But you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Today, the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on a bill to expand the reach of the Michigan Consumer Protection Act. The bill, HB 4915, would open the door to meritless lawsuits on a variety of businesses already tightly regulated by the state or federal governments - businesses already open to lawsuits and other action under a variety other laws or rules.

"House Bill 4915 ignores these existing penalties and remedies and seeks to subject Michigan employers to parallel tracks of litigation ..." a group of 40 diverse business groups and individual business wrote to committee members in a letter opposing the bill.

But that's exactly what the forces behind this bill and a series of others want - excuses for lawsuits in any and every situation.

Democrats in the House are carefully teeing up a series of bills to open the floodgates to lawsuits. If the House leadership and Senate are unable to block this tsunami of aid to the trial lawyer industry, expect every doctor, pharmacist, service provider, property owner and maker of just about anything to pull out of Michigan.

There's HB 4616-18, which would open doctors, pharmacists and other medical providers to lawsuits over prescription drugs and other treatments approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. These lawsuits could be filed even when the medical provider carefully follows the label for use - AND when a patient is fully aware of any risk of complications!

And there's HB 4571, which would make it easier for ambulance chasing lawyers to put bogus "expert witnesses" on the stand and loosen a number of other requirements keeping frivolous malpractice lawsuits at bay. These are lawsuits that raise the cost of our health care - any issue Democrats in Washington are obsessed with.

If Michigan legislative leaders and, in particular, Senate Republicans, aren't able to stop this onslaught from the powerful trial lawyer lobby, Michigan will become the lawsuit capital of the nation.