Some of the key points found in the book include the following:
1. The U.S. is suffering a litigation crisis?state courts alone are annually processing in excess of 15 million civil cases. Justice is often delayed and results are inconsistent.
2. On average, an injured party has to wait nearly five and one-half years to have their case heard in court?an increased wait of 15 months in just over a decade. A successful plaintiff receives less than 50 cents of every dollar awarded.
3. The direct cost of the U.S. tort system in 2001 was $205 billion, amounting to $721 per person, 2.04 percent of GDP, or a payroll tax of nearly 3 percent. These costs are expected to rise to 2.33 percent of GDP by 2005.
4. Over the past 50 years, the cost of the tort system has grown by an annual average of 9.7 percent, much faster than the overall economic growth or inflation.
6. A recent study by the American Insurance Association estimates that the asbestos quagmire has already cost the economy 60,000 jobs, and nearly 70 companies have been driven to bankruptcy by the asbestos crisis. Significant indirect costs are a threat to the innovation that drives American productivity growth.