WHAT TORT CRISIS?

 

It takes the National Center for State Courts about 18 months to assimilate the data for its annual reports. The 1993 Annual Report was issued in June 1995. A chart of some of the statistics from this report accompanies this editorial, courtesy of the Missouri Trial Lawyers Association. Some of the highlights:

· 90 Million cases were filed in all courts in 1993.

· 14.6 million of the 90 million are civil cases, which includes contract, tort, land, family cases, name changes, probate, collections, and the like.

· 16% of civil cases filed in courts of general jurisdiction were tort cases. This is 1.1% of the total 90 million cases.

· Of the tort cases filed in courts of general jurisdiction, 7% were malpractice and 4% products liability.

· Malpractice cases accounts for seven one hundredths of one percent (.07) of the total caseload. Product liability cases account for four one hundredths of one percent (.04) of the total caseload.

· Plaintiffs win 51% of all tort cases; 60% of auto cases; 43% of premises liability cases; 40% of product liability cases; and 30% of medical malpractice cases.

According to the National Law Journal (August 7, 1995, p. 1) the backlog in federal district courts for the most part consists of business cases. Although many politicians have demonized the personal injury bar for burdening the nation’s judicial system, business disputes predominate among the most intractable cases in the federal courts. It is the legal problems of American business - not claims by "avaricious personal injury victims" - that engorge the federal district courts. The sheer volume of business litigation - nearly one-third of the total backlog - as well as its complexity, have made business litigation the predominant cause of the backlog.

Personal injury and products liability cases make up 10.2 percent of the backlog when mass tort cases are treated as one case, rather than several separate cases. If the latter, the figure climbs to 18.8 percent. Enormous amounts of money and energy have been expended to enact "reforms" that will benefit no one except the most irresponsible. These "reforms" will accomplish nothing, other than to deny justice to the weakest in our society.