalties against attorneys who file frivolous claims. The study is available at www.citizen.org All contents of this site � American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved. |
