Americans depend on our civil courts to keep the economy on a fair and firm foundation, but a decades-long campaign to limit access and tamp down awards to injured parties has left courts with diminished power. In an era of rising economic insecurity and inequality that has left many individuals and communities struggling to overcome disadvantages beyond their control, we need legislators and policymakers at all levels of government to take action to promote greater access to justice.

Laurie Ristino's June 21, 2018, testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business on regulation and agriculture, June 21, 2018.

September 26, 2018, New Report Highlights Importance of Civil Courts in Securing a Fair, Inclusive Economy for All Americans.

Comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau re its proposal to limit the use of forced arbitration from Martha McCluskey, Thomas McGarity, Sidney Shapiro, James Goodwin, and Mollie Rosenzweig, August 22, 2016. 

Comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at Stakeholder Meetings on Chemical Risk Evaluation and Prioritization Rulemakings by Katie Tracy

Thomas McGarity, Sidney Shapiro, Rena Steinzor's June 8, 2017 letter to Congress re HR 1215 and medical malpractice torts.

In recent years, efforts to rein in excesses of corporations have run head-long into an assault on individuals' right to bring suit against manufacturers whose products or activities cause them harm. This push for what its backers call “tort reform,” has been driven by a seemingly endless stream of thinly fact-checked anecdotes about frivolous lawsuits and by a brazen effort to blame the rising costs of health care on malpractice lawsuits. CPR’s Member Scholars have conducted extensive research on the implications of "tort reform," and in a series of reports have debunked most of industry’s claims about the need for such measures.

The danger in defective medical devices, op-ed by Thomas McGarity

The Truth about Torts: Using Agency Preemption to Undercut Consumer Health and Safety, by William Funk, Sidney Shapiro, David Vladeck and Karen Sokol, White Paper 704

Beware Dangers of Roof Crush Rule, op-ed by Nina Mendelson, William Funk, and Sidney Shapiro

Safeguard lawsuits that potentially save lives

Talk till cows come home, but beef safety takes action, op-ed by Thomas McGarity

Letter to Ann Veneman re Mad Cow Disease

New Study Reveals Gaping Holes in Mad Cow 'Firewall'

Editorial Memorandum on FDA and Preemption of State Tort Laws: Wyeth vs. Levine, by Thomas McGarity

The Truth about Torts: Lawyers, Guns, and Money, by Thomas O. McGarity, Douglas A. Kysar, and Karen Sokol, White Paper 603, July 2006.

MTBE and the Need for Effective Tort Law, by Thomas McGarity, White Paper 506, March 2005.

A Rare Win for Consumers, op-ed by Thomas McGarity

Flimsy Firewalls: The Continuing Triumph of Efficiency over Safety in Regulating Mad Cow Disease Risks, by Thomas O. McGarity with Frank Ackerman. White Paper 402, July 2004.

The Hidden Lesson of the Vioxx Fiasco: Reviving a Hollow FDA, by Rena Steinzor and Margaret Clune, White Paper 514, October 2005.

Only an Independent Agency Can Safeguard Beef, op-ed by Thomas McGarity

Letter to Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman asking her to "correct the public record with respect to misleading statements contained in USDA’s December 30 press release on Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (mad cow disease) and to ask [her]to take more effective action to protect U.S. consumers from the risk of contracting variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease."

The Truth about Torts: An Insurance Crisis, Not a Lawsuit Crisis, by Thomas O. McGarity, Douglas A. Kysar, and Karen Sokol, White Paper 509, June 2005.

Stealth Tort Reform: How the Bush Administration's Aggressive Use of the Preemption Doctrine Hurts Consumers, by Margaret Giblin. White Paper 403, October 2004.

Overcoming Environmental Data Gaps: Why What EPA Doesn't Know about Toxic Chemicals Can Hurt, by Rena Steinzor, Katherine Baer, and Matt Shudtz, White Paper 510, August 2005.

The Truth about Torts: Regulatory Preemption at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, CPR White Paper 804

The Truth About Torts: Regulatory Preemption at the Federal Railroad Administration, CPR White Paper 910

CPR Member Scholars Rena Steinzor and Sidney Shapiro's letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee re the failure of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to address in a timely fashion engineering failures in certain Toyota models

Plausibility Pleading: Barring the Courthouse Door to Deserving Claimants, CPR White Paper 1005

June 2, 2011,

Letter to OIRA Administrator Cass Sunstein re Chemicals of Concern listings under TSCA

Letter to OMB re EPA's Integrated Risk Information System database, responding to American Chemistry Council letter calling for submission of all current IRIS evaluations to be submitted to the National Academy of Sciences, in an effort to "grind this process to a slow walk."

