"Silent tort reform" bad news for lawyers

The US federal government is engaged in a campaign of "silent tort reform," according to a report published in the New York Times on March 10. The accusation comes from a coalition of trial lawyers and state government law officers across the USA, who are increasingly frustrated at limits being set on litigation by Washington DC-based federal government agencies, such as the Food and Drug Administration.

The cost of litigation has frequently been cited by US President George W Bush as a major factor in the rising cost of health care premiums. Pharmaceutical companies have welcomed the reforms, because they place more responsibility for any deficiencies in product labeling with the regulator, which will in turn tend to discourage tort litigation. Although the campaign itself has largely been unheralded by the US federal government, President Bush himself made "tort reform" to curb litigation in medical cases a major plank of his re-election campaign in 2004. He said that compensation lawsuits across all business sectors were estimated to cost the US economy $230.0 billion annually.

A typical problem for drug companies has come from situations where some states legislate manufacturer liability more strictly than the federal authorities do. In January, the FDA introduced a new drug-label regime, which pre-empts state laws.