Businesses need liability reform

As communities struggle to emerge from the ravages of COVID-19 and the consequent devastation wrought by widespread economic shut-downs, one structural policy continues to impede the desperately-needed innovation, investment and risk-taking that Washington state, and the country, need for long-term recovery.

That major impediment is so-called "jackpot justice," the insidious practice of aggrieved parties using the courts to secure, not fair and impartial rulings in a legitimate business dispute, but outlandish jury awards that serve to unfairly enrich lawyers, plaintiffs and competitors alike....