Personal injury lawyers often recruit unharmed plaintiffs in an attempt to win big money. This clogs our courts and delays and dilutes justice for the truly injured.
- Almost 80 percent of Americans believe advertising by personal injury lawyers encourages people to sue even if they have not been injured. (Sick of Lawsuits National Survey, Conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, August 16-18, 2005)
- As a former partner in the law firm now known as Milberg Weiss, personal injury lawyer William Lerach stuffed his own pockets with millions of dollars in fees from class action settlements. In February, he was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to forfeit $7.75 million for concealing kickbacks to plaintiffs and lying to judges. (“Leading Class-Action Lawyer Is Sentenced,” The New York Times, February 12, 2008)
- In a scandal that has rocked the U.S. legal system, Dr. Ray Harron made more than $5 million for his work as an "expert-for-hire" in diagnosing many fraudulent silicosis and asbestosis claims. Harron is one of several doctors who contributed diagnoses for more than 20,000 lawsuits. In one day alone, Harron diagnosed 515 people – meaning he had less than one minute a piece to read X-rays and make diagnoses if he worked an eight-hour day. Harron and others were paid significantly more by screening companies for making positive diagnoses. ("Beware the B-Readers," The Wall Street Journal, January 23, 2006)
- Millions of dollars in compensation that should be going to critically ill and dying victims of asbestos exposure is being paid to people who are not sick.
- A study by Academic Radiology had a board of independent doctors review chest X-rays that had been entered as evidence by personal injury lawyers in asbestos lawsuits. In the original trials, doctors paid by trial lawyers to serve as "expert" witnesses concluded that 96 percent of the X-rays showed asbestos-related abnormalities. Doctors conducting the study found that fewer than 5 percent of the X-rays showed such damage. ("The Great Asbestos Deception," San Diego Union-Tribune, August 13, 2004).
- Of the money paid out to date from the largest asbestos trust fund, 60 percent of those payouts have gone to non-injured plaintiffs – each of whom have received an estimated $60,000 despite their lack of injury. (“Diagnosing for Dollars,” Fortune, June 13, 2005)
- The legitimacy of evidence used in Fen-Phen class action lawsuits across the nation has been called into question in light of the arrests of former class action plaintiffs in Jefferson County, Mississippi. The former plaintiffs allegedly faked prescriptions of the diet drug in order to collect $250,000 from the $400 million settlement. ("Fen-Phen Arrest Revive Rap on County," Jackson Clarion Ledger, August 7, 2004)
- Since its widely used cholesterol-lowering drug Baycol was withdrawn from the market, Bayer is facing more than 8,000 lawsuits. The New York Times notes that at least 6,000 of those lawsuits, however, are being filed by people who did not suffer any side effects whatsoever. (Scott Gotlieb, M.D., The New York Times, February 26, 2003)
Judicial activism and venue shopping have created judicial hellholes.
Judicial Hellholes are places that have a disproportionately harmful impact on civil litigation. Judges in these areas of the country have been found to systematically apply laws and court procedures in an unfair and unbalanced manner, generally against defendants in civil lawsuits. These locales attract lawsuits from around the country filed by personal injury lawyers hoping to strike it rich. The American Tort Reform Foundation named seven judicial hellholes in 2008
Read the report »
- West Virginia: Personal injury lawyers prefer West Virginia courts because they can pick and choose where they file claims. Also, a state legal rule allows a claimant to collect cash simply by showing that he was exposed to a potentially dangerous substance, even if he has no sign of injury. The state is a near perfect storm of anti-business rulings, massive lawsuits and cozy relationships between the personal injury bar, the state attorney general, and some in the judiciary. West Virginia is one of only two states that do not guarantee a right to appeal a civil verdict, even if a multi-million dollar award is clearly excessive under the law or the trial court violated procedural fairness by alloing a jury to decide punitive damages before it found a defendant legally responsible for a claim.
- South Florida: South Florida is an area where a lawyer once considered the “King of Torts” is accused of overcharging his clients and misappropriating $13.5 million in settlements to support his waterfront mansion, opulent lifestyle, and production of “B” movies. In addition, appellate courts have reversed trial courts in this area for inappropriately certifying class actions, allowing people who are not injured to sue, and permitting junk science. In 2008, South Florida was home to a record-breaking award in an asbestos case.
- Cook County, Illinois: Cook County hosts a disproportionate share of the state’s lawsuits (63 percent, even though it is home to 42 percent of the population), has experienced a surge in asbestos claims, and is popular for class actions, as courts there welcome lawsuits with little or no connection to the county. While the area’s once robust manufacturing sector has been dealt a severe blow, the litigation industry is booming in Chicago. The jurisdiction was responsible for throwing out a state law aimed at solving medical liability problems that had set physicians fleeing the state.
- Atlantic County, New Jersey: In the state known as the “nation’s medicine cabinet,” Atlantic County has become the destination of choice for those suing the pharmaceutical industry. Some of these cases are brought on behalf of people who do not even claim to have been harmed by taking a drug. Instead, lawyers are seeking massive payouts for anyone who merely purchased a drug.
