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Legal Reform

This Sneaky Bipartisan Bankruptcy Reform Will Sting Tech Consumers

If there’s one theme emerging this year in Washington, D.C., it’s the full-on bipartisan rampage against American tech firms.

In a courthouse just blocks away from the Capitol, Google is defending its search engine against the Justice Department, while down the street the Federal Trade Commission is finalizing its case to break up Amazon. The DOJ is also reportedly probing Elon Musk’s company expenses at Tesla, laying the groundwork for an eventual case against the tech mogul.

Congress’ anger toward technology companies is red-hot and taking shape in the unlikeliest of forms — federal bankruptcy law reform.

Republican Takes on the Bankruptcy Reform

Last week in the Senate Judiciary Committee, a hearing was held on reforms to Chapter 11 bankruptcies, aimed at ending “corporate manipulation” of its statutes.

The discussion highlighted recent examples of companies undergoing multidistrict class-action lawsuits and their strategy of spinning off separate holding companies to more quickly and efficiently adjudicate claims in bankruptcy courts, rather than endure years-long jury trials.

It’s known as a “Texas Two-Step.”

It’s a model that plaintiff attorneys and Democrats generally deplore, a fact repeatedly made clear during the hearing, but one that has proven to render judgments quickly and with a better assessment of whether claims against large companies are legitimate. Most interestingly, comments by Republican senators indicate their party’s intent on using Chapter 11 to target what they perceive as the “harms” of Big Tech.

“In social media, there is no model like this,” stated Sen. Lindsey Graham. “We may not agree on how to resolve this issue, but if you’re harmed by social media, you have nothing. Zero. Zip. There’s where I hope the committee can come together and create rights of actions.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, who recently authored a book titled The Tyranny of Big Tech and has positioned himself as a chief antagonist of Silicon Valley, went one step further.

“If you wanna know why private rights of action are so darn important, and why we need to use them against the big tech companies, this is the reason why,” he said.

Tech Consumers Will Be Harmed

When Republicans invoke a “private right of action,” they’re talking about allowing consumers to individually sue any company for privacy violations or other “harms” yet defined.

While Hawley and Graham allude to a broad social media “harm,” independent researchers have yet to make any definitive case on what that means. Certainly not enough to mount a legal case.

Tech consumers who depend on these products and services could also soon bear the brunt of the regulatory and legal costs we see all too often in health care, banking, and food production, that of upwardly creeping prices and less innovation.

Everything would change for tech users, advertisers, and adjacent industries. Whether these services are free won’t matter once the free-for-all litigation can begin and lawyer-funded TV ads and billboards coax the next class of plaintiffs for attempts at billion-dollar settlements.

With the threat of more lawsuits — legitimate or not — comes higher costs for compliance and adjudication. When the target is a consumer-facing company with thousands of products and millions of buyers, these added costs are passed down to consumers.

At the same time, these cases overfill the docket alongside many real tort claimants who deserve justice, such as survivors of environmental catastrophes and victims of defective products.

Will Republicans Contract Lawsuit Fever?

Massive class-action lawsuits are the favored tool of legal firms because many companies would rather settle than subject themselves to lengthy litigation, which promises large payouts to the firms that organize the class and file the case.

Think of the corporate cases against Starbucks, a multi million-dollar suit over its fruit drinks not having “enough fruit,” or Burger King, with a class-action lawsuit over “false advertising,” alleging that hamburgers in TV ads are larger than when they’re served in the fast-food restaurants.

The U.S. is nominally the most highly litigious country in the world, so these examples should come as no surprise.

If Republicans also contract lawsuit fever, we’ll see a world with an explosion of mass tort class-action lawsuits filed against American technology companies, many of which would be without merit.

This would tie up resources for hundreds of innovative firms that consumers know and love and would place even more inflationary pressures on prices. Not to mention that it would pervert the true purpose of our judicial system — to deliver justice.

American citizens and consumers rely on a fair and virtuous legal system to protect our rights and ways of life. If anything, we should continue to demand that this be upheld.

Yaël Ossowski is a Canadian-American journalist and deputy director of the Consumer Choice Center.

Published in American Spectator (archive link).

Congress Wants to Copy Some of the EU’s Worst Food Rules. That’s a Bad Idea

There is simply no argument in favor of copying EU food regulations.

Legislation looming in the US Congress could emulate European food standards by copying European agricultural regulation. PACTA (Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act), legislation sponsored by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, and Bernie Sanders would outlaw any pesticide that is illegal in either European Union member states, the European Union itself, or Canada.

