White House Trying to Squelch Consumer Protection by Limiting Court Access, Says Coalition to Preserve Access to Justice

Did you know that Businesses File 4 Times as Many Lawsuits as Consumers; Businesses are Almost 70% More Likely to be Sanctioned by Federal Judges for Frivolous Claims or Defenses Than Consumers . That is right 400% more. And it is these same businesses that want to keep the common person, an individual, out of court. Go figure.

In a media conference call today, members of the Coalition to Preserve Access to Justice, including Consumers Union, Public Citizen, US PIRG and the Alliance for Justice, accused the White House of assaulting consumer access to the courts and limiting consumer protection in response to President Bush's tort "deform" blitz this week. The President, promoting limits on consumer lawsuits but not business lawsuits, essentially blames consumers for hindering the nation's economic growth. According to White House spokespersons, consumer lawsuits against corporations are a major drain on the economy, and President Bush met with Congressional leaders today at the White House to talk about limiting consumer class actions.

"The Bush Administration's class action bill takes rights away from ordinary Americans and shifts it to powerful industries," said Sandy Brantley of the Alliance for Justice, a member of the Coalition to Preserve Access to Justice. "Industries know that our courtrooms are the one place where judges and juries hold them accountable when they rip off consumers, make defective and dangerous drugs, discriminate against employees, or pollute the environment. So powerful industries have turned to smoke-filled back rooms where they can railroad anti-consumer bills through Congress to help them escape the reach of our courts."

"The class action bill is a giveaway to the drug companies, polluters, banks and other big campaign donors that want to avoid responsibility for their wrongdoing, but it is unfair to victims. The Senate should hold hearings and have a full debate on the President's class action limitation proposal," said Ed Mierzwinski of US PIRG, and a member of the Coalition.

A recent study by Public Citizen found that businesses are much more likely to sue than are individuals. Businesses file four times as many lawsuits as individuals do, according to the study. Moreover, businesses and their attorneys were 69 percent more likely than individual tort plaintiffs and their attorneys to be sanctioned by federal judges for filing frivolous claims or defenses. (The study is available at http://www.citizen.org/Congress/civjus/index.cfm)

"Corporations think America is too litigious only when they are on the receiving end of a lawsuit," said Frank Clemente, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch and a member of the Coalition.

Public Citizen's study of the number of lawsuits examined two states and two counties with comparable data and included two jurisdictions frequently cited as "judicial hellholes" -- the state of Mississippi and Philadelphia County, Pa.

In addition, there are many jurisdictions in which consumer class action lawsuits cannot even get heard. Specifically, six circuit courts and 26 district courts have consistently refused to hear multi-state consumer cases.

"It's ridiculous to say consumer lawsuits are to blame for the economic mess when there's evidence that so many worthy cases can't even get to trial," said Sally Greenberg of Consumers Union, also a member of the Coalition. "The president keeps talking about lawsuit abuse, but consumers and workers are the ones being abused."

The assault on consumer lawsuits is part of President Bush's program to decrease the costs of litigation for corporations. Yet it comes at a time when even more evidence of corporate wrongdoing -- most recently in the pharmaceutical industry's continued marketing of Vioxx and Celebrex when those drugs were obviously harmful to consumers. A number of bills are before Congress intended to restrict consumers' ability to bring suit for corporate wrongs, among them the so-called Class Action "Fairness" Act in the Senate, which would restrict class action suits in multiple ways, making it difficult for consumers to hold corporations accountable.

The Coalition to Preserve Access to Justice is a group of 80 consumer, civil rights and environmental organizations formed to fight attempts to limit class action lawsuits used by victims of discrimination, consumer fraud, and toxic pollution.