What are New Jersey businesses telling us about the tort system in NJ?

This past December the New Jersey Lawsuit Reform Alliance released a study of New Jersey businesses' attitudes about our state's tort system, conducted by the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.  The Commerce and Industry Association of NJ and the NJ State Chamber of Commerce graciously allowed us to survey their membership, and many of the readers of this page may have participated in the survey. 

The results of the survey are available here.  What did you tell us?

According to this study, 89% of NJ businesses agree that lawsuits drive up the cost of doing business and the same percentage agree that these costs also increase the amount of money consumers pay for goods and services. 

About 40% of you have been threatened with a lawsuit in the past five years, and one-third of you have actually been sued.  Fifty-nine percent of the businesses we surveyed do not think that the courts treat defendants and plaintiffs equally and, of those 59%, 93% think that the courts favor the plaintiffs.

Most disconcerting, 25% of the respondents said that they had seriously considered relocating outside of NJ because of the state's civil justice climate.

We all know that there are many reasons that New Jersey is a tough place to do business.  Do we really want to keep lawsuits on that list?