• According to the National Federation of Independent Business in Pennsylvania, six out of every 10 businesses feel they would be able to increase revenues if they were assured they would be protected from frivolous lawsuits.  

o 80% would improve facilities or purchase new equipment

o 76% would increase compensation to employees

o 69% would expand the market for what they offer

o 65% would increase benefits offered to employees

o 63% would hire additional employees

o 56% would develop new products or services.  

• The cost for a business owner to defend a lawsuit can run as much as $100,000. The cost to defend even one lawsuit can force a typical small business owner into bankruptcy. 

• About 27% of small-business owners involved in lawsuits report they either had no coverage or inadequate coverage.  About a third of those reporting legal disputes reported cases taking more than a year to settle, while 16 percent reported cases taking more than two years. 

• Almost half of small business owners/managers have been threatened with an actual lawsuit. 

o 75% say the threats added time and expense to their business operations.

o 60% say the threats made them feel more constrained in making business decisions generally.

o 54% say the threats caused them to make business decisions they would not otherwise have made. 

• More than half of small business owners say they are concerned about lawsuits.  

o Two-thirds make business decisions to avoid lawsuits.

o 61% make their products and services more expensive.

o 45% made a product or service unavailable to customers.  

o 23% say these decisions forced them to cut employee benefits.  

o 11% say these decisions forced them to lay off employees. 

• Given that one-in-four of the suits involve more than one firm, data suggesting that small-business owner fears that they will be sued for something not of their own doing is well founded.  

• Small businesses are often put out of business due to the time and cost involved defending a frivolous lawsuit.  Lawsuit abuse can have a disastrous effect on the cost of doing business and the ability to create jobs.

• Small-business owners who have been involved in a settled case often grumble that they wanted to fight, but their insurer forced them to settle. Of the suits filed against small business in the five years preceding 2002, 57 percent were settled out of court. About half of those who settled felt pushed into settlement by their insurance company.

• Two-thirds of small business owners say they make business decisions to avoid lawsuits, 23 percent say those decisions have forced them to cut employee benefits, and 11 percent say those decisions have forced them to lay off employees.  

• Small business owners often bear the brunt of an out-of-control legal system. Small businesses pay more than $95 billion in legal costs annually. Overall, the U.S. legal system costs more than $260 billion per year, with approximately 50 percent of this cost going toward legal fees. 

• The U.S. tort system cost $254.7 billion in 2008, which translates to $838 per person. Since 1950, growth in tort costs has exceeded GDP growth by an average of about 2 percent. The result is higher prices for goods and services and lower wages and benefits for workers. 

• For consumers, hidden “lawsuit taxes” increase prices across the board from higher insurance rates, to the cost of consumer goods, to inflated health care costs and high malpractice insurance rates.  It also can result in reduced access to critical professional services, fewer jobs and fewer product innovations.

• Taxpayers pay the price for lawsuits filed against our schools and municipalities. In the end, we all pay in the form of higher taxes and reduced services.

• A man slips and falls in an office-complex parking lot and sues every business in the complex for nearly $2 million.

• A sightseer gets hurts at a tourist attraction and then sues the tour-bus company for taking them there.

• A softball player who is denied a scholarship sues her former coach because he taught her the wrong pitching technique.

• A retailer warns a homeowner not to improperly install a water slide and later is sued by a house guest injured by the homeowner‘s negligence.

• A mall patron, distracted while texting, trips into a fountain and threatens legal action. 

• According to a poll released in late March, 54 percent of Pennsylvanians feel the number of lawsuits filed in PA is too high.

• 82% of people polled believe that individuals or businesses should not be required to pay 100 percent of the damages when they are only partly to blame, in lawsuits dealing with injuries or defective products. 

• 76% of people polled support law which says that individuals or businesses should only have to pay for damages proportionate to their level of blame even if it means some plaintiffs will not be able to recover 100 percent of the damages.