To many Americans, Europe represents the epitome of culinary civilization, and it’s true that Italian standards for pasta, French standard for bread, and Spanish standards for seafood often far outrank what the average restaurant will serve in the United States. But with that said, we shouldn’t confuse the presence of prime cooking schools in France with a better food market. Europe’s increasing hostility towards crop protection in the form of pesticides is not going to do itself any favors.

A cornerstone of the EU’s continuous ambitions to revamp its food regulation is the “Farm to Fork Strategy,” known as F2F. This strategy, which is part of the “European Green Deal,” is a roadmap for a set of package bills set to hit the EU’s legislature in the coming years. Two of its cornerstone proposals are a reduction of pesticides by 50 percent by 2030, and increasing organic food production to 25 percent by 2030 (it is currently at about 8 percent).

The European Commission has yet to release an impact assessment on what the Farm to Fork strategy would mean for farmers and consumers. Despite repeated calls from EU parliamentarians, it has been unable to provide hard numbers backing up the political argument that these environmental reforms would also be good economically. Thankfully, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) did its own study. In fact, when the USDA made an impact assessment, it found that, if implemented, F2F would result in a 12 percent reduction in agricultural production in Europe and increase the prices of consumer goods by 17 percent in the EU, by 5 percent in the US, and by 9 percent worldwide.

In addition, the USDA also found that in the adoption scenario, trade flows would be reduced, and that Europe’s GDP would decline significantly as result of the increase in food commodity prices (Europe’s GDP decline would represent 76 percent of the overall global GDP decline as a result of F2F).

Developing nations would also be hard hit. Because as a result of these stringent food rules, the EU would implement protectionist measures.

“By 2030, the number of food-insecure people in the case of EU-only adoption would increase by an additional 22 million more than projected without the EC’s proposed Strategies,” USDA concluded.

You could ask why it all matters, since Europeans do pay less for food that apparently is also cooked better. It is true that grocery shopping in Germany can be quite eye-opening to Americans—a pound of wild-caught smoked salmon costs anywhere between $10 and $20 in America (or more), while in Germany those prices vary between $2 and $10. Most of that is because the United States does not shower its farmers and fishers with the same lavish farm subsidies that Europe does. While the US also subsidies farmers, research shows that Europe “out-subsidises” the States by a long shot. So while supermarket prices are lower for consumers, it’s the tax returns of Europeans that tell the real story. In countries such as Belgium, effective income tax rates (with social security) are upwards of 50 percent. In fact, single Belgian workers are the highest taxed in the entire OECD, and they are closely followed by those in Germany and France, both nearing the 50 percent mark. And this doesn’t even go into detail of how the European Union uses its farm subsidies to undercut producers in developing markets and, as the New York Times put it, how oligarchs milk these millions of farm subsidies for their own benefit.

Reducing pesticides by political decree rather than through innovative technology is a non-scientific approach. If the argument of the European Union were that with modern farm equipment, such as smart-sprays, the amount of pesticides could be reduced because farmers are able to make their use more efficient, then that would be a forward-thinking approach. Instead, the 50 percent reduction target looks good on a poster, but has little to do with evidence-based policy making. After all: if the existing 100 percent are bad for human health, why only restrict 50 percent, and not the entirety of all these substances?

Incidentally that is what the EU did on a large scale with neonicotinoids, by banning certain ones for farming use. Neonicotinoids, or neonics, are insecticides that are essential for farmers not to lose a significant amount of their crops each season. In December last year, the French parliament voted for a three year suspension of the ban on neonics, because sugar beet farmers were risking going completely out of business over crop losses. The bans exist in Europe because neonics have been accused of harming pollinators.

The “Bee-pocalypse” in the early 2000s was blamed first on GMOs, then subsequently on neonics when the GMO argument was quickly found to be false. But neonics also aren’t at fault. Bee colony reductions and disappearances occur naturally and periodically throughout history. In fact, there were sporadic bee colony declines all throughout (recorded) history, namely the 19th and 20th century, before neonics were first introduced in 1985. In fact, not only are bees not affected by neonics, they aren’t even declining.

As the Washington Post reported in two separate articles in 2015—”Call Off the Bee-pocalypse: U.S. Honeybee Colonies Hit a 20-Year High” and “Believe It of Not, the Bees Are Doing Just Fine,” the hysteria of global bee declines are simply inaccurate. You can even do this for yourself: visit the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization’s (FAO) website, select “beehives” in the visualised data section, and click on any country or region you like. Most countries and regions have a steady upwards trend in the prevalence of bees. In the United States, the bee population is actually set to double in the coming years compared to the 1960s level.

