One woman, alone in an elevator, repeatedly hit herself in the face then claimed she had been mugged and robbed. The casinos are taking actions to protect themselves from these claims in a litigation fertile environment. The turnout this year set a record, and tort reform leaders and representatives of grassroots organizations from 36 states joined us in Las Vegas for our annual strategy session. I and other members of the ATRA staff now have had an opportunity to reflect upon the presentations at this year's meeting and begin to address the challenges that lie ahead. This column will outline the challenges that ATRA and the civil justice reform movement faces in addressing today's issues and into the future.
Class actions continue to be a hot topic.
Both John Hooper of Skadden, Arps and Lew Goldfarb of Chrysler talked about new developments in this arena. Lew mentioned that Chrysler has made a strategic decision to be very aggressive in challenging frivolous cases. John outlined from the perspective of a highly skilled outside counsel the difficulties that a defendant faces when confronted with the prospect of a national class action. Examples of such cases abound. In other words, if your property is near a pipeline, fiber optic line or rail line, you may be a plaintiff in the case.