US Tort System Costs $429B, But Plaintiffs Get Just 57 Percent Of That, Report Says

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Publish Date:
October 25, 2018
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Law.com
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Summary

U.S. tort system costs totaled $429 billion in 2016, or 2.3 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, but plaintiffs got just 57 cents on the dollar. That’s according to report released on Wednesday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform at its annual summit in Washington, D.C.

The report, called “Costs and Compensation of the U.S. Tort System,” gave a state-by-state breakdown of costs that also included insurance payouts and legal fees to both defense and plaintiffs attorneys.

The group also released a white paper, prepared by Mayer Brown partner Andrew Pincus in Washington, D.C., on the growth of securities class action filings. Citing the findings of other reports, such as Cornerstone Research and Stanford Law School’s Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, that paper found that shareholders filed lawsuits in 85 percent of mergers and acquisitions worth more than $100 million.

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