California Watchdog group hosted Small Business Summit to stop lawsuit abuse
By Logan McFadden
California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) hosted a Small Business Summit luncheon at Los Robles Green Golf Course on Friday, August 15, 2014. CALA is a nonpartisan grassroots movement of concerned citizens and businesses who are fighting against lawsuit abuse in California. CALA serves as a watchdog to challenge the abuse of our civil justice system, and engage the public and the media to deliver the message that lawsuit abuse is alive and well in California – and that all Californians are paying the price.
Congressional Candidate and Keynote Speaker Jeff Gorell
The keynote speaker, Assemblyman Jeff Gorell, 44th Assembly District, is a member of the Assembly Judiciary Committee. He spoke of California’s diverse economy which is “over taxed, over legislated, over regulated and over litigated”. For these reasons, companies are leaving California. While California has 12% of the U.S. population, it has 40% of all lawsuits filed for violations of The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Many of these lawsuits are frivolous and initiated by paid informants who intentionally visit local businesses in search of compliance violations. The attorneys who pay these “scouts” threaten to file or actually file a lawsuit. The attorney then extorts money from the business owner to make the threat or lawsuit go away. Every time a business pays thousands of dollars to an attorney to settle an abusive lawsuit, there is less money for that business to spend on expansion and hiring new workers. If the business owner chooses to fight the lawsuit, the case clogs up an already burdened court system. Many of the cited violations can easily be cured without taking the matter to court. Mr. Gorell referred to legislation to allow a business 90 days to remedy an ADA violation which passed the Assembly, but was killed by leadership in the Senate.
Republican Jeff Gorell is vacating his seat in the 44th Assembly District to run for 26th Congressional District against the incumbent Democrat, Julia Brownley, in the November election. Republican Rob McCoy is running to fill the vacancy for the 44th Assembly District. Mr. McCoy attended the Summit to underscore his support for CALA and small business.
CALA’s Executive Director, Tom Scott, spoke to California’s need for legal reform. He noted that an ADA violation and cost of a lawsuit is more likely to shut down a small business than a new tax or new regulation. California has closed 211 court rooms, making it even more vital to eliminate frivolous lawsuits. Mr. Scott supports a 90-120 day grace period to cure an ADA violation. He noted that the Federal government is considering action as the legal climate in California is unacceptable.
CALA works with the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) to support legal reform in the legislature. Overall CALA, CJAC and various coalition partners have helped stem the tide of bad legislation for the 2013-2014 California legislative session. Much remains to be done as California has repeatedly created private rights of action that encourage “vigilante trial lawyers to act as bounty hunters”. Instead of relying upon regulators or inspectors to enforce the law, in many cases California encourages these lawyers to file lawsuits against businesses to enforce regulations and receiving generous payments to do so. One attorney stood up to remind the audience that advocates of legal reform should not “tar” the entire civil litigation system.
CALA supports No on Proposition 46. Under Prop. 46, the ceiling for pain and suffering awards in medical negligence suits, set at $250,000 by the State Legislature in 1975, would be raised to $1.1 million. 97% of contributions to Yes on 46 are from trial lawyers. The No on 46 campaign is supported by the California Teachers Association, the American Civil Liberties Union of California, SEIU of California, the California NAACP and the California School Boards Association. CALA’s positions on other legislation can be found on its website www.CALA.com. The website states that California’s “sue first, ask questions later” environment, consistently ranks California’s legal climate among the worst in the nation. CALA makes an important case for lawsuit abuse holding back our state’s economic growth.
“Our state needs to create jobs, not lawsuits, and reforming our ADA laws to protect small business owners from ‘shakedown lawsuits’ will do just that.” CALA is supported through donations, however, no contribution is necessary to become a CALA supporter.
Logan McFadden is our newest Citizensjournal.us city reporter and a recently retired banker, residing in Camarillo.
____________________________________________
Get free Citizensjournal.us BULLETINS. Please patronize our advertisers to keep us publishing and/or DONATE.
CALA’s website: http://www.sickoflawsuits.org/california/home
No on Prop 46 website: http://www.noon46.com/
