Litigation Costs To OC Taxpayers: $20.3 Million in 2005-2006

This came over the transom two days ago from Californians Against Lawsuit Abuse:

CALA RELEASES REPORT ON LITIGATION COSTS TO ORANGE COUNTY TAXPAYERS
Litigation costs could have funded psychiatric care, libraries, first responders

ORANGE COUNTY – In the past two years, taxpayers in Orange County have spent more than $20 million on lawsuit settlements and awards and outside counsel in a bonanza for personal injury lawyers who seem to be increasingly viewing taxpayers as their next big meal ticket. The result is fewer dollars for needs like first responders, law enforcement, parks and libraries. The findings were issued today in a report by California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.

“When local governments are the subject of frivolous lawsuits, it is the taxpayers who pay,” said Maryann Maloney, executive director of Orange County Citizens Against Lawsuits Abuse.

“The tax that Orange County citizens are paying to fund litigation against county is enormous,” said Maloney. “These funds could be going to much more important things, such as sheriffs and emergency personnel. Instead, personal injury lawyers are lining their pockets with our money.”

According to recent budget documents, the amount spent on litigation costs for Orange County could have funded:

• Approximately 33 acute psychiatric beds at an average annual cost of $250,000 per bed, moving patients in need of assessment and treatment out of Orange County emergency rooms and into psychiatric care;

• More than two-and-a-half times the cost to the county to construct the brand new Wheeler Branch Library; or

• 196 Emergency Management employees who lead, promote, facilitate and support Orange County and operational area efforts to mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters, at an average cost of $61,075 per employee in 2006.

The information compiled in the report came from public information requests of the localities.
“Citizens of Orange County deserve to know where their tax dollars are going,” said Maloney. “That’s why OC CALA is calling for greater disclosure, more public oversight and adoption of aggressive risk management procedures to protect our local government coffers from the greedy hands of personal injury lawyers.”

The complete report is pasted in below.   It is twelve pages.  Please scroll through to get to each page.

According to the report, the costs to Orange County were as follows:

FY 2005
Verdict & Settlements    Outside Counsel    TOTAL

$3.8 million                   $4.5 million           $8.3 million

FY 2006
Verdict & Settlements    Outside Counsel    TOTAL

$8.7 million                   $3.3 million            $12.0 million

FY 2005-2006 TOTAL: $20.3 million.

You can read the entire report here.

 

Comments

[Carona's contribution]

I wonder how much of that total can be atributed to Sheriff Carona and his antics?
He's probably the single greatest liability to the taxpayers of Orange County. We know for sure we can rightfully count on a multi-million dollar settlement for the lawsuit brought forth by Lt. Bill Hunt for wrongful termination.

[Bladerunner]

This can best be described as Maloney's Phony- baloney. The report acknowledges "there are legitimate claims against city and county governments," and yet lumps all lawsuits against city and county governments together when tabbing the costs. And takes some wacky claims as examples without establishing either 1) they ever were even filed as a suit to factor in any defense costs and b) whether the city or counties ever paid any money on the frivilous claims.

This is typical of interest groups who start with a premise and then doctor the facts to try and grab some blog space. Calling this misleading is being charitable.

A reminder for those out there who think city and county governments are sitting ducks(and a fact this phony-baloney report doesn't mention): California has a law that allows public entities to go after people who file frivilous suits. The law allows governments who win a dismissal on the merits to file a request for costs AND attorneys fees if the case was not meritorious. If there are frivilous suits out there, Maloney's group should be encouraging citizens to ask their elected officials why they are not aggressively pursuing this remedy against frivilous litigants. And maybe asking about the legitimate claims and what the government entity can do to reduce legal costs.

Excellent retort Blade Runner.
Paul