Legislation that lets
torts run wild damages private and public sectors
THOMAS P. Sturm, 19, a graduate of
Sturm contends the board violated the Individuals
with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities
Act, the West Virginia Human Rights Act and a state law that requires the state
"to provide to students a free, public education and to prepare them to be
gainfully employed and to insure that they are not functionally
illiterate."
The suit says the Individual Education Program
negotiated with the school stipulated that educators would take corrective
action if Sturm's grades fell below C-minus. He contends school officials did
not act. As a result, he contends in the suit, he graduated from high school in
2004 reading at only a third-grade level.
Further, Sturm complains, the board failed to act
after he was expelled from the
The suit says the board should have known that
his academic abilities were limited, and that attendance at the career center
"was his only hope of being able to obtain and attain a functional
skill."
This is life in litigious
The educational suit was filed as the state's
trial lawyers mounted an offensive to get radio stations to force the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform to change its ads about tort
reform or stop airing them. The chamber ads cite a study that contends damage
suits cost the nation more than $230 billion in 2005. The chamber seeks changes
in tort law. The West Virginia Trial Lawyers Association complains that the
study is misleading because it includes the operating costs of the insurance
industry itself. That's a fair complaint. Defending the detail would not
strengthen the chamber's case.
But the argument over the factoid does not
destroy the case that American business is making.
The news speaks for itself. The American economy
-- and Americans' job prospects -- unquestionably have been weakened by the
creation of an overly litigious atmosphere that has made many trial lawyers into
multimillionaires. Furthermore, it is obvious that legislatures state and
national, in carving out opportunities for lawyers, have subjected not only the
private sector to expensive abuse, but taxpayer-funded systems as well.
The right to litigate has been expanded to
damaging levels. As a result, activities that are important to society -- like
wealth creation and public education -- have been weakened.