Follow the Money: Winners and Losers

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A Look into Nevada’s Plaintiff Lawyers’ Political Contributions

From January 1, 2013 through the current finance report released on December 31, 2014 some of the top personal injury law firms and their respective partners contributed a total of $1,726,870.13 to candidates and committees. Where’s that money going? Here’s how it breaks out:

Why this largesse of campaign contributions? The answer is simple:


Money talks, especially during election season, and this money is asking for more lawsuits.

Nevada has a history of failed legislation that would have created a better legal environment – instead our state is overrun with lawsuits. Our courts have a growing bad reputation for outlier verdicts and rewarding questionable lawsuits, and Nevada was even put on the Judicial Hellholes watch list. Looks like personal injury lawyer investments pay off. It’s time for us to start asking our candidates where their priorities lie; whether they’re taking money from the personal injury lawyers and, if so, who is really calling the shots.


FACT: 89.49% of all of their combined contributions went to Democratic candidates and committees.


Where did the money come from?

Perhaps the most notorious offenders are those plaintiff lawyers who specialize in construction defect litigation. Construction defect law firm and partner contributions totaled more than $320,000 overall, including:


FACT: These same firms specializing in Chapter 40 litigation have generated approximately $2 billion in judgments and settlements.

Despite the harm that out-of-control Chapter 40 construction defect litigation imposes on Nevada homeowners, small businesses, job seekers and taxpayers – clearly construction defect lawyers and their allies went all-out in the 2014 to protect access in order to prevent Chapter 40 reform and protect their cash cow of construction defect litigation.

Where did the money go?

The major recipients of the construction-defect-litigation cash and plaintiff-lawyer cash this cycle were Democratic candidates, including:

In addition, among some of the top lobbying firms in Nevada who have lobbied against Chapter 40 reform in recent years are also some of the top donors to political candidates in the 2014 cycle, including Lucy Flores, Ross Miller, Justin Jones, and Jason Frierson.

Help stop the cycle of lawsuit abuse where it starts.

The 2014 elections did not go as most of these personal injury attorneys planned – nearly all of their highly funded, marque’ candidates lost. Even so, their wealth acquired from specious construction defect litigation will allow them to hire the best lobbyists and contribute heavily in election after election to pursue their destructive agenda.

Construction defect lawyers and their lobbyists’ contributions are all about stopping important Chapter 40 reform. Their generosity today will foretell a request for a meeting – and help – later.

Nevada has a history of failed legislation that would have created a better legal environment – instead our state is rife with lawsuits. Our courts are building a bad reputation for their outlier verdicts and for rewarding questionable lawsuits. Even so, construction defect lawyers and their lobbyists funneled a very large amount of contributions to legislators and legislative candidates in recent election cycles to try to block commonsense reform of Chapter 40.


Tell your legislators to support construction defect reform!

If you’re interested in finding out more information about your candidate’s contributions, use this tool to look up their campaign finance reports. Simply type in the name of your candidate and get access to the list of people and organizations who have contributed to their campaign.

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