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The PA Chamber is uniting with statewide business and medical groups to oppose several House bills that would severely impact legal and health-care costs, job growth and access to quality health care.

The series of bills, which were recently moved out of the House Judiciary Committee, would worsen Pennsylvania's notorious legal climate. Excessive litigation and damage awards already result in higher consumer prices and decreased availability of medical care, and this legislation would only drive up the cost of litigation and the amount of damages that hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, businesses, government entities and individuals have to pay in liability cases.

"This isn't about justice, it's about creating a legal lottery for the trial bar," PA Chamber Vice President Gene Barr said. "The economic implications are no worse than a burdensome new tax. Ultimately consumers and job creators are going to pay the price for this personal injury lawyer wish list."

House Bills 1095 and 2202 would expand the types of damages that can be recovered and the persons who can sue to recover them. Adding such abstract and unquantifiable bases of damages such as "loss of comfort and companionship" and "mental anguish and grief" would open litigation floodgates.

House Bill 1444 would allow a plaintiff's attorney to suggest an amount of damages, both economic and non-economic, in their closing arguments. This unfounded appeal to a jury's emotions could send the cost of litigation and damages through the roof.

House Bill 2123 would prohibit the use of pre-treatment arbitration agreements. Arbitration has been a longstanding tool to provide swift, cost-effective and less formal resolution to some claims. The use of voluntary, binding arbitration, rather than the court system, to resolve medical liability claims is becoming more common as health-care providers seek to control costs.

"The legislature should be focusing on meaningful lawsuit abuse reform and not pandering to the trial lawyers," Barr said.

The concern over the proposed legislation is obvious considering the Commonwealth's already dismal showing in various legal climate studies.

According to the Boardroom Guide to Litigation: An Analysis of the Legal Climates in all 50 States, empirical evidence demonstrates that the legal and business liability reforms enacted over the past 20 years created jobs, lowered consumer costs, reduced insurance costs and increased business investment and innovation.

In its dead last ranking, Pennsylvania has witnessed none of these benefits. Among other factors, the study considered punitive damages, non-economic damages, economic damages, statues of repose, insurance loss ratios, litigation risks and monetary tort losses.

Pennsylvania was singled out for its poor performance, and the extent to which its liability climate hampers job creation and growth was specifically noted.

The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform's most recent Lawsuit Climate: Ranking the States study, in which Pennsylvania was ranked 36th, highlighted the best and worst liability climates in the country. And the Pacific Research Institute's U.S. Tort Liability Index: 2008 Report ranked Pennsylvania 45th due to the state's relatively high monetary tort losses and/or high litigation risks.

Given these grave conditions, a still-rising unemployment rate and the potential for costly and burdensome health-care mandates at the federal level, the business and health-care communities urge lawmakers to abandon these wasteful measures and dedicate themselves to applying fairness, common sense and personal responsibility to the Commonwealth's legal system.