Full story in The Center Square
By Jamie Parsons
A California poll reveals a bipartisan majority of voters want the Legislature to tackle lawsuit abuses, which they blame for rising prices.
Protecting American Consumers Together, a national advocacy and educational organization, surveyed registered California voters in May. The poll found that a majority of the voters are experiencing an increase in their cost of living and believe lawsuit abuse is a key factor. Additionally, voters do not feel the Legislature is doing enough to help lower their cost of living. They say they want the state to regulate personal injury attorneys to combat lawsuit abuse.
“I think the most important part about the poll is it shows people realize lawsuit abuse is costing their family money and people want something to be done about it, specifically, more regulations,” Lauren Zelt, executive director of Protecting American Consumers Together, told The Center Square Thursday.
Of the California voters surveyed, 90% reported their cost of living has gone up. Within that group, 67% said it had gone up a lot, and 23% said it had gone up a little.
In the poll, 92% of California voters reported that their state legislators did a “poor” or “only fair” job at holding down the cost of living for California families. Of the voters, 87% of the Democratic voters and 97% of the Republican voters reported their state legislators did a “poor” or “only fair” job, according to the survey memo.
The survey also discovered that 72% of California voters believe lawsuit abuse is a key factor in the rising prices for California families, with 38% claiming to strongly agree with that belief and 34% saying they somewhat agree.
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Zelt also said Protecting American Consumers Together released a study from the Perryman Group in April that revealed lawsuit abuse costs the average California family $8,306 per year. Zelt added California families spend the highest amount on lawsuit abuse in the nation.
The study from the Perryman Group further found that “lawsuit abuse inflates essential costs by an additional $3,876 per California household.” For instance, according to the Perryman Group study, lawsuit abuse caused the cost of health insurance to increase by 3.163% and auto insurance by 2.91%.
A majority of California voters surveyed said they support legislation that would reform the cost of lawsuits, settlements and related legal fees, with 47% strongly supporting reform and 28% somewhat supporting it. Furthermore, 86% of voters reported their state legislator should vote to stop lawsuit abuse and eliminate the hidden tax on California families, rather than protect personal injury lawyers. According to the survey, even a majority of voters who had used a personal injury lawyer reported to be in favor of the state regulating them.
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“The current system is set up to push profit toward the attorneys because of the way that these cases are built,” Zelt said. “So right now, plaintiffs in California and across the country are seeking a justice system that is far and transparent because they end up owing more money than they would have if they hadn’t sought the legal system at all.”
The survey was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies among 1,000 registered voters between May 19 and May 22. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1%.