WV Tort Campaign Scores Letter to the Editor

Shark-like lawyers ruin the economy

The Daily Mail’s Jan. 11 editorial, “Pharmaceuticals the next victim?” did a great service in laying out the dangers of shark-like behavior by trial lawyers.

America’s runaway legal system is driving up the cost of health care, costing hundreds of thousands of jobs, leaving more hurting Americans in pain, and impeding the progress to market of future life-saving drugs.

It also imposes burdensome costs on workers, consumers and small and large businesses.

At the recent White House Conference on the Economy, Secretary of Commerce Don Evans pointed out that tort lawsuits cost our economy over 2 percent of our Gross Domestic Product, or over $250 billion.

That is effectively a “tort tax” of $809 per person per year.

A civilized society must have a way to compensate those injured by medical mistakes and harmful products, but the current system is failing to do so in the best way possible.

It is time to return our legal system to one that protects us from those who do us wrong in a reliable and equitable manner, instead of the piggy bank it has become for trial lawyers.

Alice Click
Point Pleasant