Study Shows “Tort Tax” Is an Insurance Industry Fabrication

“A major new report released…by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) offers more evidence that the insurance industry is intentionally using faulty data to make claims that the tort system leads to increased economic costs. EPI, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, analyzed in detail the alleged cost estimates of the U.S. tort system published by Tillinghast-Towers Perrin (TTP), a consulting firm whose clients include many of the world’s largest insurance companies. The 20-page study by economist Lawrence Chimerine and EPI vice president Ross Eisenbrey, entitled Frivolous Case for Tort Law Change, concludes that TTP’s cost estimates are one-sided, inflate the impact of the tort system and ignore its benefits, and that corroboration supporting their numbers is weak or nonexistent. Earlier this year, Business Week warned in an editorial that TPP’s numbers were ‘a wild exaggeration.’ ‘This authoritative study is just the latest to prove that special interests and the insurance industry are throwing up smokescreens to preserve their rising profits, no matter the cost to doctors and consumers,’ said Todd Smith, president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America….’When a child is injured because Firestone refused to pull defective tires from the market, or a company like Enron decides to cook the books at the expense of shareholders, that’s not harming the economy – that’s the cost of corporate disregard for consumers. Americans would pay a far more devastating price if we didn’t have a strong civil justice system to hold corporations accountable,’ said Smith.” For the complete study, please go to the Economic Policy Institute’s website, “Tillinghast Issues Statement On U.S. Tort Costs.”

The Shigley Law Firm represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide in Georgia, and in other states subject to the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules in each state. Ken Shigley was designated as a “SuperLawyer” in Atlanta Magazine and one of the “Legal Elite” in Georgia Trend Magazine. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, Chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Liability Institute and former chair of the Georgia Insurance Law Institute. He particularly focuses on cases arising from truck wrecks and accidents (tractor trailers truck wrecks, semi truck wrecks,18 wheeler truck wrecks, big rig truck wrecks, log truck wrecks, dump truck wrecks).