Litigation Rate

* Barry Keene complains in a letter to you (Jan. 7) about the “unwarranted litigation” and an “out-of-control civil liability system.” Keene is dealing with lawyer-bashing rhetoric, not with facts. The fact is, California is not a particularly litigious state.

First, in a Jan. 17 report examining the rate of lawsuits and other related issues, Forbes magazine concluded: “Three states with bad reputations for litigiousness--New York, California and Texas--ranked surprisingly low: New York in 8th place, California in 13th and Texas in 18th.”

Second, on Jan. 20 the Commission on the Future of the California Courts issued the results of a two-year study. This is what the report, “Justice in the Balance 2020,” concluded about civil justice today: “It is generally known that California’s courts have seen a massive increase in civil litigation in the last 30 years; what is not as well known is that the growth in civil dockets has closely tracked that of the population. On a per-capita basis Californians are only marginally more litigious today than they were in 1960. Indeed, Californians enjoy a civil dispute filing rate of ‘only’ 6,000 cases per 100,000 residents, well below the national median.”

DOUGLAS K. deVRIES, President

California Trial Lawyers Assn.

Sacramento