The Florida chapter of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) announced this week that, in recognition of the national Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week, their organization will be participating in a blitz of radio appearances as well as engaging supporters statewide in an effort to help the Florida Legislature understand the urgency of lawsuit reform.
“Florida’s economy is on track to outperform the nation in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, but one of the impediments to an unfettered recovery is the threat of frivolous lawsuits that our small businesses and medical professionals must endure every day,” said Florida CALA Executive Director Tom Gaitens. “And consumers are paying the price in rising auto and home insurance price tags and the litigation costs of all businesses that are passed along in higher consumer costs for goods and services of every kind.”
According to data in the cost of litigation report released just this year by Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, savings from reforming Florida’s tort system would bolster Florida’s economy with almost 72,000 more jobs and more than $11 billion in additional economic activity.
“There is no way to fully account for the multi-layer impact of Florida’s litigation activity on real estate, manufacturing, entertainment, healthcare services, and even agriculture. We talk about these industrial sectors in broad terms, but boiling it down to everyday products, we are referring to apartments and rentals, hearing aids, Disney tickets, emergency room visits, and groceries. These are things that disproportionately impact our seniors on fixed incomes trying to pay for a better quality of life and some well-deserved fun times with grandchildren. Residents in Florida are estimated to pay an annual ‘tort tax’ of $251 per person,” Gaitens said.
The CALA studies have also shown that litigation abuse not only affects consumers and the economy overall but has an adverse impact on the justice system for everyone as our courtrooms continue to stall out with docket backlogs.
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