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Michigan has been at
or near the top among states with weak economies. Now the
Michigan House is digging that hole a little deeper by approving
a proposal that will chase more pharmaceutical and life-science
jobs out of the state.
In other states,
personal injury lawyers troll for customers on daytime
television to assemble high-profit lawsuits against drug
companies. You don't see those ads in Michigan because in 1996,
state leaders reformed liability laws, creating a national
model.
In Michigan, such a
lawsuit requires evidence of actual fraud by drug companies.
This prevents personal injury lawyers from second-guessing the
federal Food & Drug Administration (FDA) over drug approval --
and swooping into our state with dubious lawsuits to make a mint
off the companies that create our jobs.
Yet last week the
Democratic-controlled state House approved a plan to open the
floodgates to such lawsuits. It was an extravagant,
post-election "thank you" to their supporters in the
trial-lawyer bar.
If these laws go into
effect, 10 years of unwarranted lawsuits will be let loose all
at once on the Michigan court system. If the suits had merit,
they could have been filed any time during the past decade. Part
of the 1996 reform protects a citizen's right to sue.
But if the House
rolls back reform, it's "anything goes."
These lawsuits won't
simply be absorbed by deep-pocketed "big business." The cost
will be passed along to the rest of us in the form of higher
prices, lost jobs and missed opportunities as businesses choose
to open elsewhere.
Money that could have
been invested in Michigan's hungry economy will instead become
lottery-sized paychecks to personal injury lawyers, who soak up
more than 50 cents out of every dollar allegedly won "for the
little guy" in these frivolous cases.
Urge your senators to
preserve the common-sense legislation now in place. There is too
much at stake: Around 540 pharmaceutical or life-science
companies operate in Michigan. They employee 31,000 people and
generate sales just under $5 billion--that's money that comes to
our state and stays here.
Pharmaceutical and
life-science businesses that chose to create jobs in Michigan
know they can avoid the harassment by personal injury lawyers
they are subjected to elsewhere. Michigan has led the way on
this issue. Let's hold on to our advantage.
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