With excessive litigation costs reaching a staggering $89 billion annually, New York City currently ranks second on the American Tort Reform Foundation's annual list of “judicial hellholes.”
City government and private companies pay that This goes a long way toward avoiding frivolous lawsuits over questionable injuries and supposed “pain and suffering” that would be laughed out of court across the country.
Consumers have to pay higher costs for everything, including insurance. Workers lose their jobs (or are not employed here at all) when they move out of state. Taxpayers are also being robbed.
Most of the responsibility lies with state governments. Misled by donations from the trial lawyer lobby, Congress has made it easy to bring large-scale lawsuits even when no real harm is done, or when the plaintiffs have done nothing wrong other than having enough money. I made it. targeting.
Of course, the city's Democratic Party, which largely decides who becomes a judge, has given Gotham's courts an even worse reputation.
“Municipal courts are a playground for fraudsters and opportunistic trial lawyers, while honest New Yorkers foot the bill,” said ATRA President Tiger Joyce.
Pay the bill as a taxpayer and Because it is a “judicial hellhole” that condemns all kinds of companies, as potential customers and employees.
New York's “liability environment and litigation-friendly policies are driving up costs and are a major factor in driving businesses and residents to greener pastures in other states,” says Ashley of the National Federation of Independent Business.・Mr. Lancelot says:
Some examples:
- A former employee sued over overtime pay, leading to a $6 million class action lawsuit that was eventually settled for $750,000. For two Suffolk County sisters, their dream of owning a Dairy Queen turned into a nightmare. Under a torturous judicial ruling, the fine for alleged “delayed payments” is 100% of the amount of the late payment.
- Spencer Sheehan, a Long Island-based food label tracker, said the supermarket chain Wyeth Markets was misleading when it said the packaging of its generic brand fruit cups contained “100% fruit juice.” and recently filed a lawsuit. He has filed hundreds of similar lawsuits against companies including Walmart, Aldi, Stop & Shop, The Hershey Company and Target.
- The state's infamous scaffolding law requires construction companies to pay workers who are injured on the job, even if they were at fault or under the influence of alcohol. Four city builders have filed extortion lawsuits against a group of lawyers, alleging an elaborate scheme to coordinate runners. stage Accidents that set up fraudulent claims with high payouts.
Other criminal enterprises are staging traffic accidents to litigate lawsuits and using fake “disabled” plaintiffs to hold companies for violating accessibility laws.
And the “litigation financing” industry pays people upfront for their lawsuits, often at the expense of lenders eating most of the final settlement.
This is an old problem across the state, and it's only getting worse. Again, ambulance chasers, scammers, and their ilk are making tens of dollars in profits. billions of Stop litigating and share some of your ill-gotten gains with the politicians who are making it easier and easier to litigate.
The latest bill, the so-called Grieving Families Act, is now on Governor Hochul's desk, awaiting what we hope will be his third consecutive veto.
This outrage is all the more reason why Albany needs to undergo a wave of reform to oust officials owned by special interests who prey on the people.
Unless voters turn away fraudsters and predators, the attacks on honest, hard-working people will only intensify.
