Tort Reform Today

This morning at 10, the Transportation Committee of the City Council will hold a hearing on a number of bills, among which are two that Mayor Bloomberg and his corporation counsel, Michael Cardozo, are pushing for as part of their campaign for tort reform. This campaign could not come at a more crucial time as the city faces a yawning budget gap in the next fiscal year, projected to be in the neighborhood of $6 billion. A report on page one today by our Errol Louis suggests there’s going to be two sides to this story, as the plaintiffs bar seeks to illuminate the mayor’s exaggerations of the nature and impact of the tort law cases he’s been citing. But more generally, tort reform — even modest steps at the City Council level — could save the city tens of millions of dollars a year in perpetuity.