A windfall for trial lawyers and bureaucrats

A windfall for trial lawyers and bureaucrats - from Heritage com
After a series of widely-reported incidents regarding potentially unsafe imported products, reports Heritage expert James Gattuso, Congress came “under pressure to ‘do something.’”

So now lawmakers are “pushing through proposals to expand regulation of consumer products.” Unfortunately, in their rush to “do something,” they came up with misguided legislation that Gattuso says “would make matters worse, resulting in a windfall for bureaucrats and lawyers without making products any safer.”

Gattuso suggests that lawmakers turn to private enterprise and individual incentives for a solution. “Far more than bureaucratic rules or litigation, it is consumers themselves who can most effectively punish those who sell defective products. There is a role for regulation, of course. But consumers, acting in the marketplace, provide the strongest, most effective protection possible against unsafe goods.”

Heritage legal expert Andrew Grossman explains in a separate analysis that the pending consumer product safety legislation would prove “a great boon for trial lawyers” by expanding criminal penalties, increasing fines and granting state attorneys general power to sue on behalf of their citizens.