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Area Lawsuit Filings Fall 20% Since ’91 : Litigation: The drop contradicts the widespread view that courts are overwhelmed by cases and parallels a similar decline across the state.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

The number of new lawsuits filed in Ventura County has dropped steadily over the past four years--a decline some court officials link to a new system of handling civil cases that may be discouraging lawyers from going to court unless they have a solid case.

The drop in lawsuits--contradicting a widespread view that the courts are overwhelmed by a litigation explosion--parallels a similar decline across the state.

From 1991 to last year, according to statistics reported to the state Judicial Council, lawsuits for personal injury and general complaints filed in Ventura County fell 20%--from 4,466 to 3,547.

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The decline in the number of lawsuits--from personal injury cases to medical malpractice-- continued through the first five months of 1994, local court officials said.

Statewide, lawsuits for general complaints and personal injury have fallen 10% since 1991, state figures show.

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Court officials, who have complained in the past that the system is flooded with cases, credited the downturn to a new state program aimed at speeding up the time it takes to resolve lawsuits.

The program, called fast track, has forced many lawyers to think twice before filing lawsuits, said Melinda A. Johnson, the Ventura County Superior Court presiding judge.

“It’s given you a whole different way of looking at civil litigation,” Johnson said.

Lawyers said they hope to use the information about the drop in lawsuits to convince the public that the liability system is working well and only needs minor repairs.

“It’s frustrating to sit back and see the civil-justice system getting hammered with untruths. There’s not a litigation explosion,” declared John H. Howard, a past president of the county Trial Lawyers Assn. and winner of the largest local jury award ever.

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But Michael Carpenter, spokesman for the Assn. of California Tort Reform, which was unsuccessful in an attempt earlier this year to place a reform initiative on the ballot, disagreed.

“Focusing on the number of lawsuits is simply an effort to deflect attention from the need of civil-liability reform,” Carpenter said.

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Attorney Howard and others say lawsuits in the county are down because lawyers are accepting fewer marginal cases. They also say the threat of lawsuits has led manufacturers to produce better products, reducing the need for a lot of lawsuits.

The court officials, however, attribute the decrease to a much more obvious factor: the fast-track program.

Fast track was created nearly four years ago and requires court officials to handle most lawsuits--90% of them--within a year.

Only the most complex cases, those involving tough legal issues or multiple litigants, are exempt from the fast-track system. And even those have to be handled within two years.

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Before, many lawsuits languished in the system for up to five years.

Now, many lawyers are refusing to file lawsuits unless they are sure their evidence will come together in time to go to trial within a year.

“You have people who know from the minute they file that they have one year to get that done,” Judge Johnson said. “And they know the court is going to push them like crazy to get it done.”

Johnson said before the program was implemented in June two years ago, “We had a bunch of (lawyers) who came, wanting to file things to get in before fast track.”

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Johnson speculated that as a result of fast track some lawyers are possibly “weeding out marginal cases,” resulting in the decline in filings. She also said it would not surprise her if the number of lawsuits increases to its original level in the next year or so, now that lawyers are more accustomed to the new system.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see them start inching back up,” Johnson said.

Proponents of liability system reform say any reduction in lawsuits is not significant.

“The important issue is . . . the cost to Californians of (the) civil-litigation system,” added Carpenter, whose group represents manufacturers and the insurance industry, among others. “Except for the lawyers and the civil-litigation industry, no one believes not enough lawsuits are being filed.”

Carpenter’s group contends the economic toll of lawsuit abuse is staggering and that unwarranted litigation is driving up the cost of goods, services and insurance premiums for consumers.

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In 1992, he said, California lawyers filed one lawsuit for every 37 residents of the state. That, he argued, stifled the development of new products such as AIDS vaccines, destroyed jobs and opportunity, reduced competitiveness and harmed the state’s economic climate.

Robert Gore, spokesman for the Assn. of California Insurance Companies, another reform-minded group, also said any decline in lawsuits so far has been insignificant. He, too, said what is important is the total cost of those lawsuits.

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Gore also said every 100 claims of bodily injury in California result in 56 lawsuits, contrasted with 11 suits for the same number of claims in New York, which has no-fault insurance.

No-fault refers to an auto insurance system under which one’s own insurance company reimburses for the cost of treating injuries and other losses, regardless of who is at blame in an accident.

Trial lawyers have opposed no-fault, saying the current system works fine for plaintiffs.

In an interview, attorney Howard argued that no-fault insurance would make big business less accountable to customers.

And he said other reforms would lessen the average resident’s chance at justice during disputes--especially one that would cap contingency fees at 25% of the first $100,000 in an award, 15% for the next $100,000 and 10% of any amount beyond $200,000.

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As an example, Howard referred to a case he handled that stemmed from an event at the Oxnard Target Store in 1984.

He represented four former auto mechanics who claimed they were falsely accused of theft and wrongfully terminated by the store chain.

Witnesses testified during the eight-week trial that the Target employees were dismissed by a company detective whose quota was to apprehend one thieving worker every 18 hours. A Ventura County jury in 1990 awarded the plaintiffs $5 million.

Howard said he would not have accepted the case if there were limitations on the contingency fees he could charge.

“I had to work nine years on the case. I had to risk over $100,000 of my own money,” he said. “And, if the best I could hope to get was 10% of what a jury gives us, I couldn’t take it.”

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