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 mission of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) is to champion a fair legal system that promotes economic growth and opportunity.
| Our Priorities |
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:
Time to take the cap off another frivolous lawsuit. A woman is suing Blistex for deceiving consumers about their lip balm. Blistex packaging says their product contains zero-point-fifteen ounces of lip balm, but due to the way the lip balm is packaged, eleven percent of it is stuck in the bottom. This plaintiff is chapped about it!
Free speech isn’t always free, especially when lawyers get involved. A man in Florida had difficulty getting emergency animal hospital care for his dog, who needed surgery. He claimed his dog died because the hospital didn’t give the dog the attention he needed. Distraught, the man wrote a negative online review about his experience.
When a fellow former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia claims that our client, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, betrays conservative legal ideals through its unyielding opposition to abuse of class-action suits by the plaintiffs’ bar, we take it seriously. But the argument that Professor Brian Fitzpatrick raised in his November 13 National Review piece does not stand up to scrutiny. Professor Fitzpatrick, relying principally upon the U.S. Chamber’s brief in the landmark 2011 Supreme Court case AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, attempts to ascribe to the Chamber a position he invented: Opposed to class actions in all cases, and instead pining for more federal enforcement against business. No self-respecting legal conservative, he argues, would favor law enforcement by the executive branch in lieu of private-sector lawyers, motivated by profit in the form of contingency fees (lots and lots of contingency fees). Well, our former boss Justice Scalia did, for good conservative reasons: history, tradition, and political accountability. As Justice Scalia wrote in Wal-Mart Inc. v. Dukes, class actions are an exception to the long-standing rule, dating to English common law and the Founding era, that litigation is conducted on behalf of the individual named parties. Today’s class-action colossus is a creation largely of the mid-1960s — hardly the heyday of conservative legal reform.
This Hill letter was sent to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, opposing an amendment to S. 2789, the "Satellite Television Access Reauthorization Act of 2019."
From the files of The Most Ridiculous Lawsuits comes a story SO ridiculous that even we were shocked by it. Trial lawyers argued a $600 million class action case over the advertised health claims of a well-known daily multi-vitamin.
Frivolous lawsuits are like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get. A Washington, DC man bought $15,000 worth of chocolates from Godiva, which was founded in Belgium but has chocolate factories in the United States.
You scream. I scream. We all scream for…frivolous lawsuit abuse? A customer is upset that Friendly’s vanilla ice cream contains more than plain vanilla. The Friendly’s recipe includes ingredients like turmeric and annatto, which comes from the tropical achiote tree.
This Hill letter was sent to the United States Senate, on H.R. 3055, the Commerce, Justice, Science, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act of 2020.
Chuck Jones owns Jones Coffee Roasters in Pasadena, California, an independent coffee company and wholesale roaster. Chuck employs 28 people in his four stores and wholesale warehouse. He loves being in the coffee business, and his stores often promote local artists and musicians.
Some people love that chicken from Popeyes! One Tennessee man drove to multiple Popeyes locations to try their new fried chicken sandwich, but they were all sold out. He’s suing Popeyes Fried Chicken for $5,000 because he couldn’t get his hands on a sandwich. Ridiculous!
From shipping to staffing, the Chamber and its partners have the tools to save your business money and the solutions to help you run it more efficiently. Join the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today to start saving.
Weekly insights and analysis from the intersection of government and business.
