Study shows $865B/year in U.S. Legal Expenses
Headline News
[##_1L|1156448708.jpg|width="140" height="157" alt=""|_##]The U.S. legal system imposes a cost of $865 billion a year on the U.S. economy, or $9,800 a family, a San Francisco "free-market" think tank reports. The costs associated with civil lawsuits, and the fear of them, is 27 times more than the federal government spends on homeland security; 30 times what the National Institutes of Health dedicates to biomedical research; and 13 times the amount the U.S. education department spends to educate children, the Pacific Research Institute says.
The institute's "Jackpot Justice" study is the first to calculate both the U.S. legal system's direct and indirect costs, study author Lawrence McQuillan says.
Direct costs refer to damage awards, lawyer fees and defense costs -- as well as administrative costs from lawsuits arising after someone breaks a contract or violates a trust resulting in injury to another's person's body, property, reputation, legal rights and the like.
Indirect costs refer to the legal system's impact on research and development spending, the cost of so-called defensive medicine and the related rise in healthcare spending and reduced healthcare access, McQuillan says.
Lost sales of new products "from less innovation" amounts $367.1 billion, the study concluded.
Related listings
-
Ex-Mass. selectman blasts sex-sting charges
Headline News 03/29/2007[##_1L|1109314654.jpg|width="130" height="90" alt=""|_##]Federal officials are "looking to make an example" out of a former Southborough selectman accused in an Internet sex sting, according to the man's lawyer. The US attorney in Providence has take...
-
Hub law firm signs lease at new N.Y. Times tower
Headline News 03/29/2007Boston-based legal firm Goodwin Procter has inked a deal to lease several floors in The New York Times’ new Manhattan high-rise headquarters. The law firm will lease seven floors, totaling 216,000 square feet, in the 52-story Renzo Piano designed bui...
-
Supreme Court rejects tribal appeals
Headline News 03/27/2007[##_1L|1386051430.jpg|width="130" height="98" alt=""|_##]The Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals by American Indians to step into a decade-old lawsuit accusing the government of mismanaging more than $100 billion in oil, gas, timber and other ro...
New York Commercial Litigation Law Firm - Woods Lonergan PLLC
Founded in 1993 by Managing Partner James F. Woods, Woods Lonergan PLLC has built a strong reputation as a resourceful and industrious firm that provides clients with clear, concise, and straightforward answers to their most challenging legal issues. Partner Lawrence R. Lonergan, who joined the firm in 2008, has been a friend and colleague to Mr. Woods for over 40 years and shares the same business philosophy. Woods Lonergan PLLC’s collective experience and expertise enables the firm to expeditiously and effectively analyze the increasing challenges clients face in an evolving business and legal world, in many instances, avoiding unnecessary time and expense to our clients. Our mission is simple: provide cutting-edge expertise and sound advice in select areas of the law for corporate and business clients. We thrive on providing each client with personalized attention, forceful representation, and a collaborative team effort that embraces collective knowledge.