As Gas-Can Maker Shuts Doors, ATRA Letter Urges Candidates to Address Litigation’s Toll on Economy

After being sued into bankruptcy by opportunistic personal injury lawyers, an Oklahoma small business shut it doors today, leaving 117 employees without jobs.

A July 23 editorial in the Wall Street Journal laid out the sad but all too common story of Miami, Oklahoma-based gasoline-can maker Blitz USA.  And the International Business Times reports that Blitz was officially to shut its doors today.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal today published two letters to the editor that responded to its earlier editorial.  One LTE from three personal injury lawyers seeks to justify the many lawsuits against Blitz.  The other, from ATRA director of communications Darren McKinney, urges both major parties’ presidential candidates to address the economic toll taken by “incessant and wholly preposterous lawsuits.”

McKinney’s letter concludes:

“Surely those who are genuinely injured by actual negligence or recklessness of another must have access to our courts for fair and prompt recompense. But allowing gas-can makers to be sued out of business because a few people handled gasoline imprudently is to willfully burn down America’s economic house. Our presidential candidates must tell us how they’ll put out the fire.”