An effective legal system is critical to advancing free enterprise. Unfortunately, many lawsuits in this country lack merit or are downright abusive. Making matters worse, the lawyers who bring these types of suits tend to be the real beneficiaries—not their clients. To be sure, economic data show that the U.S. tort system in 2016 alone cost $3,329 per U.S. household, and only 57 cents on the dollar went to compensate the actual victim.

The Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) is the most influential legal reform organization in the country.  ILR effectively executes unmatched advocacy initiatives that reach into state, federal, and international arenas and cover a wide breadth of issues, including the following: 

• Repairing our broken class action lawsuit system, such as the recent massive spike in securities class action litigation.

• Curbing the rising trend of over-enforcement from state and federal actors that engage in irrational, duplicative, and politically motivated enforcement actions.

• Enacting meaningful legal reforms at the state level, particularly in problematic jurisdictions like Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia.

• Working within the EU to contain and improve major pending legislation that would expand U.S.-style class actions to Europe.

• Eliminating the fraud that permeates asbestos litigation.

• Modernizing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to reflect rapid changes in technology and prevent trial lawyers from using this broad language to file frivolous lawsuits.

• Fighting against the expansion of the multibillion Third Party Litigation Funding (TPLF) industry here in the U.S. and globally.

• Spotlighting the problems when municipalities team up with private attorneys to bring mass and class action lawsuits.

• Raising public awareness of the impact of lawsuit abuse on businesses through ILR’s Faces of Lawsuit Abuse campaign.