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The Right Focus on Tort Reform
by Richard Martin
The recent headlines about Merck's Vioxx withdrawal and the
FDA's move to ban ephedra have brought a lot of media attention
to the growing area of drug litigation.
On April 12, 2004 the FDA published a rule banning health
supplements that contain ephedra alkaloids. The FDA concluded
that the limited short term weight loss effects were outweighed
by possible heart problems and stroke risks. The market gap
caused by the banning of ephedra has been filled by many new
companies that are marketing products similar to ephedra.
However, these “ephedra alternatives” may not
be any safer than the banned ephedra that they replace.
The FDA's ephedra ban, and Merck's Vioxx withdrawal have
been hot news topics. These drug recalls and ephedra banning
have brought lawsuits from many different angles. Obviously,
some people think that some of the lawsuits will be frivolous.
In fact, there has been a lot of news during the last decade
about “frivolous lawsuits” brought by injured
consumers against large companies for defective products.
However, according to one report from Public Citizen (http://www.citizen.org/congress/civjus/tort/myths/articles.cfm?ID=12369),
businesses file many more times the amount of lawsuits than
consumers do and are more likely to be sanctioned by a court
for bringing a frivolous claim.
State governments have enacted tort reform which has capped
potential damages for certain types of claims in some states.
George W. Bush's state of Texas implemented tort reform in
2003 to cap medical malpractice liability. George W. Bush
has continued to push for tort reform nationwide since he
took office.
The real question is, if businesses are the ones who are generally
taking too much of our courts' time- why has there been such
a push for individual tort reform? Is it possible that injured
individuals are not a group of organized people with continuous
business interests that actively lobby for tort reform? While
frivolous lawsuits are a concern for everyone, shouldn't tort
reform really focus on the parties who are bringing most of
them?
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articles and personal injury resources. This article may not
be altered and links should be kept live. Thanks.
About the Author
Richard Martin is a contributing writer at LegalClips.com.
LegalClips.com has Personal Injuryarticles. LegalClips.com
is a collection of lawyer articles and other resources.
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