Personal injury lawyers use their massive political contributions to curry favors and block needed reforms.
- Through individual and soft money contributions, as well as PAC donations, the lawsuit industry has exceeded all others in political giving in every electoral cycle since 1990. (Trial Lawyers, Inc.: A Report on the Lawsuit Industry in America 2003, Center for Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute)
- West Virginia AG Darrell McGraw recently went back on a promise to stop making “donations” to groups statewide from a pool of lawsuit settlement funds his office has kept instead of turning over to the state treasury. (“Critics talking as McGraw hands out $375,000 more,” West Virginia Record, March 8, 2007)
- California personal injury and other plaintiffs’ lawyers contributed nearly $7.5 million to incumbent and candidate campaigns in the 2003-2004 state election cycle. Between 1997 and 2004, plaintiffs’ lawyers have spent more than $34 million supporting candidates who will protect their agenda. (Trial Lawyers, Inc.: California, Center for Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute, April 2005)
- The plaintiffs’ bar in Madison County provided 75 percent of the contributions to judicial campaigns between 1980 and 2002. In 2002, Judge Nicholas Byron received 81 percent of his donations from personal injury lawyers. That same year, Melissa Chapman collected a staggering 90 percent of her donations from personal injury lawyers in her successful campaign for the Fifth District Appellate Court. (Trial Lawyers, Inc.: Illinois, Center for Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute, 2006)
- In 2004, 78 percent of all contributions to the Illinois state Democratic Party came from plaintiffs’ lawyers and their firms. (Trial Lawyers, Inc.: Illinois, Center for Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute, 2006)
Personal injury lawyers make secret arrangements with state attorneys general to file more lawsuits and win more money.
- In early 2007, an Associated Press investigation revealed millions of dollars in undisclosed contracts between California AG Bill Lockyer and politically connected private lawyers and lobbyists. Among the improperly “hidden” contracts was a $2 million contract to a law firm that had donated to Lockyer's campaign. (“Millions in Contracts Hidden in Calif.” Associated Press, January 29, 2007)
- In one recent West Virginia case, the Attorney General’s office reached a $10 million settlement on behalf of the state. Moe than $3 million of that settlement went to lawyers who had recently contributed to McGraw’s political campaign. The rest of the money went to the Attorney General’s own office accounts—not the state’s general fund—for him to spend as he sees fit. The state agencies, on whose behalf McGraw filed the suit, received no settlement money whatsoever and the state legislature was denied the ability to appropriate the funds as it does other state revenue (“Questions arise over McGraw’s methods of handling settlement funds” West Virginia Record, February 24, 2006)
- In 2006, West Virginia Attorney General McGraw “deputized” personal injury lawyers who contributed to his campaign to act as “special assistant attorneys general” and file lawsuits against a company that they were already suing privately – a move that put the defendants at an extremely unfair disadvantage. When the Attorney General’s actions were challenged in court he backed off and dismissed the case. (“Two firms sue McGraw over appointment of Special Assistant AGs” West Virginia Record, March 23, 2006)
- During the tobacco lawsuits and settlement in the 1990’s, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal signed contingency fee contracts with personal injury lawyer who were his friends and associates and who ultimately won $65 million in fees. (“The Nation’s Top Ten Worst State Attorneys General,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, January 24, 2007)
- A new survey from the American Tort Reform Association found that in each of five states surveyed—Alabama, California, Ohio, Wisconsin and West Virginia— roughly three of every four respondents said that all contracts that state AGs make with outside lawyers should be posted on the Internet for public inspection. Approximately 85 percent of those surveyed in each state also believed that AGs should require outside lawyers working for their states on a contingency fee basis to keep detailed records of their hours and specific work performed.
Activist AGs and their personal injury lawyer friends are using litigation to regulate entire sectors of the U.S. economy.
- In September 2006, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed a lawsuit citing U.S. and Japanese carmakers as being liable for damages because of global warming. Lockyer’s press release argued that he disagreed with federal government regulation, leading him to take action against the auto industry. “Attorney General Lockyer Files Lawsuit Against “Big Six” Automakers for Global Warming Damages in California” Office of the Attorney General Press Release, September 20, 2006)
- Rhode Island AG Patrick Lynch allowed personal injury lawyers who were campaign contributors to sue out-of-state paint companies for the legal sale of lead paint decades earlier, and he allowed these lawyers to seek high damages to help ensure they would earn huge contingency fees if successful. Although there was no evidence that the named paint companies had produced the paint used in the state, a jury found the companies to be liable for potentially billions of dollars in cleanup and damages. (“The Nation’s Top Ten Worst State Attorneys General,” Competitive Enterprise Institute, January 24, 2007)
- In 2003, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued The Western Union Company for wire fraud scams being perpetrated by foreign swindlers via its service. In the settlement, Spitzer forced Western Union to pay for an $8 million national consumer awareness program and other state attorneys general forced Western Union to pay $400,000 to New York and the other states that brought the lawsuit. The original victims of the fraud received no compensation. (“Western Union Agrees to Help Combat Telemarketing Fraud,” Office of the State of New York Attorney General press release, November 14, 2005)
- In 2001, West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw hired four private law firms to sue OxyContin maker Purdue Pharmaceuticals on behalf of the state's workers' compensation fund and other state agencies, alleging that the company failed to warn of the drug’s addictive qualities. When Purdue settled the case for $10 million, a third of the money went to outside trial lawyers. The one in-state law firm used by McGraw was a major contributor to his re-election campaign. (“Rhode Island Rhapsody,” Wall Street Journal, August 16, 2006)
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