So why lie about it? Why is it such a prevalent narrative that GMOs (or any given pesticide of the day) kill the bees? The argument is politically convenient, but not scientifically sound. In Europe, the enemies of modern agriculture have a view of the world that does not match the society of comfort and availability. The EU’s Green Deal Commissioner Frans Timmermans bemoaned in May last year (mind you this is at the height of the first COVID-19 lockdown) that “we’ve gotten used to food being too cheap.”

He didn’t mean that agriculture subsidies were out of proportion, but rather that being able to buy meat or fish on any given day and for low prices were problematic in nature. For a man paid $30,000 a month for his Commission job, while Romanian consumers paid upwards of 20 percent of their income on food, that’s the definition of tone-deaf.

In the United States, availability and competition are key. Also, while Europe’s dreams of a world where nature politely sends no insects to eat our crops, no mold to befall food stocks, and where no other natural conditions could endanger food security, the United States has always enabled scientific innovation. Case in point, the US is far ahead on developing genetic engineering, while Europe lags behind.

There is simply no argument in favor of copying EU food regulations.

Originally published here

Public-nuisance lawsuits stifle innovation, and consumers ultimately foot the bill

With arcane rule changes and different policies on absentee voting, we are bracing for lawsuits and recounts that could keep both presidential candidates’ legal teams busy until New Year’s. For once, thankfully, it will not be Florida’s fault.

This is another reminder of how much we have allowed our country to be captured by the legal profession. Whether it’s elections, climate change or the latest corporate scandal, lawsuits have become as American as apple pie.

In the past year alone, personal injury or tort lawsuits have risen more than 7 percent to a whopping 73,000 a year, according to the Department of Justice.

One surprising legal principle that has helped fuel these cases is “public nuisance.”

In the past few decades, plaintiffs’ attorneys have expanded the claim of public nuisance — meant to cover pollution or obstructions that cause harm to property — to include widespread social problems such as climate change and opioid addiction.

The goal is to extract large paydays from firms because of either real or perceived damage. Most companies would rather settle than be publicly dragged by the media. Just ask Elon Musk.

There are, no doubt, legitimate cases where real harm has been done. But many of these cases stem from complex issues that require public-policy solutions rather than judicial rulings, which distort our legal system and set dangerous precedents.

Originally, public nuisance was invoked as a way for local governments to protect the public’s right to access public roads, local parks, and waterways, or to halt domestic disturbances like prostitution or gambling.

But recently, state and local courts have been more open to looser interpretations of public nuisances, leading to gross abuses of our already overly litigious justice system.

For example, in 2000, attorneys went to localities in California to sign on as plaintiffs in a massive lead-paint lawsuit. The claim was that lead paint, later known to be dangerous, was “aggressively marketed” by the producers, constituting a public nuisance.

Over $1 billion was ordered to be paid to the California cities and counties, eventually reduced to $305 million in a settlement. Trial lawyers pocketed $65 million, and judges became empowered to use the law to address larger societal problems. Then came the opioid crisis.

In 2019, Oklahoma used the state’s overly broad public-nuisance statute to sue companies that marketed and distributed opioids. While other drugmakers settled, Johnson & Johnson went to trial. Even with a small share of the opioid market and no causal link found between its products and widespread opioid addiction, they were ordered to pay $572 million in damages, of which $85 million went to the lawyers.

From vaping to plastics to environmental cleanups, the public nuisance legal strategy has increasingly become an effective and profitable way to skip the legislative process and push political agendas against innovation.

Environmental foundations, including one headed by Mike Bloomberg, have funded lawyers and activists to recruit governments to join lawsuits against energy companies for climate change. These attorneys then seek friendly courts where public-nuisance statutes exist or where activist judges are willing to embrace this legal theory.

Some judges have dismissed these public-nuisance claims, ruling that energy producers have contributed significantly to our economic development. But federal appeals courts have allowed California cities, as well as the city of Baltimore, to advance their cases against fossil-fuel producers. And more could be coming.

This trend shows how our legal system is being used to advance anti-innovation political agendas.

This makes our legal system unpredictable, undermines the rule of law and increases the cost of doing business as companies must prepare for future lawsuits, whether they caused any actual harm or not. All of that ends up increasing prices for all consumers. We need smart and better policies, not more lawsuits.

Yaël Ossowski is deputy director of the Consumer Choice Center.

Originally published here.

Public-nuisance lawsuits stifle innovation, and consumers ultimately foot the bill

With arcane rule changes and different policies on absentee voting, we are bracing for lawsuits and recounts that could keep both presidential candidates’ legal teams busy until New Year’s. For once, thankfully, it will not be Florida’s fault.

