C-SPAN has the speech here. From Blog of Legal Times coverage:
Giuliani said at the Chamber’s Legal Reform Summit that almost every year he was mayor, the city’s tort bill for hospitals was $300 million because of all the malpractice lawsuits. “I would have to say without even worrying about being contradicted that half of that and more was just absolutely phony claims because we have a tort system in new York that is completely unfair, completely biased,” he said. …
As an example, Giuliani cited the case of a man who was fleeing from the police when he tripped on a pothole and became paralyzed. The man recovered a $70 million dollar settlement, he said. The number was reduced to $4 million–but it still made him the richest man his prison, he said.
4 Comments
He had a “settlement” of $70 million that got “reduced” to $4 million. How does that work?
Did he explain why the tort system is unfair and how he would change it?
Examples of changes from the Tort Division Chief
“enact laws that would reduce the interest rate on unpaid settlements held in escrow; limit the city’s liability in cases when the plaintiff is partially at fault; and expand the ability to bypass juries with cases adjudicated by judges”
Google is your friend
Here is a change I would make: slip and fall claims are no longer valid.
(or at a minimum, when outside, or when running, or when fleeing the police)
[…] Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, speaking at US Chamber of Commerce’s Legal Reform Summit in Washington, notes that frivolous lawsuits divert resources from critical services such as education, police, fire, (and health care). In one case a man was awarded $70 million after tripping in a pothole and becoming paralyzed … while fleeing from police after committing a crime. Giuliani also noted that “”We’re losing a lot of our best doctors to other states who have now passed tort reform.” Additional coverage at Overlawyered.com […]