101 Ways To Improve State Legal Systems in 2012 and Beyond

This user's guide to promoting fair and effective civil justice provides policymakers with a compilation of some of the many avenues available to fostering a sound legal system that promotes states’ economies. The reforms are organized into five areas. The first section highlights five reforms that have gained momentum and should be of particular interest to state legislators. The report then considers fair and effective measures that would improve the litigation process, improve product liability law, promote rational liability rules, and rein in excessive damage awards.

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

As the nation struggles with sluggish economic growth and record levels of unemployment, state legislators, executives, and other policymakers must use all the tools available to them to aid in the economic recovery. An essential ingredient in this mix is legal reform. By adding rationality and predictability to the American civil justice system, and rooting out unnecessary costs, civil justice reform can increase confidence in the economy and create or, at the very least, save jobs. In fact, a recent empirical study commissioned by the Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) estimated that the stimulus resulting from improvements to state legal systems could increase private sector employment by 1.0% to 2.8% in the states with the most costly legal environments, adding hundreds of thousands of jobs.¹

“101 Ways to Improve State Legal Systems in 2012 & Beyond” provides policymakers with a compilation of some of the many avenues available to fostering a sound legal system that promotes states’ economies. The reforms are organized into five areas. The first section highlights five reforms that have gained momentum and should be of particular interest to state legislators. The report then considers fair and effective measures that would improve the litigation process, improve product liability law, promote rational liability rules, and rein in excessive damage awards. The report briefly discusses the purpose of and need for each proposal, and notes where the suggested reform, or a variation of it, is current law, recently enacted, or particularly needed.

State legislators took their responsibility to create jobs and improve their state’s economies through legal reform quite seriously in 2011 as states enacted more than 50 legal reform bills. While this report presents proposals for legal reform options in a conceptual manner, it directs readers to some of these recently enacted laws that show how legislators can move the proposals described in this guide from theory into practice. The report also notes several model bills that are useful resources in tailoring legislation to fit current law and the statutory scheme of an individual state.

After the “Spotlighted Reforms” section, the order in which these reforms are presented does not necessarily reflect their level of importance, priority, or effectiveness. The options included in each section must be evaluated in light of a specific state’s political and legal landscape. ILR presents these options, recently enacted legislation, and model acts to provide a useful resource to the reader. Inclusion of a legal reform in this report does not necessarily mean that ILR endorses a listed approach or favors one specific option over another.

1. See NERA Economic Consulting, Working Paper: Creating Conditions for Economic Growth: The Role of the Legal Environment (U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, 2011), here.