legal reform

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Consumer Choice Center is encouraged by recent efforts in Congress to place limits on what’s known as Third-Party Litigation Funding, a booming and largely unregulated industry that distorts the American justice system and drives up costs for consumers. The Tackling Predatory Litigation Funding Act, introduced by Senator...

A bill introduced by US Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) puts reasonable checks on third-party litigation finance, and legal reform advocates and consumers should support this initiative. Not only will the proposed reasonable limits restore integrity to our justice system, but they will also pump the brakes on the unaccountable...

Nearly thirty years ago, an obscure liability section of law aimed at restricting online porn powered a revolution for the Internet and online commerce. Now, in the age of the AI boom and a global resource crunch, we need the same principle put to use for American energy. Section 230, tucked within the...

In response to several bills introduced in both the US House and Senate seeking to put limits and disclosures on third-party litigation funding (TPLF) in our justice system, a narrative has crept up among some advocacy organizations and commentators that outside litigation funding is somehow indispensable to the fight...

Every industry in the world is scrambling to put artificial intelligence tools to creative use, and America’s robust sector of lawyers, law firms, and jurists is no exception.  Judges have hilariously busted lawyers for using ChatGPT to hallucinate court citations in briefs, and AI-generated attorneys have pleaded for their clients and faced ridicule...

If we knew about a $500 billion drain on the American economy that inflates prices for everyday consumers, slows down much needed technological innovation, and locks real victims out of our civil justice system, wouldn’t we all demand something be done about it? This is the current state of...

Florida insurance premium costs are dropping, the number of civil lawsuits being filed is decreasing, “nuclear verdicts” are becoming less common and more insurers are entering the Sunshine State, a new study on the impact of tort reforms concluded. The study from the advocacy group Consumer Choice Center found that...

Consumer advocacy group and think tank Consumer Choice Center says the benefits of 2023’s major tort law rewrite have started reaching everyday Floridians. A policy primer published by the organization says HB 837 — a marquee bill of the 2023 Session — has proved “worthwhile,” citing “steady insurance rates, transparency in medical costs...

ATLANTA,GA – Earlier today, the Georgia House of Representatives passed SB68, a civil justice reform bill to modernize liability standards for firms and help save costs for consumers by cutting down on frivolous lawsuits that raise prices for firms and businesses that serve them. The bill caps non-economic damages in...

The third time is a charm for New Jersey’s Johnson & Johnson, as the pharmaceutical and biotech giant attempts to get a court-issued seal of approval on its long-awaitedsettlement offer and subsidiary bankruptcy plan, which is sitting before a Houston federal courtroom this week. Red River Talc LLC, the subsidiary...

With a big tech-powered magnifying glass on federal websites, spending contracts, and government payment systems, Elon Musk’s band of DOGE system admins have been turning Washington inside out in their hunt for waste, fraud, and abuse. One of the most prized agencies on the chopping block is the Consumer...

Congressman Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet, has joined colleagues in reintroducing legislation to regulate third-party financed civil litigation. The Republican who represents East County was joined by Rep. Scott Fitzgerald of Wisconsin and Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia...

Should Coke be forced to use cane sugar again? Which food coloring will be banned next? What’s the fate of seed oils in the American diet and school lunches? These aren’t the musings of some fringe online health influencer; these are the rumored policy priorities of attorney and former Democratic-turned-independent presidential candidate,...

One underappreciated but worthy reform enacted by several states in recent years has come in the form of curtailing the excesses of liability lawfare, also known as tort and injury law. With a complex web of injury and liability case law and loose rules on legal advertising, lawsuits against...

One of the most complicated tort trials in history continues to unfold in a Texas bankruptcy court. The cases against Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder and its alleged link to illnesses caused by asbestos-contaminated talc have ground on for the better part of a decade. Finally, after years of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau filed a lawsuit in the District Court of Arizona against the owners of the payment platform Zelle, alleging that app has not done enough to combat payment frauds committed by scammers. Zelle, jointly owned by seven of the nation’s largest...

By Yaël Ossowski  In line with common law tradition, the class action system was set up in Australia to address wrongs and deliver justice for ordinary people. But because of a lack of action from politicians and policymakers, it has instead funnelled rivers of gold to faceless foreign investors with...

Congress is moving quickly to revive the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which passed the US Senate in August, by attaching the controversial bill to the year-end Continuing Resolution by the House of Representatives. Revisions have been made to KOSA, now championed by X CEO Linda Yaccarino, and Don Trump Jr. Yaël...

Washington, D.C. – The Consumer Choice Center today launched its policy primer offering simple reforms to provide for more competitive, reasonable, and accurate insurance rates to increase choice and lower costs for consumers. The primer, Fixing What’s Broken: Practical Consumer-Friendly Insurance Reforms to Save Money, focuses on two pressing...

