SOURCE: Wikipedia, captured 2020-08-10
See also:
The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to reforming the civil justice system and advocating for tort reform. It is a nationwide network of state-based liability reform coalitions with 142,000 grassroots supporters. It was founded in 1986 by the American Council of Engineering Companies and was joined shortly thereafter by the American Medical Association.
Tort reform refers to proposed changes in the civil justice system that aim to reduce the ability of victims to bring tort litigation or to reduce damages they can receive.
Tort actions are civil common law claims first created in the English commonwealth system as a non-legislative means for compensating wrongs and harm done by one party to another person, property or other protected interests (e.g. physical injury or reputation, under libel and slander laws). Tort reform advocates focus on personal injury common law rules in particular.
In the United States, tort reform is a contentious political issue. US tort reform advocates propose, among other things, procedural limits on the ability to file claims, and capping the awards of damages. Supporters of the existing tort system, including consumer advocates, argue that reformers have misstated the existence of any real factual issue and criticize tort reform as disguised corporate welfare.
In Commonwealth countries as well as U.S. states including Texas, Georgia, and California, the losing party must pay court costs of the opposing party.
Its membership consists of more than 300 nonprofits, small and large businesses, corporations, municipalities, state and national trade and business associations, and professional firms.
The ATRA supports an agenda to increase public awareness of, and suggest changes in, the manner in which tort litigation is conducted in the United States. Some of these proposed changes would effectively limit the ability of tort plaintiffs to recover against tortfeasors. Examples include:
ATRA is trying to reform the following aspects of the civil legal system: appeal bonds, class action lawsuits, contingent fees, forums and venues, joint and several liability, judgment interest, jury service, medical liability, noneconomic damages, phantom damages, product liability, punitive damages, and teacher liability protection.
ATRA has identified attorney misconduct as a part of the problem with the tort system and displayed a billboard targeting a particular "unethical lawyer."
At the end of every year since 2002, ATRA publishes its annual Judicial Hellholes report, which is a list of locales that ATRA calls the worst courts in the United States. The 2019-2020 report lists the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas as the worst court in the country. Prior to 2020, the No. 1 Judicial Hellhole according to ATRA was the state of California. The other "judicial hellholes" listed in the 2019-2020 report were California; New York City; Louisiana; the City of St. Louis, Missouri; Georgia; Cook, Madison and St. Clair Counties in Illinois; Oklahoma; the Minnesota Supreme Court and the Twin Cities; and, the New Jersey Legislature.
ATRA also awards the Civil Justice Achievement Award annually. Winners include Charlie Ross, Walter Olson, Paul Coverdell, Bill Pryor, and John H. Sullivan.
Return to BuriedTruth.com