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American Tort Reform Association

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This article is part of the Center for Media & Democracy's spotlight on front groups and corporate spin.

American Tort Reform Association is a coalition of medical professional associations and various industry groups -- such as from the chemical, tobacco and drug industries -- promoting changes to U.S legislation to limit corporate and professional liability for damage caused by their products and services. It had revenues of $6.1 million in 2009. It's president in 2009 was Sherman Joyce. In 2009, the firm reported paying almost $1.2 million to the PR firm APCO Worldwide for "consulting," $544,000 to the corporate law firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon for "lobbying," and a total of $1.17 million for lobbying, although the organization claims. Sherman Joyce's compensation and benefits package totaled over $405,000 in 2009.[1]

Contents

History and formation

Philip Morris hired APCO Worldwide to manage a massive national effort aimed at altering the American judicial system to be more hostile towards product liability suits ("Tort Reform"). Tort reform was an internal corporate program of Philip Morris, who led other companies into the plan. According to a 1995 Philip Morris Tort Reform Budget, the industry paid APCO Associates almost $1 million in 1995 to implement behind-the-scenes tort reform efforts. APCO's job was to create chapters of "grassroots" citizens' groups called Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALAs). The budget shows the tobacco industry alone budgeted $21.8 million to fund the tort reform effort in the single year of 1995.[2]

Description

ATRA was purportedly co-founded in 1986 by the American Medical Association and the American Council of Engineering Companies as a non-profit organization based on promoting tort & liability reform through public education and legislative action. In particular ATRA lobbies for limits on class actions, abolition of the "rule of joint and several liability", limits on punitive and non-economic damages and "sound science in the courtroom."[3]

On its website ATRA compalins that personal injury lawsuits "are bad for business; they are also bad for society. They compromise access to affordable health care, punish consumers by raising the cost of goods and services, chill innovation, and undermine the notion of personal responsibility. The personal injury lawyers who benefit from the status quo use their fees to perpetuate the cycle of lawsuit abuse. They have reinvested millions of dollars into the political process and in more litigation that acts as a drag on our economy."[3]

Public material published to support these positions include an annual list of "Judicial Hellholes" outlining areas that they find to favor plaintiffs.[4]

ATRA has developed model tort reform laws (The Times 6/12/94).

Members

On its website ATRA does not include a full list of members but provides only a "sample" list of members. These members, as of March 2008, were:

Personnel

Staff

As of March 2008, ATRA staff include[5]:

Contact details

American Tort Reform Association
1101 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036
Phone: 202 682-1163
Fax 202 682-1022
Website: http://www.atra.org/

SourceWatch resources

External resources

References

  1. ↑ American Tort Reform Association/Internal Revenue Service/Guidestar 2009 IRS Form 990, government reporting form, accessed January 25,2012
  2. ↑ Covington & Burling Tort Reform Project Budget, Budget, October 3, 1995, Bates No. 2047648299/8307
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 American Tort Reform Association, "ATRA - At a Glance", accessed March 2008.
  4. ↑ American Tort Reform Foundation, Judicial Hellholes® 2007", 2007. (Pdf)
  5. ↑ "ATRA Staff", accessed March 2008


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