Frivolous lawsuits legislation questioned

A city attorney this week blasted state House efforts to reduce lawsuits filed against doctors and businesses.

Clifford A. Rieders of Williamsport said there’s no evidence the number of court cases involving malpractice issues and consumer products is on the rise.

In fact, the number of such cases actually has decreased in recent years, he claimed.

Rieders sounded off after learning that state Rep. Garth Everett, R-Muncy, is pushing various legislation to prevent what the local lawmaker calls “frivolous lawsuits.”

He said Everett and others are pushing such legislation as a Republican fundraiser.

“The Business Roundtable will give huge amounts of money ahead of election cycle to anyone who talks about frivolous lawsuits,” Rieders said.

Rieders said Everett stands to benefit from such windfalls,as the money usually ends up in lawmakers’ campaign funds.

Everett denied that money is behind his effort.

“I am not doing it on behalf of anybody,” Everett said.

What’s more, Everett said he never has heard of the Business Roundtable.

He said tort reform was one of the reasons he decided to run for office last year.

Rieders said there is a misperception that frivolous lawsuits are clogging the court system, but it remains a “hot button” issue sure to garner attention from many people.

Rieders said Everett is the perfect person to speak out against the issue, since he is an “untouchable,” a Republican from a legislative district that never elects a Democrat.

The number of medical malpractice cases in the state has dropped substantially since 2002, he said.

One reason is because reforms were made while Rieders served as President of the state Trial Lawyers Association.

“I personally signed a letter in 2001 to demand action against frivolous lawsuits. It’s one reason they have dropped.”

Everett agreed the climate for doctors fearful of being sued in the state has improved somewhat.

He also said that patient safety measures proposed by trial lawyers can certainly be part of that equation.

“We need to reduce the numbers of mistakes made by docs,” Everett said. “We need to make it safer. But they say we do these things and we won’t need other reforms. We’ve seen some reduction in malpractice cases, and would like to improve upon it.”

Rieders scoffed at any notion that business and industry is being hit with more lawsuits over consumer product safety.

“It’s extremely rare to see lawsuits against manufacturers for defective products. In part, because barriers to bring those suits are hard. But products are safer (too).”

Everett said he certainly is not trying to prevent people from using the court system to seek legal redress.

“When people are really harmed, they should get compensated,” he said.

Among the measures he hopes to see passed is the Fair Share Act, which establishes that defendants found negligent for an injury be responsible only for their share of the total damages awarded to plaintiffs.

The real harm, he said, is frivolous lawsuits take up too much of court time that could otherwise be used to hear more legitimate cases.