This is another reminder of how much we have allowed our country to be captured by the legal profession. Whether it’s elections, climate change or the latest corporate scandal, lawsuits have become as American as apple pie.

In the past year alone, personal injury or tort lawsuits have risen more than 7 percent to a whopping 73,000 a year, according to the Department of Justice.

One surprising legal principle that has helped fuel these cases is “public nuisance.”

In the past few decades, plaintiffs’ attorneys have expanded the claim of public nuisance — meant to cover pollution or obstructions that cause harm to property — to include widespread social problems such as climate change and opioid addiction.

The goal is to extract large paydays from firms because of either real or perceived damage. Most companies would rather settle than be publicly dragged by the media. Just ask Elon Musk.

There are, no doubt, legitimate cases where real harm has been done. But many of these cases stem from complex issues that require public-policy solutions rather than judicial rulings, which distort our legal system and set dangerous precedents.

Originally, public nuisance was invoked as a way for local governments to protect the public’s right to access public roads, local parks, and waterways, or to halt domestic disturbances like prostitution or gambling.

But recently, state and local courts have been more open to looser interpretations of public nuisances, leading to gross abuses of our already overly litigious justice system.

For example, in 2000, attorneys went to localities in California to sign on as plaintiffs in a massive lead-paint lawsuit. The claim was that lead paint, later known to be dangerous, was “aggressively marketed” by the producers, constituting a public nuisance.

Over $1 billion was ordered to be paid to the California cities and counties, eventually reduced to $305 million in a settlement. Trial lawyers pocketed $65 million, and judges became empowered to use the law to address larger societal problems. Then came the opioid crisis.

In 2019, Oklahoma used the state’s overly broad public-nuisance statute to sue companies that marketed and distributed opioids. While other drugmakers settled, Johnson & Johnson went to trial. Even with a small share of the opioid market and no causal link found between its products and widespread opioid addiction, they were ordered to pay $572 million in damages, of which $85 million went to the lawyers.

From vaping to plastics to environmental cleanups, the public nuisance legal strategy has increasingly become an effective and profitable way to skip the legislative process and push political agendas against innovation.

Environmental foundations, including one headed by Mike Bloomberg, have funded lawyers and activists to recruit governments to join lawsuits against energy companies for climate change. These attorneys then seek friendly courts where public-nuisance statutes exist or where activist judges are willing to embrace this legal theory.

Some judges have dismissed these public-nuisance claims, ruling that energy producers have contributed significantly to our economic development. But federal appeals courts have allowed California cities, as well as the city of Baltimore, to advance their cases against fossil-fuel producers. And more could be coming.

This trend shows how our legal system is being used to advance anti-innovation political agendas.

This makes our legal system unpredictable, undermines the rule of law and increases the cost of doing business as companies must prepare for future lawsuits, whether they caused any actual harm or not. All of that ends up increasing prices for all consumers. We need smart and better policies, not more lawsuits.

Yaël Ossowski is deputy director of the Consumer Choice Center.

Originally published here.

Coronavirus Will Blow Up Our Legal System, but a Liability Shield Will Help

As customers slowly trickle back into stores and workers punch back in at reopened businesses, there’s one thought on all our minds: caution.

Protective plastic shields and screens, face masks and gloves are a new reality, and it is a small price to pay for coming out of state-mandated lockdowns.

But months into the all-encompassing coronavirus pandemic, there is another cost many entrepreneurs and administrators fear: future legal bills.

While voluntary precautions will be plentiful in every situation where a customer, student or worker is getting back out in the world, the nature of the virus means it is almost certain that someone, somewhere, will catch the virus. That means huge potential legal ramifications if a person wants to hold an institution or business liable.

There is already a demonstrable lawsuit epidemic. Between March and May of this year, more than 2,400 COVID-related lawsuits have been filed in federal and state courts. These cases are likely to blow up our legal system as we know it, elevating accusations of blame and clogging every level of our courts that will keep judges and lawyers busy for some time.

That is why the idea of a liability shield for schools, businesses and organizations has taken up steam.

In a recent letter to congressional leaders, 21 governors, all Republicans, called on both houses of Congress to include liability protections in the next round of coronavirus relief.

“To accelerate reopening our economies as quickly and as safely as possible, we must allow citizens to get back to their livelihoods and make a living for their families without the threat of frivolous lawsuits,” the governors wrote.

While a liability shield will not give cover to institutions that are negligent or reckless, and reasonably so, it would ensure that blatantly frivolous or unfounded lawsuits are not allowed to go forward.

For the average entrepreneur or school administrator, that would help alleviate some of the worries that are keeping many of these instructions closed or severely restricted.

