FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—April 25, 2007
Contact: Larry Akey/Eric Wohlschlegel
(202)580-9313
Rhode Island Legal System Headed in the Wrong Direction
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) announced today that Rhode Island’s legal climate has dropped nine spots to number 35 in Lawsuit Climate 2007: Ranking the States, an annual assessment of state liability systems conducted by Harris Interactive, a nationally-recognized polling firm.
“Rhode Island’s legal system is headed in the wrong direction,” said Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “The Attorney General has teamed up with the plaintiffs’ bar to rewrite the ground rules for public nuisance lawsuits, essentially denying businesses the opportunity to mount a fair defense. In allowing him to do so, the state’s courts have made it possible to sue product manufacturers for just about any societal problem, which will doubtless cause businesses to think twice about coming to the state.”
A recent actuarial study estimated the annual cost of the tort system in America to be $261 billion, or $880 per citizen. Following those estimates, the price tag of tort litigation for the entire population of Rhode Island is nearly a billion dollars a year.
“The best thing Rhode Island can do to attract business is to have a fair legal system,” said Donohue. “An unfair legal system sucks the life out of a state’s economy – it affects business expansion, it affects jobs and it takes money out of consumers’ pockets. The voters of Rhode Island should demand that their elected officials reverse this dangerous trend.”
The ILR/Harris Interactive survey of 1,599 senior attorneys, now in its sixth year, is the preeminent standard by which companies, policymakers and the media measure the legal fairness of states. In 2007, West Virginia ranked last among the fifty states and, for the sixth year in a row, Delaware is ranked number one. ILR is launching a national advertising campaign highlighting the results of the study and the need for comprehensive legal reform, including radio ads in Providence.
ILR's mission is to make America's legal system simpler, fairer, and faster for everyone. It seeks to promote civil justice reform through legislative, political, judicial, and educational activities at the national, state, and local levels. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation, representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector, and region.