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Lansing, MI—June 20, 2006:
Today, the
Manhattan Institute’s Center
for Legal Policy (CLP) released its Trial
Lawyers, Inc. Update: The Move to Reverse Michigan’s Model
Reforms, a new report on the efforts of the plaintiffs’ bar
to repeal Michigan’s unique “FDA defense” law. Following up on
the success of April 2005’s Trial Lawyers, Inc: California and
October 2005’s Trial Lawyers, Inc: Health Care, this brief
report continues the CLP’s scrutiny of America’s rapacious
litigation industry.
In 1996, the Michigan legislature passed an
historic FDA defense law that limited lawsuits against makers of
FDA-approved drugs, with the express purpose of triggering
investment in the state’s life-sciences industries. Now, the
litigation industry—in concert with its allies in the Michigan’s
House of Representatives—is trying to overturn this model tort
reform, putting Michigan’s thriving medical sector in economic
danger.
Did you know?
• Michigan’s unemployment rate hovers at 6.6%,
while the U.S. rate has fallen to 4.7%.
• Since 1999, Michigan has lost nearly 1 in 3
manufacturing jobs—losing 20,000 since March 2005 alone.
• Michigan’s 12,000 pharmaceutical-sector jobs
pay an average yearly wage of $60,000.
• Michigan has attracted $355 million in
life-sciences R&D since the 1996 law’s passage.
• Michigan’s pharmaceutical sector has a $4
billion (direct and indirect) impact on its economy.
Trial Lawyers, Inc. Update: The Move to Reverse
Michigan’s Model Reforms aims to
• Debunk the myth that the trial bar’s aim is to
protect public health and “the little guy"
• Assess the threat to Michigan’s economy posed
by a litigious business climate
• Highlight Michigan’s unique FDA defense law as
a model for nationwide tort reform efforts
Michigan cannot afford the economic damage that
repeal of the FDA defense would inflict. Governor Granholm, who
said in April 2006 that she wanted to ‘explode the growth’ in
Michigan's life sciences, has traveled the world to bring jobs
and investment to Michigan; to preserve them, she must now fight
to maintain Michigan’s tort reforms. Otherwise, Wolverine
Staters may lose even more sorely needed jobs.
For a copy of the report please visit:
www.TrialLawyersInc.com
The Manhattan Institute, a 501(c)(3), is a
think tank whose mission is to develop and disseminate new ideas
that foster greater economic choice and individual
responsibility.
www.manhattan-institute.org
www.AmericanJusticePartnership.org |