One of the most followed corporate trials of the decade is drawing nearer to a close. Johnson & Johnson’s Red River Talc subsidiary in Texas filed a third time for bankruptcy in the Southern District of Texas while a majority of affected plaintiffs have indicated they wish to settle. With more than 75...

We are no strangers to settling our problems in court. Indeed, it is a core function of citizens in free societies. Staffed by esteemed judges and sometimes juries, people who believe they’ve been wronged can take their claims before a neutral tribunal to plead their case in hopes of...

The commodification of lawsuit funding is a somewhat ingenious concept that may indeed help smaller companies win their day in court, but it also opens the door to even more bad faith participation in the justice system. That’s why this industry needs a second look, and needs some guardrails...

As the 2024 election grinds on, you’ll hear a lot more about the online betting markets which have become all the rage amongst politicos and statisticians. These days, you can bet on election outcomes and even the weather. But should you be able to gamble on courtroom verdicts? That is essentially what’s...

In a protracted eight-year-long legal battle, lawsuits against pharmaceutical and beauty giant Johnson & Johnson seem to be finally coming to a resolution. These cases have been some of the largest and most expensive in recent history and are providing memorable lessons for companies, consumers, and legal firms as to how...

If you ask most Americans when it’s time to call a lawyer, the answer is no mystery: after a law has been broken, you’re forced to do so. Just as we don’t ask doctors to prescribe medicine before we’re sick, most people don’t pay for lawyers and then go...

Washington, D.C. – The Consumer Choice Center (CCC) celebrates today’s Supreme Court decision overturning the 1984 ‘Chevron‘ doctrine, an outdated ruling that exploded the power of the federal government to use the administrative state to craft rules in the absence of clear legislation from Congress. Chevron enabled unelected federal bureaucrats to interpret...

The Supreme Court recently delivered a decision on the constitutionality of one of the federal government’s most peculiar and least understood agencies, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Unlike the Fifth Circuit Court, which earlier ruled that the agency’s unique funding model violates the Constitution, Justice Clarence Thomas argued in the majority opinion the...

Now that Congress has come to its senses about a forced divestiture plan to uncouple TikTok from the Chinese Communist Party, we’d be remiss not to explore other examples of how powers such as China influence American institutions. Let’s look at our justice system. In a handful of local court cases around the...

When we think of American energy, we conjure up images of oil drillers, refineries, pipelines, and end products we put into our cars or the plastic products we use daily. There are millions of jobs and billions of products sourced from energy production that make our society abundant and...

Nearly half of all US states have pledged to go totally carbon-free by at least 2050. While many states and the federal government are pushing and subsidizing entrepreneurs to scale up carbon-free alternatives to fossil fuels such as nuclear energy, wind, and solar – other states are hoping to reach their goals...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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....

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,...

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...

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...

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...

A single drug can cost up to 2 million dollars per treatment. In the light of COVID-19, patient groups and activists have been using the crisis of the moment to call for capping drug and vaccine prices and cracking down on barriers to access for patients. In developing countries,...

Die weltweite Verbraucherorganisation Consumer Choice Center nimmt die Gastwirte im österreichischen Party-Hotspot in Schutz. 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,...

European nations may be opening up their economies throughout the month of May, but that grand opening is likely to be dogged by the wave of COVID-19-related lawsuits. We learned over the weekend that over 5,000 international tourists to the ski town of Ischgl, Austria are in the process...

With so many of us doing our part to stay at home, it’s been the perfect time to dive into binge-worthy Netflix series. For many, it’s been Tiger King or reruns of Friends, but some of the more interesting series deconstruct the American justice system and its complexities: innocence...

With so many of us doing our part to stay at home, it’s been the perfect time to dive into binge-worthy Netflix series. For many, it’s been Tiger King or reruns of Friends, but some of the more interesting series deconstruct the American justice system and its complexities: innocence...

With so many of us doing our part to stay at home, it’s been the perfect time to dive into binge-worthy Netflix series. For many, it’s been Tiger King or reruns of Friends, but some of the more interesting series deconstruct the American justice system and its complexities: innocence...

With so many of us doing our part to stay at home, it’s been the perfect time to dive into a binge-worthy Netflix series. For many, it’s been “Tiger King” or reruns of “Friends,” but some of the more interesting series deconstruct the American justice system and its complexities:...

For the last year, we’ve dedicated a good amount of space in our campaigns advocating for significant reform when it comes to both the U.S. tort law system and the science that is used in courts. With most courts closed due to COVID-19, that afforded us an opportunity to...

At a time like this, those of us who believe in free markets and limited government face challenges in justifying adherence to those principles. It is hard to argue against governments doing “whatever it takes” to combat the spread of the disease and save lives and livelihoods. In fact, as my...

Public life is now at a standstill in the United States. Millions are social distancing and staying at home to avoid further community spread of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19. It’s important to remain positive, but times are tough. Nearly 18% of American households are facing reduced hours...