Legal Climate
By Todd Roberson on 01/22/2013 @ 03:00 PM
Tags: Legislature, Legal Climate, Legal Reform
Our third annual Day at the Capitol will be on Wednesday, March 13th this year! CJAC and the California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse are teaming up again to bring legal reform advocates from across the state to the Capitol.
By Todd Roberson on 11/09/2012 @ 12:00 PM
Tags: Legislature, Legal Climate, Legal Reform
With election day behind us, here is an update on where we stand with ballot measures and state legislative races. While it is important to note that over three million ballots statewide have not yet been processed, many important contests have been decided.
By Todd Roberson on 10/31/2012 @ 01:00 PM
Tags: Courts, Legal Climate
Last week a report on state court caseloads was released by the Court Statistics Project, a joint effort of the Conference of State Court Administrators, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the National Center for State Courts.
By Todd Roberson on 10/01/2012 @ 01:00 PM
Tags: Legislature, Americans with Disabilities Act, Legal Climate
Governor Jerry Brown had until midnight last night to sign or veto all the bills remaining on his desk, and we are happy to report that the results were great for CJAC.
By Todd Roberson on 05/23/2012 @ 05:00 PM
Tags: Legal Climate
Five finalists in this year's Wacky Warning Labels Contest have been selected!
By Todd Roberson on 12/02/2011 @ 10:48 PM
Tags: Legal Climate, Legal reform
There was some interesting news regarding the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) this week as a federal judge in Los Angeles dismissed the Department of Justice's first-ever conviction of a corporation under FCPA due to "flagrant" misconduct and "reckless" disregard to comply with its duties. The defendant was Lindsey Manufacturing, an Azusa, CA-based company that makes emergency electricity towers.
By Todd Roberson on 11/17/2011 @ 10:48 PM
Tags: Americans with Disabilities Act, Frivolous Lawsuits, Legal Climate, Legal Reform
This week the California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) released a new report summarizing the roundtable discussions they held across the state in which they brought together local elected officials, community leaders and business owners to share different perspectives about how excessive litigation is hurting California and what can be done to stop it.
By Todd Roberson on 10/25/2011 @ 11:48 PM
Tags: Legal Climate
Recently Steve Malanga of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal did a fine job of summarizing California's economic downward spiral in this Wall Street Journal column: How California Drives Away Jobs and Business. Not surprisingly he identifies lawsuit abuse as one of the main factors, calling our state's legal environment "a mess". And a letter from David Houston, Co-Chair of California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, ran in today's Wall Street Journal supporting and reinforcing Malanga.
By Todd Roberson on 10/11/2011 @ 11:48 PM
Tags: Legal Climate, Legislature, Plaintiffs' Lawyers
Governor Jerry Brown had until the end of Sunday to sign or veto bills introduced this year in the Legislature, and so we've now come to the end of the first year of the two-year legislative cycle. With a new Democratic Administration at the helm going into 2011, there was great uncertainty over what this Legislature and Governor would do after six years of a Republican Administration.
By Todd Roberson on 09/27/2011 @ 11:48 PM
Tags: Legal Reform, Legal Climate
Last Thursday New York City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo, the top lawyer for the city, highlighted the impact that lawsuit abuse has on local government and called for New York tort laws to be changed "to even the playing field." New York City paid out $561 million in tort and related cases in the 2011 fiscal year.
By Todd Roberson on 09/26/2011 @ 11:48 PM
Tags: Legal Climate
A report was released this month by Development Counsellors International (DCI), an economic development consulting firm, titled "Winning Strategies in Economic Development Marketing", in which DCI surveys corporate executives on their perceptions of state business climates and how economic development organizations can build a favorable image. Not surprisingly, they find that California has some work to do in this regard.
By Todd Roberson on 09/20/2011 @ 11:48 PM
Tags: Legal climate, Legal reform
Recently we blogged about the need for reforming the federal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). We'd like to share an editorial written by The Economist magazine last week that also points out the flaws in the FCPA and how Britain was able to craft a law that works better.
By Todd Roberson on 09/12/2011 @ 11:48 PM
Tags: Legal Climate, Legislature
The California Legislature wrapped up its 2011 session in the very early hours of Saturday morning. Supporters of civil justice reform will be pleased to know that CJAC had a great deal of success this year.
By Kim Stone on 09/01/2011 @ 11:48 PM
Tags: Legal Climate, Legislature, Plaintiffs' Lawyers
Yesterday Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) announced that he would not be moving forward with Assembly Bill 52 this year due to a lack of support in the State Senate. We are extremely pleased that legislators have recognized the major flaws of this proposal.
By Todd Roberson on 08/31/2011 @ 11:55 PM
Tags: Legal Climate, Legal Reform
In 1977, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) was approved by Congress and signed into law to prevent companies from bribing foreign officials to receive new or continuing business from those officials' countries- a noble enough goal. However, over time, the vagueness of the law and a broad interpretation by the U.S. Department of Justice, which enforces FCPA and pursues damages from violators, has made American businesses that operate in other countries vulnerable to charges that go beyond the intent of the original FCPA. For instance, a company can be held liable for the actions of a rogue employee or subsidiary. It also unclear who exactly qualifies as a "foreign official."
By Kim Stone on 08/24/2011 @ 11:48 PM
Tags: Legal Climate, Legal Reform
Our friends with the California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse released a survey yesterday showing that California voters believe lawsuits are hurting our struggling economy, and that voters are more likely to vote for candidates that support legal reform. Some of the highlights of the survey are:
By Todd Roberson on 07/28/2011 @ 11:48 PM
Tags: Legislature, Legal Climate
Check out the column by Jon Entine of George Mason University that ran on the Huffington Post earlier this month that explains how proposals to essentially ban the plastic additive bisphenol A (BPA) are at odds with the science on the issue.
By Todd Roberson on 07/27/2011 @ 11:48 PM
Tags: Legislature, Legal Climate
The Sacramento Bee reported this week that the California Environmental Protection Agency will move forward with the installation of additional automated external defibrillators (AEDs) at its headquarters in Sacramento after an employee suffered cardiac arrest last week and a union grievance was filed.
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