No one wants customers or workers catching the virus in these environments, but creating 100 percent COVID-free zones would be next to impossible, a fact many scientists are ready to acknowledge. That’s why state governors, lawmakers and business leaders want to ensure that our states can open back up, but be cognizant of the risk.

There is still plenty of uncertainty related to the transmission of the virus, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has pointed out, and that is why a liability shield — at least for those who follow health and safety recommendations — makes sense. Businesses and schools that willfully endanger citizens through negligence though, should rightfully be held liable.

This is the idea currently being debated in the nation’s capital, as Senate Republicans have stated they want a liability shield to avoid a lawsuit contagion.

Unfortunately, the idea is likely to be mired in a toxic partisan death spiral. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York decries such a plan as “legal immunity for big corporations” and reporting on the topic has resembled such.

But these protections would most benefit small businesses and schools that follow health recommendations and still find themselves the subject of lawsuits.

It is no secret that many attorneys see a potential payday in the wake of the pandemic. There are already hundreds of law firms pitching “coronavirus lawyers” and many have reassigned entire teams and departments to focus on providing legal advice and counsel for COVID-19 cases.

And much like in consumer fraud cases before the pandemic, a favorite tool of coronavirus tort lawyers will be large class-action lawsuits that seek huge payouts. These are the cases that usually end up lining the pockets of legal firms instead of legitimately harmed plaintiffs, as a recent Jones Day report finds. And that does not even speak to whether or not these cases have merit or not.

In debating the next level of pandemic relief for Americans, including a liability shield would be a great measure of confidence for responsible and cautious businesses and institutions in our country.

Whether it is the local community college or bakery, we must all recognize that assigning blame for virus contraction will be a frequent topic of concern. But those accusations must be founded, and be the result of outright harmful and negligent behavior, not just because students are back in class or customers are once again buying cakes.

A liability shield for the responsible citizens of our country is not only a good idea but necessary.

Originally published here.


The Consumer Choice Center is the consumer advocacy group supporting lifestyle freedom, innovation, privacy, science, and consumer choice. The main policy areas we focus on are digital, mobility, lifestyle & consumer goods, and health & science.

The CCC represents consumers in over 100 countries across the globe. We closely monitor regulatory trends in Ottawa, Washington, Brussels, Geneva and other hotspots of regulation and inform and activate consumers to fight for #ConsumerChoice. Learn more at consumerchoicecenter.org

GOP bill would deter frivolous COVID lawsuits

As customers slowly trickle back into stores and workers punch back in at reopened businesses, one thought dominates all our minds: caution.

Protective plastic shields and screens, face masks and gloves are a new reality, and it is a small price to pay for coming out of state-mandated lockdowns. But months into the all-encompassing coronavirus pandemic, there is another cost many entrepreneurs and administrators fear: future legal bills.

While voluntary precautions will be plentiful in every situation where a customer, student or worker is getting back out in the world, the nature of the virus means it is almost certain that someone, somewhere, will catch the virus. That means huge potential legal ramifications if a person wants to hold an institution or business liable.

A demonstrable lawsuit epidemic already exists. Between March and May of this year, more than 2,400 COVID-related lawsuits have been filed in federal and state courts. These cases are likely to blow up the legal system as we know it, elevating accusations of blame, clogging every level of our courts and keeping judges and lawyers busy for some time.

That is why the idea of a liability shield for schools, businesses and organizations has taken up steam. In a recent letter to congressional leaders, 21 governors, all Republicans, called on both houses of Congress to include liability protections in the next round of coronavirus relief.

“To accelerate reopening our economies as quickly and as safely as possible, we must allow citizens to get back to their livelihoods and make a living for their families without the threat of frivolous lawsuits,” the governors wrote.

While a liability shield will not give cover to institutions that are negligent or reckless, and reasonably so, it would ensure that blatantly frivolous or unfounded lawsuits are not allowed to go forward. For the average entrepreneur or school administrator, this would help alleviate some of the worries that are keeping many institutions and businesses closed or severely restricted.

No one wants customers or workers catching the virus in these environments, but creating 100 percent COVID-free zones would be next to impossible, a fact many scientists are ready to acknowledge. That’s why state governors, lawmakers and business leaders want to ensure that our states can open back up, yet be cognizant of the risk.

There is still plenty of uncertainty related to transmission of the virus, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has pointed out, and that is why a liability shield — at least for those who follow health and safety recommendations — makes sense. Businesses and schools that willfully endanger citizens through negligence, though, should rightfully be held liable. This is the idea currently being debated in the nation’s capital, as Senate Republicans have stated they want a liability shield to avoid a lawsuit contagion.

