The topics of ATLA’s ad campaign in five GOP districts — drug prices and oil prices — don’t exactly seem central to the organized plaintiff’s bar’s own mission in life, but perhaps the wider message is just that the national Republican party Must Be Punished for supporting liability reform, and any issues that come to hand will do. (Jim Kuhnhenn, AP/Washington Post, Aug. 29)
Posts Tagged ‘politics’
ATLA, AAJ and the inky cuttlefish
The editors of the Los Angeles Times are not impressed by the decision of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America to change its name to the American Association for Justice (AAJ), and quote Orwell: “The great enemy of clear language is insincerity,” he wrote. “When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.” (“A Trial Lawyer by Any Other Name” (editorial), Aug. 11) (via Wallace). See Jul. 28 (“kitten fish”), etc.
You’ll never give testimony in this town again
“The Lieberman Purge”
Off-topic, I add to the punditocracy’s surfeit of blather on the Connecticut Senate election at National Review Online.
One thing I didn’t mention in the article that is on topic for this site is that Lieberman is one of the few prominent federal Democrats still in office that is generally willing to stand up to the trial bar. If Lamont does supplant Lieberman, the trial-lawyer takeover of the Democratic party (commented on a year ago by Walter) will be all but complete.
Update: Walter reminds me of his 2000 Wall Street Journal op-ed on Lieberman’s record on liability reform.
Trial lawyer “Wikiality”
Stephen Colbert jokingly called Wikipedia’s strange notions of reality “wikiality”; his suggestions for edits to the Wikipedia articles about elephants caused the Wikipedia servers to crash and the article to be “protected.”
But Wikipedia in general suffers from a severe bias; articles about controversial topics reward persistence over accuracy. Wikiality is especially a problem in articles criticizing the plaintiffs’ bar. Articles on Fred Baron, ATLA, and John Edwards’s legal career have been sanitized into hagiographies; articles on medical malpractice and tort reform have been rewritten to emphasize the anti-reform position, deleting pro-reform statistics, arguments, and evidence.
Congressman sued for breaking “Contract with America”
U.S. Rep. Roger Wicker, a Republican who represents Mississippi’s First District, is being sued by Democratic opponent Ken Hurt on the grounds that he breached a promise made in connection with the “Contract with America” not to run for a seventh term. The Contract, which Republicans put forth as part of their successful campaign for control of Congress in 1994, proposed 12-year term limits for House members, and Hurt says Wicker promised to serve no more than that span. The term limit idea was never enacted into law. Wicker’s campaign manager, Kirk Sims, called the new suit “frivolous and, quite frankly, a little nutty”. (Joshua Cogswell, “Challenger sues Wicker for breaking ‘Contract with America’”, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Jul. 28).
Update: “Victims and Families United”
Judy Buckles, one of the “founders” of the Astroturf group Victims and Families United (Feb. 20, 2004, Sep. 13, 2004) has suddenly discovered that the prominent plaintiffs’ firms of Madison County may not have plaintiffs’ best interests at heart, and is suing prominent asbestos firm SimmonsCooper for allegedly shortchanging her in its representation of her and her late husband. That she’s represented by the Lakin Law Firm suggests interesting machinations afoot in the county. (Steve Gonzalez, “Victims’ advocate sues asbestos attorneys for gypping her”, Madison County Record, Jul. 13; “Pawn Shop”, Madison County Record, Jul. 16).
ATLA name change official
The Association of Trial Lawyers of America is going to attempt to hide the fact that its interests are solely those that enrich trial lawyers, and change its name to the Orwellian “American Association for Justice,” with truth and the American way apparently not making the cut, and “jackpots” too obvious. Al Kamen and Lisa Rickard snicker in the Washington Post. (“Just Don’t Call Them the Suers”, Jul. 14).
“File when ready”
It’s best to choose your words carefully when writing about this aspiring Delaware politician. “Lawsuits have been a big part of Korn’s life for the better part of two decades….’I would sue anybody again if I had to, if something were not right or accurate,’ Korn said. ‘I will go to the ends of what it takes if I feel I’ve been slandered, libeled or maligned in any way.'” (Celia Cohen, Delaware Grapevine, Jun. 26).
Gibbon on lawyer-statesmen
Irritation at a nameless magazine’s author contract puts Terry Teachout (Jun. 30) in mind of the following passage from Patrick O’Brian’s The Reverse of the Medal:
“As for Gibbon, now,” said Stephen when they were settled by the fire again, “I do remember the first lines. They ran ‘It is dangerous to entrust the conduct of nations to men who have learned from their profession to consider reason as the instrument of dispute, and to interpret the laws according to the dictates of private interest; and the mischief has been felt, even in countries where the practice of the bar may deserve to be considered as a liberal occupation.’”
A search on Google Book Search does produce the quote, and indicates that it appeared in the original text of Decline and Fall, but says Gibbon cut the sentence while the book was in press so as “to soften a passage comparing Roman lawyers with their modern counterparts”. It’s also unclear from context whether the passage constituted the “first lines” of anything in particular, as O’Brian suggests.