FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: Linda Okun
PHONE: (626) 824-8927
October 30, 2003
From spilt coffee to the recent obesity lawsuits,
newspapers and nightly television newscasts are filled with reports
of one junk lawsuit after another – and the problem has
grown into a powerful recession-proof industry for personal injury
lawyers.
According to a new report published by the Manhattan
Institute called, “Trial Lawyers, Inc.: A Report on
the Lawsuit Industry in America 2003,” class action
lawsuits in the states have grown by 1000 percent over a recent
four-year period, and class action lawyers average earnings of
more than $1000 per hour. It’s also documented that personal
injury lawyers take up to 70 percent of medical malpractice awards.
To help us understand its inner workings, Trial
Lawyers, Inc. highlights the lawsuits industry’s four-part
business plan.
Part one of the business plan is to reinvest
profits – channeling huge lawsuit fees back into the political
system to elect friendly local judges and other government officials.
With the help of their state attorney general
allies, wealthy asbestos lawyers hatched a scheme to file tobacco
lawsuits on behalf of the state and collect contingency fees for
representing the governments.
As a result, personal injury lawyers became flush
with cash. Some received up to $30,000 per hour in fees from the
tobacco suit, and 300 lawyers are receiving an average $100 million
apiece.
Mississippi’s mega-lawsuit-lawyer Dickie
Scruggs explains the profitability of having influence on local
judges: “[W]hat I call the ‘magic jurisdiction’…
[is] where the judiciary is elected with verdict
money. The trial lawyers have established relationships with the
judges that are elected… it’s almost impossible to
get a fair trial if you’re a defendant in some of these
places… it doesn’t matter what the evidence or the
law is.”
Those “magic jurisdictions” have
been more appropriately termed by the American Tort Reform Association
(ATRA) as “judicial hellholes,” known not only for
influencing judges, but also for appeasing trial lawyers.
We’ve got a “judicial hellhole”
here in Los Angeles County – the Central Civil West Courthouse
-- one of 11 “judicial hellholes” nationwide where
lawsuit abuse occurs. After a string of billion-dollar jury awards,
plaintiff’s lawyers derisively refer to the Central Civil
West Courthouse as “The Bank,” thanks to the court’s
well-earned reputation as a source of lottery-sized awards.
Part two of the lawsuit industry’s business
plan is using its influence and support of consumer groups to
stir up support for questionable lawsuits in the media, such as
Ralph Nader attacking the common McDonald’s hamburger as
a “weapon of mass destruction.”
Part three is to target almost everyone with
deep pockets, including fast food services, snack food makers,
pharmaceutical companies, HMOs, gun and paint manufacturers, construction
companies, and publicly traded companies. Suing publicly traded
companies when their stock drops has been called “legal
extortion,” as companies settle to avoid the suits. A Florida
judge likened lawyers in one such case to “squeegee boys”
splashing water on a windshield and expecting payment for wiping
it off.
Part four is employing sophisticated advertising
and Internet sites to amass plaintiffs to increase potential profits
and help force companies into settlements. Through ClassActionAmerica.com,
for example, subscribers can shop for and join class action lawsuits
for a small monthly fee.
How does all of this impact the average citizen?
Plenty.
Jobs are affected as lawsuits take down companies and stifle growth
and research and development.
Taxes may rise as local business can no longer
help pay taxes to support needed community services.
Doctors stop practicing or performing high-risk
procedures, such as delivering babies.
Consumer prices rise as companies pay lawsuit
costs.
Citizens involved in class action lawsuits without
their permission receive pennies or coupons while plaintiff lawyers
make millions.
Truly sick individuals wait for needed compensation,
while massive numbers of healthy plaintiffs and their lawyers
play the lawsuit lottery.
Above all else, our once-proud civil justice
system becomes a back-alley bazaar of greed and opportunism.
Sadly, identifying the crisis is the easy part.
Now we have to figure out how to get out of this mess. The personal
injury lawsuit industry has more money and political power than
any organization fighting it.
What can overcome the problem, though, is public
outrage and outcry, and Trial Lawyers Inc. gives the
public a look into the heart and mind of the beast attacking our
courts, our pocketbooks and our values of American justice.
For more information on these issues, please contact Los Angeles
CALA at (626) 824-8927 or maryann@maryannmaloney.com
.
Linda Okun is the Executive Director of Citizens
against Lawsuit Abuse in Los Angeles, a nonprofit, grassroots
public education organization. Write to her c/o CALA at P.O. Box
262 - Glendora, CA 91740, or via email at maryann@maryannmaloney.com.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you would like a CALA
speaker to address your organization or some information for your
organization's newsletter, let us know today.
CALA is a nonprofit, grass roots, public education
organization dedicated to serving as a watchdog over the legal
system and those who would seek to abuse it for undeserved gain.
More than 9,000 citizens and taxpayers are Los Angeles CALA supporters.