Unfortunately, the idea is likely to be mired in a toxic partisan death spiral. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York decries such a plan as “legal immunity for big corporations” and national reporting on the topic has suggested as much.

But these protections would most benefit small businesses and schools that follow health recommendations and still find themselves the subject of lawsuits. It’s no secret that many attorneys see a potential payday in the wake of the pandemic. Already hundreds of law firms are pitching “coronavirus lawyers.”

And much as in consumer fraud cases before the pandemic, a favorite tool of coronavirus tort lawyers will be large class-action lawsuits that seek huge payouts. These are the cases that usually end up lining the pockets of legal firms instead of legitimately harmed plaintiffs, as a recent Jones Day law firm report finds. And that does not even speak to whether these cases have merit or not.

Whether it’s the local community college or bakery, we must all recognize that assigning blame for virus contraction will be a frequent topic of concern. But those accusations must be founded, and be the result of outright harmful and negligent behavior, not just because students are back in class or customers are once again buying cakes. A liability shield for the responsible citizens of our country is not only a good idea but necessary.

Yaël Ossowski is deputy director of the Consumer Choice Center. This article was published in the Waco Tribune-Herald.

RESPONSIBLE BUSINESSES AND SCHOOLS NEED COVID-19 LIABILITY SHIELDS

A Liability Shield For Small Businesses And Schools

Part of this proposal is a liability shield for small businesses and schools, to protect them from unreasonable lawsuits related to COVID-19.

Consumer Choice Center Deputy Director Yaël Ossowski responded: “The nature of the virus means it is almost certain that someone, somewhere, will catch the virus. That means huge potential legal ramifications if a person wants to hold an institution or business liable,” he wrote in the Detroit Times.

“There is already a demonstrable lawsuit epidemic. These cases are likely to blow up our legal system as we know it, elevating accusations of blame and clogging every level of our courts that will keep judges and lawyers busy for some time.

“That’s why responsible businesses and schools that follow federal recommendations on health and safety should not be subject to outrageous lawsuits that bring our society to a halt,” said Ossowski. “Only legitimate lawsuits, based on some measure of negligence or recklessness, should be heard in our nation’s courts.”

“For the average entrepreneur or school administrator, a liability shield would help alleviate some of the worries that are keeping many of these institutions closed or severely restricted,” he added.

“Stopping the coming wave of unfounded and frivolous lawsuits will be important if we want to actually identify citizens and consumers who have been harmed by institutions that have not taken the right precautions. That’s why a liability shield is necessary for getting our country back on the right track,” concluded Ossowski.

Learn more about Consumer Choice Center’s #LegalReform campaign here

Originally published here.


The Consumer Choice Center is the consumer advocacy group supporting lifestyle freedom, innovation, privacy, science, and consumer choice. The main policy areas we focus on are digital, mobility, lifestyle & consumer goods, and health & science.

The CCC represents consumers in over 100 countries across the globe. We closely monitor regulatory trends in Ottawa, Washington, Brussels, Geneva and other hotspots of regulation and inform and activate consumers to fight for #ConsumerChoice. Learn more at consumerchoicecenter.org

Responsible businesses need COVID-19 liability shields

As customers slowly trickle back into stores and workers punch back in at reopened businesses, there’s one thought on all our minds: caution.

Protective plastic shields and screens, face masks and gloves are a new reality, and it is a small price to pay for coming out of state-mandated lockdowns.

But months into the all-encompassing coronavirus pandemic, there is another cost many entrepreneurs and administrators fear: future legal bills. 

While voluntary precautions will be plentiful in every situation where a customer, student or worker is getting back out in the world, the nature of the virus means it is almost certain that someone, somewhere, will catch the virus. That means huge potential legal ramifications if a person wants to hold an institution or business liable.

In this April 15, 2020, file photo, two people walk past a closed sign at a retail store in Chicago.Nam Y. Huh, AP

There is already a demonstrable lawsuit epidemic. Between March and May of this year, more than 2,400 COVID-related lawsuits have been filed in federal and state courts. These cases are likely to blow up our legal system as we know it, elevating accusations of blame and clogging every level of our courts that will keep judges and lawyers busy for some time.

That is why the idea of a liability shield for schools, businesses and organizations has taken up steam.

In a recent letter to congressional leaders, 21 governors, all Republicans, called on both houses of Congress to include liability protections in the next round of coronavirus relief.

“To accelerate reopening our economies as quickly and as safely as possible, we must allow citizens to get back to their livelihoods and make a living for their families without the threat of frivolous lawsuits,” the governors wrote.

