Report: Legal overhaul potential source of jobs

If Florida cleans up its legal environment, it's ripe to add at least 59,000 jobs, and up to 162,000, says a report from the U.S. Chamber Institute of Legal Reform.

The state would also chop its annual tort costs by $2.3 billion, or 18.5% if it enacts certain changes. “In today's tough economic climate, Floridians are looking for ways to create more jobs while dealing with tight budgets,” U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform President Lisa Rickard says in a statement. “This new report shows that improving Florida's legal environment can deliver significant economic benefits.”

White Plains, N.Y.-based NERA Economic Consulting wrote the report for the institute. The report's authors say they use a novel econometric model to identify excessive tort costs in the judicial system.

Factors that determine a state's legal environment, according to the model, include the perceived fairness of the legal system; the concentration of lawyers in the state; the number of tort cases filed per year; and the number of major verdicts in the state.