The Lab Whose Junk Science Is Fueling a Frenzy of Litigation
Legitimate consumer protection demands sound science and impartial analysis — not distorted data designed to manufacture lawsuits.
New trend shows companies sued for everything from coronavirus to climate change
An alarming new trend reveals a little-known legal tool is being utilized as the basis to pin the blame on businesses for societal ills, including COVID-19. The trend is driven by attorneys who claim to represent the broader public interest, but their cases often fail to prove who actually is at fault or possibly caused the harm in question.
Lawyers pitch their services and potential lawsuits to state and local government officials and others on a “contingency fee” basis. In doing so, they employ a centuries-old legal theory known as “public nuisance” in order to sue companies for allegedly causing various environmental and social harms.
Just last week, a lawsuit filed in federal court alleged a food manufacturing plant created a “public nuisance” in continuing its operations during the COVID-19 outbreak.
“These recent uses of public nuisance litigation are a dramatic departure from any long-standing liability law,” American Tort Reform Association President Tiger Joyce said.
Dating back 700 years to English common law, public nuisance lawsuits historically had four main components:
In the 1960s, trial lawyers began to try to expand the applicability of public nuisance law, and by the 1970s and 1980s, they began testing this expansion through various cases.
Today’s public nuisance lawsuits are vastly different and widely expanded from the legal theory’s original intent. It has evolved such that merely selling an everyday product can create virtually unlimited liability.
Today’s most common public nuisance lawsuits include:
“This new breed of public nuisance lawsuits is just another example of the rampant abuse in our judicial system,” Joyce said. “Excessive litigation is bad for consumers, costing both job opportunities and income. Further expansion into COVID-19 public nuisance lawsuits will only serve to further inhibit the nation’s economic recovery.”
Research shows that the cost of the U.S. tort system is more than $373 billion as of 2019. Excessive tort costs result in job losses across the U.S., with some states losing nearly one-quarter-million jobs due to these costs.
View the full report to connect the dots and see the alarming legal trend at atra.org.
Legitimate consumer protection demands sound science and impartial analysis — not distorted data designed to manufacture lawsuits.
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