Lawsuit Crisis????

In the current issue of the Washington Monthly, Stephanie Mencimer blows the lid off of the insurance industry’s quest for ‘tort reform,’ and how the media played along. Her piece, “False Alarm: How the media helps the insurance industry and the GOP promote the myth of America’s ‘lawsuit crisis’” (10/2004 issue) presents a damning critique of an insurance industry willing to stretch, bend and ignore the truth in their efforts to limit the access of American families to the courts. It offers an equally critical account of a mass media that has helped in this effort by being too accepting of industry’s anti-consumer propaganda, too lazy or unwilling to report the facts, and too reticent to correct its reporting errors.

With the anti-trial lawyer rhetoric on the campaign trail reaching a fever pitch, Mencimer’s article is required reading for anyone seeking to rebut the lies that are being told about trial lawyers, so-called ‘frivolous lawsuits,’ and the fictitious notion of a ‘lawsuit crisis’ in this country.

The article can be found at the following Web link:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.mencimer.html