Illinois Civil Justice League responds to Bush's latest call for lawsuit reform

The Chicago Tribune today reports on President Bush's latest call for lawsuit reform:

"I'm worried about frivolous lawsuits that are running up the cost of health care," the president said on a visit to Caterpillar Inc.'s Peoria headquarters last week, revisiting an issue that has been near the top of his agenda since he entered office. " . . . And when somebody gets sued all the time, they practice more medicine than is necessary and it runs up your cost."

Predictably, the trial lawyers responded quickly:

"Bush is misleading the American public all to make the case for further padding the profits of his insurance industry friends," said Jon Haber, chief executive of the American Association for Justice, formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. "Restricting the rights of victims to hold wrongdoers accountable will do nothing to lower health care costs and in turn, eliminate a key incentive for hospitals and health-care providers to decrease the 100,000 deaths that occur each year from preventable medical errors."

Ed Murnane, president of the Illinois Civil Justice League, put the whole thing in perspective:

"I'm always happy when [the president] says something about [tort reform] because it does focus attention on it," said Ed Murnane, president of the Illinois Civil Justice League, which supports tort-reform efforts. "The more attention he focuses on it the better."

Unfortunately, the Tribune points out the obvious:

But unlike the past six years, Bush's legal agenda is likely to be ignored. Congress is under the control of Democrats, who have generally not supported efforts to scale back the types of lawsuits people can file and how much they can recover. Many find tort reform legislation overly pro-business and against the interests of consumers. In addition, trial lawyers are among the Democrats' biggest financial supporters.

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