We told you yesterday how tort reform advocates tend to skew the facts in their efforts to make the majority of personal injury lawsuitsseem frivolous. We wanted to dispel some of the other popular tort reform arguments.
Tort reform advocates say that your insurance premiums are rising because of tort lawsuits. This is not true. Rising insurance premiums have nothing to do with personal injury lawsuits. The insurance industry’s annual profit for 2004 was $38.7 billion. By 2007, that profit was up to $61.9 billion. Insurance companies are increasing your premiums even with when they are making record profits.
Proponents of tort reform know it is effective to go after your pocketbook by saying that lawsuits cost taxpayers millions of dollars every year. However, the studies they cite lack any sort of methodology or academic reliability. In fact, the organizations that perform the studies are often funded by insurance companies and drug companies.
Next, tort reform advocates blame the personal injury lawyers for taking all the money in any settlement or recovery. What they overlook is that the contingency fee system has provided plaintiffs an access to justice for over two centuries. Many plaintiffs would not be able to afford an attorney otherwise. In personal injury cases, attorneys base their fees on a fair amount of what they recover.
Harrell & Nowak, L.L.C. – New Orleans injury lawyers