The National Association of Manufacturers’ (NAM) Manufacturers’ Accountability Project (MAP) recently released principles for reform aimed at protecting manufacturers from climate change-related lawsuits.
“Manufacturing workers, taxpayers, and our legal system are all harmed by the ongoing baseless litigation against manufacturers,” NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons said. “Manufacturers want to be part of the solution in ending these frivolous lawsuits and political stunts. These common-sense reform principles—transparency in contingency-fee agreements, preemptive legislation and immediate withdrawal of the lawsuits offer a path forward. We cannot continue to allow trial attorneys and headline-seeking politicians to abuse the nation’s legal system for their own personal gain.”
The reform principles call for public officials to be transparent regarding the terms of arrangements with contingency-fee plaintiffs’ lawyers to whom they have outsourced government legal authority and police power.
They also call for preemption legislation to protect manufacturers from lawsuits that unfairly seek to charge them with liability for global climate change and the immediate withdrawal of all climate change-related lawsuits against manufacturers in America.
“The courts have already ruled against this strain of frivolous litigation, most recently when a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit brought by San Francisco and Oakland,” Timmons said. “Judge William Alsup’s decision, in that case, should be required reading for other jurisdictions contemplating similar lawsuits. This form of jackpot justice isn’t the answer, and it diverts time and resources that could be better spent working towards real solutions, as manufacturers do every day.”