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78 A.B.A. J. 44 (1992)
Tampering with Evidence - The Liability and Competitiveness Myth

handle is hein.journals/abaj78 and id is 344 raw text is: THE JUSTICE S Y S T E M KENNETH JOST IS A LEGAL JOURNALIST IN WASHINGTON, D.C., AND AN ADJUNCT PROFESSOR AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY LAW CENTER. HE IS A FORMER CHIEF LEGISLATIVE ASSISTANT TO THEN-REP. ALBERT GORE, D-TENN. mericans anxious about the United States' precarious position in the world economy were given a new but familiar target to blame last summer: the legal system. From the nation's second highest office, Americans were told that unrestrained litigation was exacting a terrible toll on the U.S. economy: costing U.S. consumers up to $300 billion, deterring U.S. manufacturers from product innovation, and hampering their ability to compete with foreign companies. A self-inflicted competitive disadvantage was how Vice President Dan Quayle described it. The message struck a responsive chord in people naturally distrustful of lawyers and accustomed to hearing of daffy lawsuits and extravagant jury awards and settlements. It also provided new impetus for a bill being pushed in Congress by a business and insurance industry coalition to change the rules for trying damage suits involving product-related injuries. That message is fundamentally false-the product of dubious anec- dotes, questionable research, concocted statistics, factual and legal misstate- ments, and willful disregard of contradictory evidence. ILLUSTRATION BY DAVE CUTLER

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