Montgomery Advertiser, May 14, 2007

Letters

Trial lawyer Ralph Cook described our study on the American tort system as "unfounded," "misleading," and "downright false" ("'Tort tax' argument groundless," May 2).

Cook failed, however, to point out a single factual error in our work. Instead, he relied on sanctimonious rhetoric and baseless fear-mongering.

Our calculations are based on the best scholarly studies by the nation's top economists and legal scholars -- in fact, 34 studies written by 52 scholars. If one compares direct U.S. tort costs to the tort costs of other industrialized nations, for example, one realizes that the U.S. tort system is the most expensive in the industrialized world. At 2.2 percent of GDP, direct costs are bigger than our counterparts in Germany, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

Our tort system is expensive and inefficient. Not only does it return less than 50 cents of every direct tort-cost dollar to injured parties, it also causes our economy to go without things like investments into research and development. Before taking credit for helping the little guy, Cook should explain why over half of all direct tort-cost dollars go somewhere other than to the little guy.

Our study certainly recognizes the importance of a healthy tort system that fully compensates truly injured victims, and it says so. Unfortunately, today's system is out of control with abusive lawsuits, and the data in our report illustrate this. Perhaps Cook should delve into our facts and figures before dismissing our findings out of hand.

Lawrence J. McQuillan
Director of Business
and Economic Studies
Pacific Research Institute
San Francisco, Calif.