- Montgomery & Macon Counties, Alabama: Both of these jurisdictions moved up in the rankings in 2008 thanks to legally excessive verdicts, controversial alliances among government officials and personal injury lawyers, and suspect court rulings. Montgomery County returned two of the most excessive verdicts against pharmaceutical companies in the country totaling almost a quarter-billion dollars. Meanwhile, in nearby Macon County, two judges gave new meaning to the phrase “jackpot justice” in awarding a plaintiff 1,000 times the maximum payout of a gaming park’s malfunctioning slot machine.
- Los Angeles County, California: Los Angeles returned to the ranks of Judicial Hellholes, in part, for allowing “shakedown” lawsuits brought primarily against small businesses under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and for otherwise astonishingly excessive verdicts. The county long known as “the bank” has remained one of the most desirable places in the nation to file lawsuits.
- Clark County, Nevada: Lawyers in this jurisdiction recognize that they have a problem – and it isn’t gambling or drinking. According to one recent allegation by the FBI in Las Vegas, plaintiffs’ attorneys try to game the system in favor of their clients by contributing politically to the judges before whom they appear. Defense lawyers feel the scales of justice are tipped against them, as shown by one instance in which a court ordered a new trial when a defense lawyer had the audacity to mention frivolous lawsuits and individual responsibility in his closing argument.
Personal injury lawyers use consumer protection laws to invent baseless lawsuits for their personal gain.
Today, consumer protection lawsuits have become a key moneymaking tool for personal injury lawyers seeking new ways to bypass reforms and file more lawsuits. Too many courts have been willing to let these suits move forward, even if the plaintiffs in the lawsuit never saw, heard or relied upon the conduct at issue and did not experience a financial loss. These lawsuits increase the price we pay for many products while providing no real benefit to ordinary, reasonable consumers. Below is just a sampling of the types of claims that creative plaintiffs’ lawyers have brought or threatened to bring under state consumer protection laws in recent years:
- Lawyers claim that the popular nonstick coating, Teflon®, could pose a health risk – despite a lack of scientific or real-life evidence of any such danger – and seek billions of dollars, purportedly on behalf of consumers of pots and pans in twenty states and the District of Columbia. (“West Virginians Join in Lawsuit Over Teflon,” Charleston Gazette, May 23, 2006)
- Lawyers have sued cellular phone companies claiming that they should provide users with free headsets because radiation from the phone could cause a brain tumor, despite the companies’ full compliance with safety standards established by the Federal Communications Commission. (“Cell Suit To Continue – Phone Makers Fight Cancer Link,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, November 1, 2005)
- Lawyers have sued sunscreen manufacturers claiming that their products, rather than protecting the public, lull consumers into a false sense of security over prolonged sun exposure, increasing cancer risks and other dangers. (“Sunscreen Makers Sued for Misleading Health Claims” Reuters, March 30, 2006)
- Lawyers have sued breakfast cereal manufacturers claiming that the use of cartoon characters, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, on cereal boxes forces parents, who are apparently incapable of resisting their children’s pleas, to purchase the allegedly unhealthy products.(“Two Consumer Groups Announce A New Way to Fight Junk-Food Ads,” Washington Post, January 19, 2006)
- Lawyers have sued the dairy industry and supermarkets for not warning about the effects of lactose intolerance or for representing milk as part of a healthy weight loss program. (“Lactose Intolerant Say Grocers Hide Risk” Washington Post, October 7, 2005; “Dairy Advice Criticized by Lactose Intolerant” Associated Press, October 31, 2005).
- Lawyers have threatened to sue soda makers for selling their products to schools. (“Lawyers Ready Suit Over Soda” Washington Post, December 2, 2005)
- Lawyers have threatened to sue potato chip makers on the theory that bags should include labels warning that the fat substitute olestra could cause cramps and diarrhea, even though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) studied the issue and found such a warning unnecessary. (“Nutrition Group Seeks Warning Labels for Olestra But State Law May Help Frito-Lay if Lawsuit is Filed,” Boston Globe, January 5, 2006)
- Lawyers have succeeded in certifying a nationwide class action in New Jersey against Merck related to Vioxx. But unlike Vioxx personal injury claims, the lawyers do not claim their clients suffered any harm from using the drug or even that it did not work for their arthritis; just that it was not worth what they paid for it. In fact, the plaintiffs are not even individual consumers, but labor unions and health maintenance organizations that paid for the drug on behalf of their members – hardly the average consumer such laws were meant to protect. If the plaintiffs win, then they will be entitled to triple damages, and the lawyers will receive a tremendous payout. (“Court upholds Vioxx Class Action” Wall Street Journal, March 31, 2006)
- These examples and more information about abuses of consumer protection laws can be found in the American Tort Reform Foundations’ “Judicial Hellholes 2008” report.
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