As consumers, drivers, taxpayers and workers, New Yorkers are paying more and more every year to support a lawsuit industry that has quietly begun to dominate and distort our system of justice. Citizens read about the occasional crazy-sounding lawsuit in the newspaper. Nor do they see the overall impact of the system, which is imposing a heavier and heavier burden on every sector of government and the economy in New York State.
Injured parties get less than half of it.
And the big contingency fees generated by such cases have given lawyers the financial wherewithal to pour money into politics, to lobby for laws encouraging still more litigation. Running counter to the trend elsewhere in the nation, tort filings in New York State jumped by 58 percent between 1988 and 1996. There s been a surge in motor vehicle-related claims that push up New Yorker s auto insurance costs despite a sharp drop in traffic accidents. Perhaps most disturbing of all, there is no comprehensive statute developed by the Legislature to regulate the lawsuit industry, setting boundaries and limits for it of the kind that New York imposes on virtually every other industry, from auto repair shops to nursing homes. Unless that changes, New York will never be able to stop the growth of liability costs.