Quotes to Note

"Add malpractice reform. Democrats resisted any true malpractice reform provision, painting themselves as captives of the trial lawyers' lobby. The Congressional Budget Office says efforts to restrain malpractice awards and cut down on 'defensive medicine' could save $54 billion over 10 years. That's enough to make this worth including."

USA Today editorial on Feb. 8, 2010, offering five ideas for getting health care reform back on track.

"Nationally, ObamaCare, the president's health care plan that doesn't ask the trial lawyers to give up a thing, is undergoing a prudent recalibration."

Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass, writing on the outcome of the January 19, 2009, special election in Massachusetts.

"Clearly, there are unscrupulous lawyers who've used the ADA access rules to target small businesses for minor violations -- wheelchair ramps a tad too steep or hand dryers a tad too high -- enriching themselves while driving good people out of business and giving the ADA a bad name."

Sacramento Bee editorial about an ADA lawsuit against the city of Sacramento suggesting the city could have acted earlier to reduce ADA litigation.

"The beauty of arbitration and its fundamental advantage over litigation is the opportunity to choose the dispute resolution procedures and the decision maker (the arbitrator) that you want. Lawyers who are unhappy with the current state of arbitration should advise their clients on how they can structure the arbitration process to better serve their goals and priorities."

Kenneth C. Gibbs and Barbara Reeves Neal, arbitrators and mediators with JAMS, writing in the January 2010 issue of Los Angeles Lawyer magazine.

"The class action system, theoretically a panacea for injustice, has morphed into the very disease it was designed to cure."

Ashley Bollinger of Berkeley, in a letter to the editor in the January 2010 issue of California Lawyer magazine.

"...it is important to keep in mind that a corporate defendant cannot be punished for harassment merely because one of its employees has harassed another employee in the workplace; rather, the focus of the punitive damages inquiry must be on the corporation's institutional responsibility, if any, for that harassment."

California Supreme Court, Roby v. McKesson Corporation -- November 30, 2009.

"I have fewer clients coming to me saying, 'I'm going to go out of business, I'm going bankrupt, I'm going to have to dip into my home equity.'" Plaintiffs "can no longer make these very large demands. All things considered, that's a great improvement."

San Diego attorney David Warren Peters, the CEO and general counsel of Lawyers Against Lawsuit Abuse, on the impact of Senate Bill 1608.

"The problem [with Proposition 65] is that the law allows anybody to bring a lawsuit by finding a listed chemical in a product even if it is present in an amount 1,000 times below the 'no observable effect' level. The defendant can prove the level is meaninglessly low -- but that is extremely expensive to do in court. Defendants end up settling with the plaintiff even when they are not liable, to avoid the expense of litigation."

Lisa Halko, a defense lawyer with Greenberg Traurig in Sacramento, writing in the Los Angeles Times about problems with Proposition 65

"Finally, the bills make no attempt to address the matter of greedy lawyers forcing doctors to practice expensive 'defensive medicine' for fear of being sued to kingdom come."

Editorial, "American Health Care: What a Waste; Barack Obama's Reforms Should Avoid Squandering a Rare Opportunity, But Probably Won't," in The Economist

"... this bill continues to have a provision that benefits trial lawyers rather than consumers. I remain comfortable sending this bill back for a second time without my signature because of the strong consumer protections ... successfully implemented over the past two years."

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his veto message of Assembly Bill 2, which would have undercut a plan to protect consumers from unfair health coverage cancellations and driven more cases into the courts