XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
XPost: alt.society.liberalism

(The Center Square) — A California poll reveals a bipartisan majority of voters want the Legislature to tackle lawsuit abuses, which they blame
for rising prices.

Protecting American Consumers Together, a national advocacy and
educational organization, surveyed registered California voters in May.
The poll found that a majority of the voters are experiencing an
increase in their cost of living and believe lawsuit abuse is a key
factor. Additionally, voters do not feel the Legislature is doing enough
to help lower their cost of living. They say they want the state to
regulate personal injury attorneys to combat lawsuit abuse.

“I think the most important part about the poll is it shows people
realize lawsuit abuse is costing their family money and people want
something to be done about it, specifically, more regulations,” Lauren
Zelt, executive director of Protecting American Consumers Together, told
The Center Square Thursday.

Of the California voters surveyed, 90% reported their cost of living has
gone up. Within that group, 67% said it had gone up a lot, and 23% said
it had gone up a little.

In the poll, 92% of California voters reported that their state
legislators did a “poor” or “only fair” job at holding down the cost of living for California families. Of the voters, 87% of the Democratic
voters and 97% of the Republican voters reported their state legislators
did a “poor” or “only fair” job, according to the survey memo.

The survey also discovered that 72% of California voters believe lawsuit
abuse is a key factor in the rising prices for California families, with
38% claiming to strongly agree with that belief and 34% saying they
somewhat agree.

California voters are not wrong to believe lawsuit abuse is correlated
to rising prices, Zelt said That is because the cost of products goes
up when the number of lawsuits filed against a city and or company
increase.

“California families pay a hidden tax,” Zelt said. “And it can be on everything from prescription medications, home insurance, health
insurance, auto insurance, even something like soap and detergent. The
cost of these things are more expensive because of the liability cost
that many companies and cities and localities have to pay for frivolous lawsuits.”

Zelt also said Protecting American Consumers Together released a study
from the Perryman Group in April that revealed lawsuit abuse costs the
average California family $8,306 per year. Zelt added California
families spend the highest amount on lawsuit abuse in the nation.

The study from the Perryman Group further found that "lawsuit abuse
inflates essential costs by an additional $3,876 per California
household." For instance, according to the Perryman Group study, lawsuit
abuse caused the cost of health insurance to increase by 3.163% and auto insurance by 2.91%.

A majority of California voters surveyed said they support legislation
that would reform the cost of lawsuits, settlements and related legal
fees, with 47% strongly supporting reform and 28% somewhat supporting
it. Furthermore, 86% of voters reported their state legislator should
vote to stop lawsuit abuse and eliminate the hidden tax on California
families, rather than protect personal injury lawyers. According to the
survey, even a majority of voters who had used a personal injury lawyer reported to be in favor of the state regulating them.

Zelt said regulating personal injury lawyers is one way to tackle the
lawsuit abuse problem in California because oftentimes those lawyers
harm their clients so they can gain profit from the case.

“What often happens when a person hires a personal injury attorney is
that they are left more injured and more in debt than they were when
they first started the process,” Zelt said. “An attorney might tell
someone they will only take a part of their settlement, but by the time
they pay back the loans associated with the lawsuit and the medical
bills and the attorney fees, people are often left in debt and often
having experienced unnecessary medical procedures they didn’t need.”

Zelt also said the poll shows California voters are noticing the effect
lawsuit abuse in California is having on them financially and they are
eager to see change be made to the legal system.

“The current system is set up to push profit toward the attorneys
because of the way that these cases are built,” Zelt said. "So right
now, plaintiffs in California and across the country are seeking a
justice system that is far and transparent because they end up owing
more money than they would have if they hadn’t sought the legal system
at all.”

The survey was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies among 1,000
registered voters between May 19 and May 22. The survey has a margin of
error of plus or minus 3.1%.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/poll-shows-california-voters-want-lawsuit-abuse-reform/ar-AA1Irc3F

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)