Tort Law 2.1% consumed of the US economy.
Many of these billions of dollars are squandered, extorted and stolen from people who have done nothing wrong to make money for highly paid litigation lawyers who keep their jobs even as they bankrupt companies and devastate towns.
Tort law is one of the rare cases where the United States is treated worse than other countries: the United States leads the world in wasteful, unfair, and costly litigation.
Instead of getting better, it's getting worse.
This new invasive species is called “Third Party Litigation Funding” (TPLF), where “investors” target companies and industries and provide them with litigation funds. The investors handpick their targets (rich, weak, unwilling or unable to defend themselves) and then fabricate “crimes.”
What do the investors get? A cut of the revenue. The “victims” lose control of their companies and are at the mercy of the “investors’” financial greed.
And this profitable bad idea is now famous around the world. Many of the people who are investing in suing American industries are not American. They are foreigners. Who are they? Good question.
They have made laws to keep their names and financial interests secret. In an American court, secret witnesses are not allowed against you. You have the right to confront your accusers. But here the leaders are kept secret. Why? Who benefits?
Something is rotten in Denmark (or somewhere else, it's a secret).
Since 2010, the TPLF's activities have exploded in popularity among progressive activists, foreign activists and Wall Street hedge funds, but the reasons for their harassment of American companies are manifold. Estimation Currently, $15.2 billion is invested in commercial litigation activity.
Wealthy financier funnel So do foreign corporations, which donate between $2.3 billion and $5 billion annually to TPLF campaigns. vested Interest in the harvest Trade Secrets From an American company through an anonymous lawsuit. (Related: Liberal nonprofits launch multimillion-dollar campaign to intimidate moms into supporting Biden)
The trial lawyer scam machine will take money from your wallet. The Institute for Law Reform Found Tort law costs Americans $443 billion a year, the equivalent of $3,621 per household. To make matters worse, rather than plaintiffs reaping the benefits of settlements, trial lawyers and TPLF funders are absorbing an estimated 88% of punitive damage awards. The trial lawyers and anonymous funders are accusing the government of “being scammed” by the devastating “Tort Tax.”
State and federal lawmakers have begun to resist the TPLF wave.
In late 2022, 14 state attorneys general The alarm was raised He briefed U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on the impact of the TPLF's overseas activities on the U.S. economy. Montana, Indiana and West Virginia They have enacted strict standards for transparency in the TPLF, including mandatory disclosure requirements and a ban on the collection of trade secrets. Kansas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma Taking into consideration The same goes for laws to regulate the TPLF.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and Senator John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) Introduced “Laws to protect courts from foreign manipulationA bill was passed to ban foreigners from operating anonymously as part of the TPLF. Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, recently said: Hearing It looked at how the TPLF is funded by left-wing activists who seek to undermine the legal system. (Related: Puerto Rico files $1 billion lawsuit against oil industry over climate change impacts)
United States Courthouse (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
Republicans can build on this great work by establishing a federal standard for TPLF disclosure. This is why lawmakers should support TPLF disclosure. Litigation Transparency Act of 2024Introduced Republican Congressman Darrell Issa of California“The bill would require the disclosure of the identities of all TPLF investors who may benefit from the outcome of civil lawsuits. Any agreements regarding their right to receive payments would also need to be submitted to the court,” said David S. Bush, chairman of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet.
For too long, anonymous TPLF investors have starved businesses and scammed hard-working Americans into a “fake dollar.”Tort TaxBy demanding accountability for predatory legal schemes, the Litigation Transparency Act of 2024 would restore balance to the scales of justice.
Grover Norquist is president of the American Tax Reform Institute.
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