Rena Steinzor's July 14, 2011, testimony on industry efforts to delay EPA's toxic chemical risk assessments for the Integrated Risk Information System database

Letter to EPA re Integrated Risk Information System database, in response to American Chemistry Council misinterpretation of IRIS-related riders in recent budget legislation

CPR Comments on the American Chemistry Council's Petition to Remove Approval for Polycarbonate Resins in Infant Feeding Bottles and Certain Spill-Proof Cups Due to the Abandonment of these Uses

CPR letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson regarding candidates for scientific advisory committee of Integrated Risk Information System profiles, with particular attention to candidates' conflicts of interest

Letter to EPA Nominating Bisphenol A (BPA) for Fourth Contaminant Candidate List, based on its known adverse health effects

Letter to EPA on "filter failure," resulting from industry efforts to stall IRIS toxicological assessment through non-germane comments

Thomas McGarity's July 31, 2013, testimony before the Senate Environment and Public Works committee about the Chemical Safety Improvement Act's preemption provisions.

No mere patch protects nature, op-ed by Victor Flatt and Catherine Phillips

October 29, 2013,

Comments to the FDA on food safety rules for raw produce on several CPR Member Scholars and staff

Comments from several CPR Members Scholars and staff to the FDA on preventive controls for human food production, November 15, 2013

CPR Comments on FDA Generics Rule, the Food and Drug Administration’s proposal to revise its regulations governing the procedures for changing product labeling to reflect certain types of newly acquired information in order to extend to generic drug manufacturers the same opportunities afforded “brand name” drug manufacturers.

Rena Steinzor's July 16, 2015, testimony before Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittees on Oversight and Environment on the Status of Reforms to EPA's Integrated Risk Information System

Bad Feds, Deadly Meds, op-ed by Rena Steinzor

Joint Letter from broad group of law professors and lawyers re TSCA Reform Bill

Toxic ignorance and the challenge for Congress, op-ed by Noah Sachs and Matthew Shudtz

VW and GM scandals show why regulation matters, op-ed by Rena Steinzor and Rob Verchcik

Delving into GM's Crimes, op-ed by Rena Steinzor and Rob Weissman

CPR's comments on USDA FY 2017 appropriations

Forced Arbitration Clauses Deny Justice to Consumers

Coalition comments to the Environmental Protection Agency on proposed rules to align its regulations for new chemical uses with OSHA rules.

The Truth About Torts: Regulatory Preemption at the Federal Aviation Administration, CPR Paper 1608, by CPR Member Scholars Thomas McGarity, Nina Mendelson, Sidney Shapiro, and CPR Senior Policy Analyst James Goodwin and CPR Policy Analyst Mollie Rosenzweig

November 30, 2016,

EPA Scientists said ban pesticide chlorpyrifos. Scott Pruitt said 'no,' by Carl Cranor

The House Recently Sided with Big Banks Over Consumers, op-ed by Martha McCluskey

Joint letter from safety advocates to the Food Safety Inspection Service on Poultry Slaughter Inspection Rule.

CPR joined dozens of other national consumer organizations calling on House leadership to support the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act (FAIR Act). The bill would prevent companies from forcing aggrieved workers, consumers, servicemembers, nursing home residents, and small businesses into secretive, company-controlled, rigged, private arbitration systems to settle disputes.

CPR's Tom McGarity urges Congress to exercise care in legislating labeling for opioids.

Writing in the Charlotte Observer, CPR's Sidney Shapiro urges the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to do more to combat forced arbitration. May 12, 2016

CPR Perspective: The Trade-off Myth of Livestock Grazing on Public Lands: Protecting Public Lands from Overgrazing, by Joe Feller. CPR's Perspectives Series is a set of monographs by CPR Member Scholars on timely and important health, safety, and environmental topics. Each Perspective provides a thumbnail sketch of the competing arguments concerning a substantive or procedural principle for developing appropriate health, safety and environmental policies, and closes with the Member Scholar-author's proposed approach to the issue.

CPR Perspective: 'Tort Reform: The Role of Litigation in Protecting Against Threats to Health, Safety and the Environment. CPR's Perspectives Series is a set of monographs by CPR Member Scholars on timely and important health, safety, and environmental topics. Each Perspective provides a thumbnail sketch of the competing arguments concerning a substantive or procedural principle for developing appropriate health, safety and environmental policies, and closes with the Member Scholar-author's proposed approach to the issue.

