New Website to Monitor State Attorneys General

28 June 2006

The American Tort Reform Association today launched a new educational website designed to monitor the litigation agendas of state attorneys general. The site, "AG Agenda Watch" at http://www.agwatch.org, will be regularly updated with information about new litigation and increasingly frequent partnerships between state attorneys general and personal injury lawyers.

"ATRA has raised concerns about the growing bonds between personal injury layers and state attorneys general as they pursue a regulation-through- litigation agenda," explained ATRA President Sherman Joyce.

"We decided that this troublesome trend warranted a watchdog mechanism that could monitor activity in all 50 states," Joyce continued. "So, we've launched our new website to provide our ATRA members, tort reform allies, the media and policymakers with a one-stop source for information on the litigation and policies being driven by state AGs."

The website includes a signup option that allows individual users to receive regular email updates.

Joyce said that since state attorneys general first signed contingency fee agreements with personal injury lawyers to bring state litigation against cigarette makers in the mid-1990s, a similar model has been used to target a variety of "deep pocket" industries and businesses, including the pharmaceutical industry, paint and pigment manufacturers, makers of latex gloves and safety equipment, and electric power producers.

"With the rising annual cost of America's tort system at $260 billion, every man, woman and child already pays a tort tax of $886," Joyce reported. "The regulation-trough-litigation agenda of many state AGs will raise that tax even higher."

The American Tort Reform Association, based in Washington, D.C., is the only national organization dedicated exclusively to tort and liability reform through public education and the enactment of legislation. Its members include nonprofit organizations and small and large companies, as well as trade, business and professional associations at the state and national level.

Source: prnewswire

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