Mayor Bloomberg Asks NY State Bar to Support Tort Reform (Good Luck with That, Mr. Mayor)

As doctors and businesses, fearing meritless lawsuits, continue to leave the hellholish environs of New York state, Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City (aka “Sue York”), is urging members of the state bar association to please, please, please support reasonable tort reform measures, according to the New York Law Journal.

In a speech to the New York State Bar Association January 26, Mayor Bloomberg likened civil litigation against his city, in particular, to a “lottery” that costs taxpayers nearly $500 million annually.  He then pleaded with bar association members assembled in Manhattan for their winter meeting: “Help us to make the law fairer to litigants and taxpayers.”

The mayor’s pleas have about the same chance as a Bronx slushball in a judicial hellhole, especially considering that bar association president Stephen Younger suggested after the mayor’s remarks that his members would only support “tort reform when it is supported by data.”    

How much more data do you need Mr. Younger?!  The 2010 U.S. Census shows your state’s shrinking like a withered grape on a forgotten vine.  Your doctors are moving to low-tort Texas in droves.  Educated young people are heading south and west for brighter career futures.  And state lawmakers like Sen. Jim Alesi of Rochester are filing slip-and-falls against their own constituents, for crying out loud!  Wake up and smell the costly lawsuit abuse, Mr. Younger, et al.