Who does the LRC advocate for?

For the past 25 years the LRC has helped protect Washington’s citizens and businesses from more lawsuit abuse. No organization more aggressively fights the trial lawyers’ trade association than the LRC. Here are recent examples of who benefits from the work of the LRC.

Taxpayers

The LRC worked to defeat four bills to expand the state’s wrongful death and survival statutes which would have significantly increased the number of claimants allowed to file claims and increased the monetary damages allowed under the claims.

  • These measures would have increased costs to state taxpayers by nearly $19 million every two years due to the increase in the number of claims filed.

In addition, state and local taxpayers would have incurred an increased cost of $1.25 million or higher per claim.
The LRC worked to defeat six bills to create at State False Claims Act which would have allowed any private citizen to bring a lawsuit on behalf of the government against any government contractor over billing disputes.

  • According to the Office of Financial Management, these measures would have cost state taxpayers over $6 million every biennium.

Employers

The LRC worked to defeat six bills aimed at expanding employer liability.

  • Several measures would have increased liability for workplace bullying, even if the employer was unaware of the bullying. One bill provided unlimited punitive damages in “bullying” cases.
  • Other measures created a new cause of action for wrongful discharge for employees who claim they were subject to retaliation, increased causes of actions for whistleblowers and made it easier to establish and collect damages on a claim of discrimination.

Small Business Owners

The LRC worked to defeat six measures to expand the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) which is commonly used to bring lawsuits against small businesses, such as retailers.

  • These measures increased the damages allowed under the CPA, allowed county prosecutors and city attorneys to bring CPA lawsuits and made changes to provide easy recovery of attorneys’ fees for the Attorney General’s office but not prevailing defendants.

General Business Liability

The LRC worked to defeat two measures that significantly limited the use of protective orders, which are used, among other things, to protect trade secrets. In addition, the LRC defeated a measure to allow for punitive damages in civil litigation.

Construction Industry & Homeowners

The LRC worked to defeat 11 bills aimed at expanding liability for those in the design/build industry.

  • The measures increased liability for new and remodeled homes by adding lengthy warranty requirements, increasing the statute of repose, increasing the statute of limitations, providing attorneys’ fees for construction litigation
  • Liability increases of this magnitude result in higher costs to homebuyers.

Insurance Consumers

The LRC worked to defeat three measures to increase the costs of insurance.

  • These bills would have allowed plaintiffs to recover the amount billed by a healthcare provider rather than the lower amount actually paid by the health insurer. These costs get absorbed by consumers in the form of higher insurance rates.