CPR Perspective: Medical Malpractice: Looking Behind the Tort Reformers' Myths, by Doug Kysar. CPR's Perspectives Series is a set of monographs by CPR Member Scholars on timely and important health, safety, and environmental topics. Each Perspective provides a thumbnail sketch of the competing arguments concerning a substantive or procedural principle for developing appropriate health, safety and environmental policies, and closes with the Member Scholar-author's proposed approach to the issue.

Comments from 14 CPR Member Scholars on the Trump administration’s attempt to further hamstring civil enforcement of agency regulations, and calling instead for strengthened enforcement.

Writing for the Regulatory Review, CPR's Wendy Wagner observes that "Meaningful communication is vital to most legal processes. So when sellers withhold key information from customers, such as high service fees on a cell phone contract, or when companies conceal key information about public health or financial risks from regulators, the law is generally swift to sanction them." So, what happens when sellers disclose information, but do it in a way that's incomprehensible to their customers, as in all those online "terms and conditions" we all click through mindlessly? Wagner has a proposal.

Despite 40 years of regulatory effort, chemical regulation in the United States has been a dismal failure, and our current law – the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) – deserves much of the blame for this regulatory dysfunction. When Congress enacted TSCA, the final legislation reflected a deal under which chemicals then on the market were “grandfathered” in, while new chemicals would be subject to a quick review by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). But experience shows that a vast majority of those reviews are based on inadequate data.

In his 2011 book, Legally Poisoned: How the Law Puts Us at Risk from Toxicants, published by Harvard Univesity Press, CPR Member Scholar Carl Cranor offers up a scientifically rigorous legal analysis arguing that just as pharmaceuticals and pesticides cannot be sold without pre-market testing, other chemical products should be subject to the same safety measures. Cranor shows, in terrifying detail, what risks we run, while making clear that it is entirely possible to design a less dangerous commercial world.

Reasonable people disagree about the reach of the federal government, but almost everyone believes the government should protect us from such dangers as bacteria-infested food, harmful drugs, toxic pollution, crumbling bridges, and unsafe toys. And yet, the agencies that shoulder these responsibilities are in shambles; if they continue to decline, lives will be lost, money wasted, and natural resources squandered. In their 2010 book, The People's Agents and the Battle to Protect the Public: Special Interests, Government, and Threats to Health, Safety, and the Environment, Rena Steinzor and Sidney Shapiro take a hard look at the tangled web of problems that have led to the dire state of the American regulatory structure.

Writing on the Center for American Progress website, Tom McGarity observes that seven months into the discovery of Mad Cow disease in a Washington state cattle herd, it's time for the Bush Department of Agriculture to have a comprehensive plan. But the so-called "firewalls" it touts are more about public relations than food safety.

Writing for AL.com, Heather Elliott calls on the Alabama Director of the Bureau of Pardons and Paroles to resume holding parole hearings amidst the coronavirus pandemic, and to do so electronically, in light of the governor's order waiving face-to-face hearing requirements. She notes that an outbreak of coronavirus in a prison setting could lead to many unnecessary deaths.

Writing for Food Safety News, Rena Steinzor describes an effort by corporate heavyweights to scuttle the "responsible corporate officer" doctrine established by the Supreme Court, which seeks to hold to hold executives accountable for harm done by dangerous food or products, if the executives failed to take sufficient care to ensure safety.

Writing for Huffington Post: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reiterated its conclusion that EPA’s regulation of toxic chemicals is in crisis, unable to deliver badly needed protection to the American people. These benighted programs are among a couple of dozen of “high priority” failures that cause serious harm to public health, waste resources, or endanger national security, and Congress is giving the report red carpet treatment, with House and Senate hearings on the report scheduled the very day it was released.

David Driesen, writing in The Hill, discusses the implications of the Supreme Court's decision in the Seila Law case, over President Trump's firing of the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for political reasons. Driesen writes, "Astonishingly, Chief Justice John Roberts’s majority opinion associates the president’s ability to use political firing to instill fear in government employees with the preservation of liberty."

In July 2020, a group of 136 law professors from across the United States, including 31 Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) Member Scholars, wrote to congressional leaders urging them to “ensure that our courthouse doors remain open to all Americans for injuries they suffer from negligence during the COVID-19 pandemic.”