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    • Reports & White Papers
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Fighting For Real Justice In Our Courts

Mission

ATRA is the nation’s first organization exclusively dedicated to repairing our civil justice system. ATRA fights in Congress, in state legislatures, and in the courts to create a fairer civil justice system for all. We identify and champion elected officials and judges who want to fix the system.

In the media, we serve as the national voice of the civil justice reform movement. Today, America’s $429 billion tort system is the most expensive in the industrialized world. Aggressive personal injury lawyers target certain professions, industries and individual companies as profit centers. They systematically recruit clients who may never have suffered a real illness or injury and use scare tactics, combined with the promise of awards, to bring these people into massive class-action lawsuits. They effectively tap the media to rally sentiment for multi-million-dollar punitive damage awards.

This leads many companies to settle questionable lawsuits just to stay out of court. These lawsuits are bad for business; they are also bad for society. They compromise access to affordable health care, punish consumers by raising the cost of goods and services, chill innovation, and undermine the notion of personal responsibility. The personal injury lawyers who benefit from the status quo use their fees to perpetuate the cycle of lawsuit abuse. They have reinvested millions of dollars into the political process and in more litigation that acts as a drag on our economy. Some have compared the political and judicial influence of the personal injury bar to a fourth branch of government.

ATRA works to counter that influence by challenging this status quo and continually leading the fight for commonsense reforms in the states, Congress and the court of public opinion.

ATRA's Agenda

Fair Laws, Fair Judges, Fair Courts

ATRA supports an aggressive civil justice reform agenda that includes:

Health care liability reform

Class action reform

Promotion of jury service

Abolition of the rule of joint and several liability

Abolition of the collateral source rule

Limits on punitive damages

Limits on noneconomic damages

Production liability reform

Appeal bond reform

Sound science in the courtroom

Stopping regulation through litigation

View Reform Agendas

Nationwide Reach. Nationwide Impact.

One of ATRA’s greatest assets is its network of tort reform advocates and state coalitions that advance ATRA’s agenda in state capitals. Their work is bolstered by an “army” of more than 142,000 citizen supporters who have joined together in state and local grassroots groups. Together, the state coalitions and grassroots activists are an effective one-two punch in the fight for state tort reform.

A Track Record of Success

According to a 2003 ATRA survey, 85% of Americans believe too many frivolous lawsuits clog our courts. ATRA successfully translates that frustration into action and reform.

Since ATRA was founded in 1986, more than 45 states have enacted portions of ATRA’s legislative agenda. On Capitol Hill, ATRA has a strong track record of enacting civil justice reform laws, including liability protection for teachers and principals (enacted into law in 2002) and immunity for volunteers (enacted into law in 1997). We continue to fight in Congress for class action reform and health care liability reform.

ATRA’s goal is not just to pass laws. We work to change the way people think about personal responsibility and civil litigation. ATRA programs shine a media spotlight on lawsuit abuse and the pernicious political influence of the personal injury bar. ATRA redefines the victim, showing how lawsuit abuse affects all of us by cutting off access to health care, costing consumers through the “lawsuit tax,” and threatening the availability of products like vaccines. Our innovative “Judicial Hellholes” program has curbed lawsuit abuse in the most egregious trial courts.

The American Tort Reform Association is the nation’s first organization dedicated exclusively to reforming the civil justice system through education and legislative enactment.

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