AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION President Alfred P. Carlton, Jr. has branded as "false" a new advertising campaign by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that claims that consumer lawsuits against businesses are overwhelming the courts and raising prices of goods.

Carlton urged the US Chamber to "focus on restoring confidence in American business instead of spending its good money in attacking lawyers."

According to the ABA, the Chamber is airing television advertisements in Alabama, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas and other states "falsely charging" that consumer lawsuits against businesses are clogging the U.S. courts and adding to the cost of products. "Not only do the ads contain imagery that is offensive and demeaning to lawyers, but they are also factually inaccurate," said the ABA. (To view the campaign, visit www.lawsuitabusetax.com.)

Carlton points out that the number of product liability lawsuits by consumers against businesses declined about 20 percent between 1996 and 2000.

"We urge any of your members who may also belong to the local Chamber of Commerce to contact both their local and national Chamber leadership asking for an end to this campaign," said Carlton. "Working in concert, we can make a difference."

Carlton urged bar members to raise the following points in their communications with Chamber leaders:

• The legal profession is the one profession that advocates for people's right to safety, quality and fairness;
• Statistics do not bear out the Chamber's claims of a tort 'crisis'.
• Few Americans who are injured in accidents turn to the liability system for compensation;
• Compensating someone who is injured by a negligent company is not a "tax" on other people;
• Tort cases (excluding small claims matters) make up less than two percent of the total caseload in the state courts;
• The best way to avoid lawsuits is to make safe products.
• The Chamber should be spending its money on supporting strong business ethics and the American businesses that care about their customers and shareholders.

In his letter, Carlton said that the chamber's campaign neglected certain facts and he refuted its claim that there was an "out-of-control and damaging-to-business increase in the number of lawsuits brought by an increasingly litigious public." In fact, Carlton said, a recent study found that in the major area of contracts, "businesses participate at least as often as plaintiffs as they participate as defendants." In addition, in the state courts, 50 percent more contract than tort cases were filed in 2000, and the number of product liability lawsuits by consumers against businesses declined about 20 percent between 1996 and 2000.

"Attacking lawyers has been a popular sport since the time of Shakespeare," Carlton wrote. "But at least Shakespeare spoke knowledgeably, with tongue firmly in cheek. It is ironic that the Chamber's campaign war chest - the unknowing source of which is the American consumer - attacks the one profession that advocates for the consumer's right to safety, quality and fairness, an attack that is not simply uninformed but just plain wrong."

Carlton also contended that the business group's campaign had perhaps another purpose - diverting attention from the corporate accounting scandals of the past few months: "We lawyers believe that the American people are not easily fooled. They and we see the ads for what they really are - a failed effort to divert attention from behavior by more than a few bad-apple businesses that have caused Americans to lose their confidence in our nation's capital markets. Wouldn't it be better if the legal profession and American business worked together to restore such confidence, rather than the Chamber attacking lawyers?"

"We believe that, by engaging in frivolous diversionary tactics and ignoring the real needs of U.S. businesses, the Chamber is failing to strengthen our American business ethic," Carlton concluded. "We call on the Chamber to cease and desist from these diversionary tactics - and instead to turn its considerable resources toward the real needs of its members. We do this in the name of the decent and responsible American businesses the Chamber claims to represent, businesses that care about their customers, their shareholders and their American democracy - and appreciate that our democracy is based upon the rule of law."

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