NC Chamber’s Position: The North Carolina Chamber will work to identify opportunities to improve our state’s legal climate. Our legal system must be fair and balanced for all parties and should not encourage unnecessary litigation that adds costs and prevents employers from creating jobs.
A state’s legal climate can be a major inducement or a major deterrent to business investment, growth and job creation. It is one factor among several key ones that businesses consider when making decisions about where to expand existing operations or locate new facilities. Specifically companies are looking for fairness and predictability.
Our legal climate and litigation costs also impact competitiveness – nationally and internationally. North Carolina businesses face growing competition against international competitors that have much lower litigation costs. This is a disadvantage for our businesses in a fiercely competitive global economy.
For North Carolina businesses to invest and create jobs, North Carolina’s civil justice system must be rational, fair and predictable. Employers must be free to innovate and pursue market opportunities without fear of unreasonable exposure to costly lawsuits, while truly injured parties must have full recourse to appropriate measures of justice.
2012 Legislative Victories:
BILL SUMMARY | PRO-BIZ OR NO-BIZ | OUTCOME |
Improved State’s Legal Climate (H542)
With a broad coalition of pro-jobs allies, pushed balanced changes to NC’s civil liability system to provide predictability and promote job creation by encouraging settlements and deterring costly, frivolous lawsuits. | 
| PASSED |
Lowered Overall Health Care Costs through medical Liability Reform (S33)
Worked with key allies in the business and medical community to promote medical liability reform to
increase our state’s competitiveness for jobs and commerce by reducing medical and legal costs,
increasing access to care and improving our state health policy. | 
| PASSED |
