Small Businesses Maybe Not So Concerned About Liability

Business Week has a piece about small businesses and their feelings about litigation risk, framed by the pants lawsuit.  It notes the disjunction between tort reform advocates’ arguments that tort liability risks are substantial for small businesses and the apparent views of those same businesses:

Still, research by legal reform advocates suggests that most small-business owners don’t lose sleep over frivolous lawsuits. A survey released in May by the Institute for Legal Reform found that more than half of small-business owners said they were “not too concerned” or “not at all concerned” about getting sued, and in 2006 members of the National Association of Manufacturers ranked fear of litigation last on a list of 10 factors hurting their businesses.

“It is not as big an issue with our membership” as it is for large corporations, says Robert Staub, founder of the National Small Business Chamber of Commerce, a three-year-old organization based in Tennessee that represents more than 400 businesses, with an average of 12 employees each.

The piece also notes that small businesses may be more likely to be on the plaintiffs’ side, further complicating their views about liability modifications.

–BC