While a liability shield will not give cover to institutions that are negligent or reckless, and reasonably so, it would ensure that blatantly frivolous or unfounded lawsuits are not allowed to go forward.

For the average entrepreneur or school administrator, that would help alleviate some of the worries that are keeping many of these institutions closed or severely restricted.

No one wants customers or workers catching the virus in these environments, but creating 100% COVID-free zones would be next to impossible, a fact many scientists are ready to acknowledge. That’s why state governors, lawmakers and business leaders want to ensure that our states can open back up, but be cognizant of the risk. 

There is still plenty of uncertainty related to the transmission of the virus, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has pointed out, and that is why a liability shield — at least for those who follow health and safety recommendations — makes sense. Businesses and schools that willfully endanger citizens through negligence though, should rightfully be held liable.

This is the idea currently being debated in the nation’s capital, as Senate Republicans have stated they want a liability shield to avoid a lawsuit contagion.

Unfortunately, the idea is likely to be mired in a toxic partisan death spiral. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York decries such a plan as “legal immunity for big corporations” and reporting on the topic has resembled such. 

But these protections would most benefit small businesses and schools that follow health recommendations and still find themselves the subject of lawsuits. 

It is no secret that many attorneys see a potential payday in the wake of the pandemic. There are already many law firms pitching “coronavirus lawyers” and many have reassigned entire teams and departments to focus on providing legal advice and counsel for COVID-19 cases. 

And much like in consumer fraud cases before the pandemic, a favorite tool of coronavirus tort lawyers will be large class-action lawsuits that seek huge payouts. These are the cases that usually end up lining the pockets of legal firms instead of legitimately harmed plaintiffs, as a recent Jones Day report finds. And that does not even speak to whether or not these cases have merit or not.

In debating the next level of pandemic relief for Americans, including a liability shield would be a great measure of confidence for responsible and cautious businesses and institutions in our country. 

Whether it is the local community college or bakery, we must all recognize that assigning blame for virus contraction will be a frequent topic of concern. But those accusations must be founded, and be the result of outright harmful and negligent behavior, not just because students are back in class or customers are once again buying cakes.

A liability shield for the responsible citizens of our country is not only a good idea but necessary.

Originally published in the Detroit Times here.


The Consumer Choice Center is the consumer advocacy group supporting lifestyle freedom, innovation, privacy, science, and consumer choice. The main policy areas we focus on are digital, mobility, lifestyle & consumer goods, and health & science.

The CCC represents consumers in over 100 countries across the globe. We closely monitor regulatory trends in Ottawa, Washington, Brussels, Geneva and other hotspots of regulation and inform and activate consumers to fight for #ConsumerChoice. Learn more at consumerchoicecenter.org

Burned Tort Lawyers Plead Guilty to $200 Million Extortion Racket

Late last year, we covered the criminal case against Virginia-based attorney Timothy Litzenburg and his partners.

He was accused of approaching an international agrochemical company, presumably Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto, and threatening to weaponize the media and courts against them unless they gave his law firm $200 million.

The aim was to use recent verdicts to claim glyphosate, a key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, is a dangerous carcinogen, even though hundreds of studies by reputable bodies, including the FDA, have said there is no evidence for that claim.

In court, it was revealed that Litzenburg’s firm threatened Monsanto by pitching them a massive “consulting agreement” that would make future cases against them from the firm invalid because of the conflict of interest. The hope was that the company would back down and the lawyers would make off with a huge payday.

Last Friday, Timothy Litzenburg, of Charlottesville, and his partner, Daniel Kincheloe each pleaded guilty to extortion after a short trial. They will face sentencing in September.

Litzenburg and Kincheloe also admitted that after making their demand for $200 million from the company, they registered a Virginia corporation for the purpose of receiving money from the company, and that they agreed to split the funds among themselves and their associates, and to not distribute any of the money the company paid them as purported “consulting fees” to their existing clients. Litzenburg and Kincheloe admitted that after making their demand for $200 million, Litzenburg threatened that they and others would commence litigation that would become “an ongoing and exponentially growing problem for [Company 1], particularly when the media inevitably takes notice[,]” and that such litigation would cost Company 1 and its publicly-traded parent company “billions, setting aside the associated drop in stock price and reputation damage.”

WHSV

This case is important because it peels back some layers on our nation’s vastly complicated tort or injury legal system, a pernicious cyclone of veiled threats, millions of dollars, unethical standards, and huge settlements to lawyers that often leave truly injured plaintiffs in the dust.

