SACRAMENTO - The Civil Justice Association of California announced today it is sponsoring a bill (SB 109 - Ackerman) to stop abusive lawsuits being brought under the state's Unfair Competition Law. The bill would prevent private lawyers from suing defendants repeatedly over the same issue, a wasteful, punitive practice that is permitted in no other state or area of law.

"This is not the kind of legal terror that should be visited on any defendant, especially on business defendants who right now have enough to worry about in California," said CJAC president John H. Sullivan.

Senate Bill 109 would provide finality in judgments so that defendants could not be sued more than once for the same conduct. It deals with only one of several ways the law is being misused to increase settlement leverage in suits against a wide range of defendants.

The state's Law Revision Commission, in a 1995 study, identified the repetitive lawsuit problem addressed by SB 109. The study observed that although the same plaintiff may be prevented from "relitigating the same matter... other plaintiffs may file identical causes of action, even claiming the same injury by the same defendants to the same members of the general public over the same time period."

Legislation to correct this problem was first introduced in 1997 by then-Senator Quentin Kopp and sponsored by the Law Revision Commission, but was defeated by personal injury lawyers. In 1998 the same fate was encountered by a similar CJAC-sponsored measure (AB 2511) carried by then-Assemblyman and now Senator Bill Morrow.

The Unfair Competition Law (Business and Professions Code Section 17200) has been on the books for years, protecting consumers and businesses from companies that try to win a commercial edge by breaking sales and advertising laws. It has been effectively used by district attorneys - a practice the Civil Justice Association does not want to curtail.

The Civil Justice Association of California is a coalition of citizens, taxpayers, businesses, local governments, professionals, manufacturers, financial institutions, insurers, and medical organizations. It is active in the Legislature and the courts, working to reduce excessive and unwarranted litigation and restore balance to the civil justice system.