Speaking of tort reform

Business lobbyists and their political allies have created a perception that America’s legal system has run amok. They point the finger at consumer and patient lawsuits, which they imply are concocted by “greedy trial lawyers.” They argue that lawsuits have detrimental effects on society and the economy, and effectively suggest that people should turn the other cheek when their rights are violated. President Bush and Vice President Cheney mimic these erroneous claims and make attacks on the legal system a central part of their campaign stump speeches. “See, everybody is getting sued,” says the President, and the lawsuits are “junk and frivolous.”
But Public Citizen’s examination of public records finds that for the most part it is businesses rather than consumers and their lawyers doing the suing, and that businesses are far more often guilty of filing frivolous pleadings than the trial lawyers they demonize.
· Businesses file about four times as many lawsuits as individuals represented by trial lawyers.
[...]
· Businesses are far more likely than individual tort plaintiffs to be sanctioned for frivolous litigation.
[...]
Oddly enough, Vice President Cheney, who frequently attacks lawyers in his speeches, typifies the hardball litigation stance of corporate America. During Cheney’s five- year tenure as its CEO,the Halliburton corporation filed over 150 lawsuits, seeking money from othercorporations,individ uals, and insurance companies.

Frequent Filers: Corporate Hypocrisy in Accessing the Courts (pdf)
Well, what a surprise.

(Thanks to TJ for the snag.)