The incentives that exist in the American legal system make it possible for virtually any legal firm to trump up a case against companies or individuals. Often times, companies will choose to settle these cases for large amounts rather than have the case gain publicity, even if there was no actual harm or injury.

In a sense, the bigger a company is, the more likely they are to have a target on their back, no matter the claim that is brought up in court.

Though there are plenty of legitimate tort cases in which people have been harmed, there are just as many that are just outright frivolous and have no legal merit. Just think of the various cases against Google Maps because people took a wrong route and were struck by a car, or against Burger King because it’s meatless burgers aren’t really “vegan”.

Because the number of cases that can be heard by judges and juries is limited in a given year, the existence of these types of cases means that other cases, with real greviences won’t get heard.

And even if cases with real harms are eventually brought to court, it’s highly likely the plaintiffs will only receive a fraction of their deserved restitution.

It’s a system that overwhelmingly benefits injury lawyers at the expense of those they are supposed to represent.

Earlier this year, an analysis of large class-action lawsuits compiled by the law firm Jones Day found that that class members received an average of just 23 percent of eventual payouts — sometimes in the billions of dollars — and close to two-thirds went straight to lawyers instead.

These large settlements end up costing companies and the consumers that suffer from higher prices, not to mention the hundreds of potential plaintiffs who are not able to have their civil cases quickly heard.

America loves lawsuits. So why can’t you sue a cop for excessive force?

Across the country, people of all backgrounds are in the streets to seek justice.

They feel let down by their institutions, their cities and their nation. They’re not wrong. The shocking death of George Floyd in Minneapolis has awoken many Americans to the pressing issues of police accountability and racial justice.

For a lawsuit-frenzied country, one would think there would be an overwhelming number of lawsuits filed against police officers who abused their power.

But that’s not the case, because of a little-known legal doctrine called “qualified immunity.” It effectively shields all civil servants from being sued for actions they perform on the job.

A recent Reuters investigation found that qualified immunity is a “fail safe” for those who commit police brutality and denies victims of that violence their constitutional rights.

Several elected officials in Washington, D.C., are taking a second look at this policy, and the U.S. Supreme Court is being pressured to revisit the issue, even though justices have consistently upheld it.

Stripping this defense from police officers who use excessive and deadly force in the line of duty would help protect future lives, and restore justice to those who need it most.

in Florida, between 2013-2019, 540 people were killed after altercations with police; 31 percent of them were black, according to the Mapping Police Violence Database.

A Tampa Bay Times database found that of the 772 incidents with officer-involved shootings between 2009 and 2014, there were just 91 lawsuits. It is not known how many resulted in significant settlements establishing negligence, but a similar database in New York shows it’s just a handful every year.

For the families of the innocent victims in police altercations, we want a legal system that can not only prosecute and sentence officers who use excessive force, but also hold them responsible in civil courts.

That should be easy considering the United States — and Florida, specifically — are among the most litigious places in the world. But the majority of civil lawsuits are filed are not based on the negligence of police officers or other civil servants, but against business owners by trial attorneys representing consumers. These cases are often frivolous .

But they ofthen become large class-action lawsuits that take up extraordinary time and resources in the courts, promising huge payouts to the suing legal firms and virtually nothing for class members, all the while slowing down the prosecution of civil wrongs that resulted in injuries and death.

A significant analysis of large class-action lawsuits compiled by the law firm Jones Day finds that class members received an average of just 23 percent of eventual payouts — sometimes in the billions of dollars — and close to two-thirds went straight to lawyers instead.

These large settlements end up costing companies and the consumers that suffer from higher prices, not to mention the hundreds of potential plaintiffs who are not able to have their civil cases quickly heard.

Instead of a judicial system clogged with civil lawsuits that actually end up harming citizens, what about a more accountable legal system that would help deliver justice to the victims and families most harmed by those who are supposed to protect us?

That’s why qualified immunity of police officers and civil servants cannot be allowed to stand, and we must institute legal reform that would help balance justice in our society.

This is the right moment to focus on justice and equality. Making our judicial system more robust and more adept at identifying those who commit civil wrongs should be a priority. We owe this to all victims of violence and those who deserve restitution.

Originally published here.


The Consumer Choice Center is the consumer advocacy group supporting lifestyle freedom, innovation, privacy, science, and consumer choice. The main policy areas we focus on are digital, mobility, lifestyle & consumer goods, and health & science.

The CCC represents consumers in over 100 countries across the globe. We closely monitor regulatory trends in Ottawa, Washington, Brussels, Geneva and other hotspots of regulation and inform and activate consumers to fight for #ConsumerChoice. Learn more at consumerchoicecenter.org

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