Chamber Calls for Comprehensive Reform to Protect U.S. Small Businesses from Lawsuit Abuse.WASHINGTON -- Immediate legislative action and a host of other reforms are needed to protect America's small business owners from lawsuit abuse, said Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, in testimony today before the House Small Business Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform Regulatory Reform concerns improvements to the quality of government regulation. At the international level, the "OECD Regulatory Reform Programme is aimed at helping governments improve regulatory quality -- that is, reforming regulations that raise unnecessary obstacles to and Oversight. "No sector of our economy is hit harder by lawsuit abuse than small business owners," said Rickard, pointing to a recent study showing the tort tort, in law, the violation of some duty clearly set by law, not by a specific agreement between two parties, as in breach of contract. When such a duty is breached, the injured party has the right to institute suit for compensatory damages. system costs U.S. small businesses $88 billion a year. "Small businesses are paying a high price for our legal crisis in the form of lost opportunities to expand their businesses and invest in tens of thousands of new American jobs." The total annual cost of the tort system to U.S. businesses (large and small) is $129 billion per year, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the study, conducted for ILR ILR Industrial and Labor Relations (Cornell University school) ILR Institute for Legal Reform ILR Indefinite Leave to Remain (United Kingdom) ILR Institute for Learning in Retirement by NERA Economic Consulting For other uses of "Nera", see Nera_(disambiguation). NERA Economic Consulting is a firm consisting principally of microeconomists. It was founded as the National Economic Research Associates and forms part of the Oliver Wyman Group which in turn belongs to Marsh & McLennan . Small businesses with $10 million or less in revenue bear 68 percent of that cost. That equates to about $150,000 a year for each small business - money that could be used to hire additional employees, expand operations or improve health coverage. "Frivolous Of minimal importance; legally worthless. A frivolous suit is one without any legal merit. In some cases, such an action might be brought in bad faith for the purpose of harrassing the defendant. lawsuits are hitting the pocketbooks of hard-working Americans, threatening their jobs and raising prices," added Rickard. "I urge Congress to protect our economy, save American jobs, and take swift action to pass the vital legal reform bills that are pending before this Institution." ILR supports a variety of legal reform bills currently pending before Congress, including the Class Action Fairness Act, the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act, the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act, and the Small Business Liability Reform Act. The mission of the Institute for Legal Reform 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 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest not-for-profit federation of businesses, representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations in the United States. As of 2003, the chamber was comprised of 3000 state and local chambers and 830 business associations. is the world's largest business federation, representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region. A full copy of Rickard's testimony and the ILR study is available online. http://www.legalreformnow.com. |
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