WSJ Editorial Board: The Mass Tort Industry is Looting BSA

It would be understandable if you missed a powerful editorial published by The Wall Street Journal in early March. Whether you were consumed with work, enjoying a vacation or the piece simply was lost in the sea of negativity surrounding the Boy Scouts of America’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, the scathing piece from The Journal’s editorial board is worth revisiting. It got right to the heart of the matter – the role of the nefarious mass tort industry in the proceedings:

“The attempted looting of the Boy Scouts of America is highlighting the need for tort reform in a modern era of social media and lawsuit marketing.”

As The Journal pointed out, BSA saw a 55-fold increase in new claims in less than a year once the mass tort industry became involved. These various groups running massive, coordinated marketing campaigns across nearly every communication medium, including television, radio and digital channels, manufactured floods of traction for cases that are more rooted in marketing than justice.

For those who have not yet read the editorial, we encourage you to visit The Journal and read the entire piece so you can see the full breadth of the tactics employed by the tort industry that is more focused on generating billable hours than in working in good faith to settle legitimate claims.

We stand with The Journal’s editorial board in saying this is an opportunity for the judicial system to stop the tort industry’s underhanded tactics now and deter them in the future.