Advocacy groups have long claimed Wisconsin’s overly litigious climate costs state businesses money and keeps others from locating here in the first place. For the past few years, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s largest business lobby, has made reforming the state’s legal system one of its top priorities — proclaiming that excessive litigation “is costing businesses and individuals billions of dollars, and is affecting our international competitiveness.”
Not true, says a new study published by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Law School that aims to “examine some of the persistent myths” about civil litigation. In fact, it says, the number of civil cases in which individuals seek compensation for personal injury and property damage fell 17.4 percent in Wisconsin from 1996-2007.