Dylan Smith wrote:

The trouble is the COST of defending these lawsuits where the pilot was
entirely at fault, even if the manufacturer eventually wins, is
hurting the industry.

A couple of quotes from a web site on liability:

- Since 1978, the industry suffered a 95 percent unit sales decline and
the loss of 100,000 jobs.
- From 1978 to 1992, manufacturers spent as much to defend product
liability suits as they had spent from 1945 to 1974 to develop new
aircraft.
- During the '80s, claims paid by the industry soared from $24 million
to over $210 million.

This was a quote from an old US News and World Report article on the
General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1995, which limited product
liability on aircraft over 18 years old:

"Cessna Aircraft, for example, stopped building single-engine planes in
1986 in part because it was sued nearly every time one of its planes,
regardless of age, suffered an accident."

And a quote from a book on the subject:

http://www.nap.edu/books/0309051304/html/68.html

"The cost for defending itself against product liability claims had
escalated so dramatically that by 1987 Piper was paying a premium of $30
million for an insurance policy with a deductible of $25 million. At
that time, Piper had only $75 million in sales, so it was paying almost
50 percent of its revenues for product liability insurance. "