National Economic Impact Report 2021

America’s civil justice system has been plagued with lawsuit abuse for years, and we’re all paying the price for it. Our skewed and unfair tort system has encouraged the filing of frivolous lawsuits and awarded excessive damages that are out of touch with reality. Taken together, the U.S. tort system has had a devastating impact on our economy.

In order to showcase exactly how much of an impact lawsuit abuse has on the U.S. economy, Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) commissioned a report highlighting the impacts of tort costs and economic benefits of tort reform from John Dunham & Associates (JDA), which analyzes legal costs across all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and over 500 separate industries. What the report found was shocking.

Key findings of CALA’s 2021 Economic Impact Report include:

• Lawsuit abuse results in $160.1 billion in excessive tort costs. In other words, lawsuit abuse costs every American about $488 in a “tort tax.”
• These excessive costs have been extremely destructive to American businesses and harmful to consumers, wiping out an estimated $435.6 billion in overall economic activity. This is equivalent to 2 percent of the overall U.S. economy.
• Tort costs impact 2,211,450 jobs across the country, with a loss of $143.8 million in wages and a $435.6 billion decrease in the economic pie.
• The federal government lost $29.5 billion in tax revenue thanks to tort costs. State and local governments lost $18.1 billion in tax revenues.

As the report clearly demonstrates, it doesn’t take a lawyer to tell you that lawsuit abuse is a billion-dollar problem that demands the attention of lawmakers – especially right now, when the economy is still reeling from the impact of COVID-19. Through meaningful tort reform, we can return America’s civil justice system to serving the people, and the whole country will reap the benefits of fair courts.

To show your support, make sure you join CALA today. Change is only possible with the help of our dedicated advocates.

Click HERE to view the full report. To view state-specific data, click on your state in the map below: