(Sacramento) –As April 15th, approaches, Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse is calling attention to a hidden “lawsuit tax” that all Americans are being forced to pay due to lawsuit abuse. According to a recent study by Tillinghast Towers Perrin, every American pays $721 – or $2,884 for a family of four – to cover the costs of lawsuits across the nation.

The total cost of the U.S. tort system in 2001 was $205 billion, equivalent to a 5% tax on wages. Nearly 20% of those expenditures went to claimants’ attorney’s fees.

“Albert Einstein once said ‘The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.’ If Einstein were alive today, I think he’d clearly understand the negative impact of the lawsuit tax,” said Diann Rogers, Executive Director of Central California CALA. “It doesn’t take a genius to see that our litigation system is out-of-control.”

Unfortunately, there are no signs of a lawsuit tax cut. According to the Tillinghast Towers Perrin report “annual increases will be in the 7% to 11% range for the next several years. At this rate of increase, tort costs could approach $1,000 per U.S. citizen by 2005 – representing a new quadruple-digit benchmark.”

That is a number that is hard to write off, considering the tort system returns less than 50 cents on the dollar to injured plaintiffs and 22 cents on the dollar for actual economic loss.

“Our civil justice system – like our tax code – is full of loopholes and inefficiencies that are burdening American taxpayers. This April 15th, Central California CALA calls for a system that features justice – not greed – that will put an end to the unjust lawsuit tax,” added Rogers.

CCCALA is a nonprofit, grassroots organization dedicated to educating consumers on the human and financial costs incurred when the legal system is abused for greed, harassment or publicity. More than 4,500 residents in the Sacramento region and the Central Valley are CCCALA supporter.