Tort reform drives political war

Daily Journal ^ | July 9, 2003 | Sid Salter

[afuturegovernor]

Tort reform drives political war

7/8/2003 11:55:03 PM
By Sid Salter
Daily Journal

The battle lines remain drawn and the political messages are amazingly simplistic.

While Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and Republican challenger Haley Barbour still get marquee billing, the gubernatorial campaign - and particularly the gubernatorial campaign contributors' lists - are driven by the single issue of tort reform.

A July 21 article in Forbes magazine entitled "Buying Justice" outlines the fact that Mississippi has been a political battleground between trial lawyers, Big Labor and Democrats on one side and Big Business, insurance companies and Republicans on the other.

The article chronicles the fact that trial lawyers have historically been the campaign contribution sugar daddies of the very judges before whom they will argue their cases - and that in recent years, the business community has on its own and through groups like the U.S Chamber of Commerce entered the fray and responded with hardball politics to break up the trial lawyers' judicial tea party.

Forbes writers Robert Lezner and Matthew Miller offered two paragraphs in their piece that are telling:

"This is a dirty business. The Brennan Center says ads have "grown increasingly negative and controversial, and in some cases [have] fallen far beneath the level of dignity most Americans associate with their judicial system."

Adding to the intrigue, the chamber cloaks its efforts by sidestepping disclosure laws that require revealing contributions. Instead of donating cash to candidates, it provides ad money and couches the effort as "informational' and policy-based.

"We're seeing that politics is rearing its ugly head," says professor Lester Brickman of the Cardozo Law School in New York. "But politics has always been present, if shrouded in black robes. Now it's out in the open.

"The toughest battles are playing out in Mississippi, where litigation over asbestos and the faulty diet drug fen-phen are huge sources of revenue. In one case in 2001 a jury in Holmes County Court awarded $150 million to six plaintiffs who never became ill from asbestos exposure - they simply feared they would some day. In a three-county district presided over by trial court Judge Lamar Pickard, lawyers have filed some 4,000 separate fen-phen cases. Typically these lawyers gather plaintiffs by distributing circulars listing a hotline number and hiring legmen to work the smaller rural towns in search of more "victims" To settle such complaints nationwide, Wyeth has dished out $12.8 billion thus far, but it is far from done. The plaintiff lawyers have landed up to $3.8 billion, assuming a traditional 30 percent lawyer's fee."

U.S. Chamber v. ICEPAC?

Attorney General Mike Moore and Secretary of State Eric Clark filed suit seeking to force the U.S. Chamber to reveal the source of the $1 million in "soft" money the group spent in the 2000 Mississippi judicial elections. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case. A federal appeals court later ruled for the chamber.

State Medical Association president Dr. John Cook of Brandon accused U.S. Chamber opponents of trying to "excoriate the Chamber for failing to disclose the source of the money it spent on the 2000 state judicial elections, while consistently refusing to mention that the trial lawyers political action committee (ICEPAC) did exactly the same thing with the huge sums of money it collected from out-of-state plaintiff attorneys who want to maintain the status quo in Mississippi's strike-it-rich court system."

As the gubernatorial campaign unfolds, tort reform will gain intensity as an issue. Barbour is a clear proponent of tort reform. Musgrove - the former darling of the trial lawyers - angered many of them when relatively mild tort reforms were adopted in 2002. Stay tuned.

Sid Salter is Perspective Editor and political columnist for The Clarion-Ledger. He can be contacted by mail at 201 Dogwood Drive, Forest, MS 39074 or by e-mail at salter@jackson.gannett.com

[afuturegovernor]

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[bourbon]

State Medical Association president Dr. John Cook of Brandon accused U.S. Chamber opponents of trying to "excoriate the Chamber for failing to disclose the source of the money it spent on the 2000 state judicial elections, while consistently refusing to mention that the trial lawyers political action committee (ICEPAC) did exactly the same thing with the huge sums of money it collected from out-of-state plaintiff attorneys who want to maintain the status quo in Mississippi's strike-it-rich court system."

Exactly. The trial lawyers huff and puff about the US Chamber of Commerce's perfectly legal actions, while they do exactly the same thing.

The thing that really irritates me about the trial lawyers on this count is that they play to Mississippians' history of xenophobia by railing against the Chamber's "out-of-state" monetary influence on MS elections. This is nothing short of pure demagoguery.

First, residents of other states have an interest in MS elections and are free to donate to her candidates. Secondly, where in the hell do the trial lawyers think they got their money? When Wyeth Labs or RJR Nabisco pays a $1Bn settlement in a MS lawsuit and 30% of it goes to MS trial lawyers, can they honestly claim that that money came from MS? Puh-leeze.

[JohnnyZ]

Don't think trial lawyers don't have some Republicans in their pocket, too, especially in the US Senate.

[JohnnyZ]

By a vote of 61-37, the Senate last Thursday rejected an amendment authored by Jon Kyl to the tax-cut bill that would have capped the amount lawyers could receive when working on major tort cases for the government, such as in the anti-tobacco litigation. Republicans voting against the amendment were George Voinovich, George Allen, Norm Coleman, Lindsey Graham, Lincoln Chafee, Saxby Chambliss, Thad Cochran, Mike Crapo, Mike DeWine, Richard Shelby, Gordon Smith and Arlen Specter. Trent Lott voted "present," and Orrin Hatch voted against it twice — once in the Finance Committee two days earlier, signaling to conservative colleagues that it was acceptable to vote against it on the floor. Every single Democrat voted nay, except for Daniel Inouye, who didn't vote.

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20030521-094801-1562r.htm

[ampat]

I live in MS, currently, and have seen insurance companies, doctors, etc. leave the state because of the massive problems created by greedy trial lawyers. While I believe trial lawyers are whale dung at the bottom of the sea, MS trial lawyers are at the bottom of that heap.

[bourbon]

Oh, most definitely. These folks are masters of bet-hedging and playing on both sides of the fence.

BTW, I don't think that contingency fees should be allowed for lawyers representing the state or the federal government. Reasonable hourly fees are all that any lawyer should get in these cases.

[WKB]

I live in MS, currently, and have seen insurance companies, doctors, etc. leave the state

And it ain't over yet

[WKB]

Thanks
Sometimes Sid Makes sense.