Group says litigation is out of control in California

California is among the worst states for legal fairness, according to a new ranking of the best and worst state legal systems released recently by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR).

Joining California on the list of worst states for legal fairness are West Virginia, Louisiana, Illinois and Texas, while Mississippi is improving after enacting legal reforms.The study found the five top states for overall legal fairness are, in order, Delaware, Nebraska, Virginia, Iowa and Connecticut.

"This survey is a clear message to the citizens of California that our out-of-control legal system is hurting our state's economy and in urgent need of reform," said David Houston, chairman of Los Angeles Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.

The 2006 State Liability Systems Ranking Study was conducted by Harris Interactive for ILR.

The survey, now in its fifth year, polled more than 1,400 senior attorneys to explore how reasonable and fair the tort liability system is perceived to be by U.S. businesses.

The attorneys were asked to judge several factors, including overall treatment of tort and contract litigation, treatment of class action suits and mass consolidation suits, judges' impartiality and competence, and juries' predictability and fairness.

ILR is launching a national advertising campaign highlighting the results of the study and the need for comprehensive legal reform. The print campaign will feature the message "Please Don't Feed the Trial Lawyers."

ILR's mission is to make America's legal system simpler, fairer, and faster for everyone. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation, representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region.

The ILR ranking survey is available online at www.instituteforlegalreform.org.

Los Angeles Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (LA CALA) is a nonprofit, grassroots public education organization dedicated to educating consumers on the human and financial costs of lawsuit abuse.

For details, call (310) 7958532 or visit the website at LosAngelesCALA@yahoo.com .