Will New Legal Climate Be A Blow To Michigan’s Struggling Economy?
November 10, 2008
Businesses operating in Michigan’s struggling economy may soon face a new threat: A legal climate that will be far more hostile to business investment and far more likely to overturn legal reforms that have protected businesses from frivolous litigation.
Brian Dickerson speculates today in the Detroit Free Press that Diane Hathaway’s upset of Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Clifford Taylor “could put a Democrat in the chief justice’s seat … for the first time in a decade.” At the same time, Ms. Hathaway’s election will give new momentum to proposed court rules that would make it easier for trial lawyers to block rule-of-law judges from hearing their cases.
Michigan’s trial lawyer lobby has been fighting for years to overturn key legal reform measures, and the new court will likely look more favorably on this campaign. Some of the reforms at risk include laws that provide for reasonable limits on tort damages and prevent trial lawyers from charging exorbitant contingency fees.
The trial bar will also renew its push to repeal Michigan’s landmark “FDA defense” law, which protects companies that manufacture drugs that have been approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration from abusive lawsuits. As the Manhattan Institute pointed out in a Trial Lawyers, Inc. update, the biotech/pharmaceutical industry has been one of the few bright spots in Michigan’s dismal economy. Since the “FDA defense” law was adopted, “life-sciences companies have invested $355 million on research and development in Michigan” – supporting 12,000 jobs in the state paying an average of more than $60,000.
With Diane Hathaway taking Clifford Taylor’s seat, Michigan’s trial bar will enjoy more power on the high court than it has had in years. If Trial Lawyers, Inc. keeps gaining ground it may soon be the only industry in Michigan that’s growing.