Federal Spotlight: ATRA Sends Warning to States on New Legal Liabilities
June 30, 2022
ABI seeks out subject matter expertise through membership in several national groups to help inform our important public policy role in Iowa. When it comes to the legal liabilities of ABI members and how to manage litigation, the go-to group is the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA). ABI staff is in regular contact with this group and they were a critical resource as ABI secured COVID-19 legal liability limitations for Iowa businesses during the 2020 legislative session. Something from ATRA hit our inboxes this week that we felt we should send on to you.
The American Law Institute has been around for many decades. Before digital communication, it served a critical role: aggregating and sharing trends in state law interpretation through “restatements” that informed judges and attorneys of the evolution of legal interpretations in specific areas of the law amongst the states. Recently this has changed in some cases and the restatements can attempt to lead, rather than report this evolution. Such is the case in their recent contract law restatement that could put ABI members that execute consumer contracts with their customers at greater legal litigation risk. Read here for greater understanding. ABI staff is working to determine if an Iowa-based policy response is warranted.