Sick of Lawsuits Newsletter

View the August 2008 edition of
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August 2008

• Our Class-Action System Is Unconstitutional
  “There's a hidden tax imposed on companies that do business in the United States that hinders their international competitiveness and eventually filters down to consumers. This ‘tax’ takes the form of certain class-action attorneys who, like a roving shadow, look for any opportunity to claim that a business has done something wrong -- for example, provided misleading consumer advertising -- without concern for whether any member of the public actually thinks he or she was harmed. To avoid high legal fees and litigation distractions, corporations very often settle, paying out millions of dollars.” The Wall Street Journal, August 6, 2008. READ MORE>>

• Challenging Spitzerism at the Polls
  “Take one part ego, one part ambition and one part lawyer, mix it with an office that has few restraints on power, and you'll end up with the worst sort of state attorney general. Take Dan Greear, and you'll have a man at the front of a nascent electoral movement to change the formula. Mr. Greear is the 40-year-old Republican lawyer working to unseat West Virginia's entrenched top prosecutor, Darrell McGraw. His quest has become a case study in the opportunities, and pitfalls, of an upstart reformer challenging an incumbent attorney general who, like New York’s Eliot Spitzer, has cemented his position through populism and political patronage. It's also an insight into a new wave of reformist candidates across the country. As state attorneys general have become more brazen with their power, and as outside groups have started shining a light on their backroom practices, voters have become uneasy.” The Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2008. READ MORE>>

• The trial bar goes on the offensive
  “Judging by recent headlines, the trial-lawyer lobby in Washington should be deep in bunkers, fighting a defensive action. High-profile class-action plaintiffs’ lawyers such as Dickie Scruggs, Bill Lerach, and Melvyn Weiss all have been convicted for various criminal offenses, and a federal judge unearthed major fraud among claimants in asbestosis lawsuits. But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has found the bunkers empty and the trial bar more aggressive than ever. The Chamber sees the trial bar as having been reinvigorated. According to the Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform (ILR), special provisions that would benefit plaintiffs’ attorneys are proliferating in Congress. The Baltimore Examiner, July 27, 2008. READ MORE>>