Lawyers are wrecking the Sunflower State

An online survey by the Kansas Chamber of Commerce indicates that "[a] total of 84 percent of respondents said they spend more time now than ever before managing the risks of being sued. That's led 60 percent of them to increase their liability insurance, change operations and pay lawyers -- all in the effort to protect themselves against lawsuits."

It's hard to convey sarcasm in this format, so I'll just say that I think internet surveys have a built-in level of unreliability. Insurance companies routinely gouge people who pay premiums--it's how they make money. And trial lawyers are not out to prey upon small business owners. "Trial lawyer" is not a dirty word on Main Street, the way it is on Wall Street--people hire us when they've suffered some injustice.

The "study" was cosponsored by the American Justice Partnership, a thinktank whose sole purpose appears to be to get rid of the litigation system that is regular Americans' last resort against corporate or government wrongdoing. I wonder if we can afford to lose the system that gave us Brown v. Board of Education, the Enron shareholders' lawsuit, and so much more.