News Release

November 15, 2004

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New Cato Book Takes on Trial Lawyers

In Shakedown: How Corporations, Government, and Trial Lawyers Abuse the Judicial Process, published this month by the Cato Institute, Robert A. Levy tells how tort law has been exploited to enrich trial lawyers and how antitrust law has been manipulated to prop up market losers.

Since 1930, litigation costs have grown four times faster than the overall economy. Tort cases cost $233 billion in 2002. Over the next 10 years, the total tort "tax" will likely be $3.6 trillion. It is clear that the system is spiraling out of control.

Levy shows why civil justice reform is necessary. He exposes the true nature of the 1998 tobacco settlement, which transformed a competitive industry into a cartel, then protected the cartel by keeping out competition. He dissects the pending $280 billion litigation by the Justice Department -- one more attempt to pick the bottomless pockets of the tobacco industry.

Levy further shows how state and local governments have used similar legal strategies to go after gun and lead paint manufacturers. Now they have fast-food companies and alcohol distributors in their sights. As a result, the cost of insurance and goods and services now includes a "tort premium," which is passed along to the consumer. Tomorrow, it could be included in the price of cars, motorcycles, skis -- you name it.

In the second part of the book, Levy examines the Justice Department's assault on Microsoft. He relates how high-tech companies enlisted government to tilt the playing field. In effect, Microsoft's rivals used antitrust as a crutch, substituting cronyism in the political arena for the rigors of competition. Levy's conclusion is straightforward: Our antitrust laws should be repealed.

Shakedown is a sweeping indictment of abusive lawsuits in the United States and a blueprint for revamping our judicial system. It lays out a program for federal and state governments to overhaul tort and antitrust law without trampling on the traditional tenets of federalism.

About the Author
Robert A. Levy joined the Cato Institute as senior fellow in constitutional studies in 1997 after 25 years as chief executive officer of CDA Investment Technologies, Inc. He is also a director of the Institute for Justice and a member of the board of visitors of the Federalist Society. Levy received his PhD from the American University and his JD from George Mason University. He writes extensively on law and public policy and appears frequently on national radio and television.

Shakedown: How Corporations, Government, and Trial Lawyers Abuse the Judicial Process
by Robert A. Levy

Retail price: $22.95 cloth, 335 pages
ISBN: 1-930865-61-9
Publication date: November 10, 2004

Since 1992 the Cato Institute's books have been distributed to the trade by the National Book Network (www.nbnbooks.com).