In a blow to the United States Chamber of Commerce, the American Medical Association, and the American Tort Reform Association, the Federal Judicial Center has released a report confirming that the rhetoric by these groups about too much frivolous litigation is just a lie. Hopefully, the national media will pick up on this and begin to spread the truth about this topic. The study was done by surveying 278 federal court judges. These are judges appointed for life, many by President Bush and his father. 70% confirm that groundless litigation is either a “small problem” or a “very small problem”. 15% found frivolous litigation was no problem at all. These special interest groups only want to close the court house door to those seeking to hold corporations like Enron, bad doctors, unscrupulous drug manufacturers, and drunk drivers personally responsible for their actions. As Michael A. Ferrara, Jr., a past president of ATLA-NJ said: “This study by real sitting federal judges confirms what we have been saying for years. There just aren’t the frivolous lawsuits these tort reformers report. We take cases on a contingent fee basis and only get a fee if we recover for our clients. Why on earth would we take a frivolous case, invest time and money into it, only to lose or have a jury find against us? In fact, the contingent fee system weeds out frivolous lawsuits. Hopefully, President Bush will stop referring to “frivolous lawsuits” in his State of the Union address as he has done in the past. Now that his federal judges have told him the truth, maybe he’ll listen and get on with more pressing and real problems.”
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