In the News

According to a new study released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform, the cost of tort litigation nationwide in 2016 was $429 billion, or 2.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product. That’s about three-quarters the size of the U.S. defense budget and $100 billion more than Americans spent on retail drugs in 2016. A little over half of that lucre went to compensate plaintiffs. The rest got eaten up by lawyers’ fees and insurance and administrative costs.

Attorneys for Chevron on Oct. 24 asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to hold disbarred attorney Steven R. Donziger in contempt for his alleged continued efforts to personally profit off a pollution scam in the South American country of Ecuador. The case spans over 20 years and began with Donziger being hailed as an environmental champion by environmentalists and the news media. More recently, the legal battle morphed into a different image: An alleged crooked attorney willing to do virtually anything to squeeze money out of a corporate oil giant.

Across the U.S., Americans pay hefty costs for lawsuits, with the price tag stretching from the courthouses to the most basic levels of American life, adding thousands of dollars each year to Americans’ household budget costs, according to a new study of tort litigation costs. The study, released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform, indicates, nationwide, the cost of litigation hit $429 billion, or 2.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product in 2016. And, study report authors said, only about 57 cents of every dollar in those costs actually went to compensate plaintiffs, with the rest going to pay lawyers, insurance and administrative costs.

The state of New York is suing Exxon Mobil Corp. alleging the company misled shareholders by playing down the possible risks of climate-change regulations to its business.

Exorbitant legal fees, seemingly endless bureaucracy and an uncertain time investment mean that the decision to pursue legal action against a company or an individual is often fraught with hesitation. But the founder of a legal-services app says his product now allows users to sue someone with their smartphones and claim awards from class-action lawsuits the same way they’d select a match on Tinder — with a quick “swipe right to sue.”

The staggering cost of civil litigation in Louisiana is one of the leading causes of employment and state and local revenue losses, an analysis produced by the economic and financial analysis firm The Perryman Group states.

The Queens man who The Post revealed could walk without a wheelchair — after he sued Big Apple businesses for millions over their lack of handicapped access — is facing fraud allegations by the companies and has already agreed to drop two cases.

Texas counties that demanded tens of thousands of dollars to provide billing records from outside attorneys representing them in opioid lawsuits have mostly agreed to hand them over for free, after complaints were filed with the Texas Attorney General’s Office alleging the cost estimates were excessive and violated the Texas Public Information Act.

A New York University School of Law program funded by billionaire Michael Bloomberg is placing lawyers in the offices of Democratic state attorneys general and paying them to prosecute energy companies and challenge Trump administration policies on energy and the environment.

Corporate America has long complained that many class action suits are frivolous and an unfair tax on business. Lawyers have a financial incentive to file meritless suits because companies are often willing to settle—even when allegations are false—to save time, money, and public image. Lawmakers in Congress have wrestled with this issue for years without resolution.