New York City is drowning in ridiculous, pricey lawsuits

New York City is drowning in ridiculous, pricey lawsuits
"New York City is being tort-ured.
The Big Apple is drowning in so many frivolous lawsuits — over everything from food packaging and advertising to the design of retail websites — that the city’s court system has become one of the nation’s worst places for civil justice, a damning report out Tuesday reveals.
The American Tort Reform Foundation will give New York City the dubious distinction of placing No. 3 on its annual list of “Judicial Hellholes” where plaintiffs lawyers run amok with the help of accommodating judges and do-nothing lawmakers.
...The report also cites a Post expose on Arik Matatov, who tried to shake down 50 Manhattan businesses because they didn’t have wheelchair ramps — even though he can walk on his own two feet.
Rulings last year by two federal judges, who mandated that all online retailers make their sites compatible with screen-reading software for the visually impaired, “opened the floodgates” for “cut-and-paste lawsuits against hundreds of stores,” the report says.
...These attorneys are highlighted in the new “Judicial Hellholes” report from the American Tort Reform Foundation:

• Jeffrey Gottlieb & Associates, Manhattan: Filed at least 26 suits in less than two months over websites without screen-reading software for the visually impaired
• Lee Litigation Group, Manhattan: Filed suits “by the dozen” over partially empty food packages, including boxes of Junior Mints
• Joseph Mizrahi, Brooklyn: Filed more than 500 website suits in Manhattan and Brooklyn federal courts in 2018 alone
• Weitz & Luxenburg, Manhattan: Crooked ex-Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s former firm has handled 52 percent of all asbestos cases in New York City this year, up from 47 percent last year
• McSweeney/Langevin, Minneapolis: Was sued after being accused of recruiting women to have their pelvic-mesh implants removed and then filing suit against the device makers

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