Ambulance Chasing Lawyers
and Frivolous Lawsuits
The primary reasons for the high cost of... everything!

If you get arrested, a lawyer is handy if you're guilty and absolutely essential if you're not.  Generally, lawyers are shrewd, intelligent, and fun to talk to, if you're not paying $200 an hour for the conversation.  If you're accused of a crime, you'd be crazy to go to trial without an attorney.

Civil law is another matter.  Once in a while people find themselves in need of an attorney.  For example, if the neighbor's dog jumps over the fence and takes a piece out of my leg, I'll see to it that the negligent neighbors pay my medical bills.  That would probably require an attorney.

Most people recognize, however, that litigation can be used to pursue a number of things other than justice.  It has been said that you don't have to literally chase ambulances to be considered an ambulance chaser.  In my opinion, one of this country's biggest and most costly problems is hair-splitting legalism and opportunism in the form of frivolous class-action lawsuits which benefit only the lawyers who file them.

And another thing:  Until about 1980 it was illegal for lawyers to advertise on television.  Today, when school children are asked, "What's the quickest way to get rich?", they will most often give an answer that mentions a lawsuit or a lottery ticket, because that's what they've seen on television.  If lawyers were once again prohibited from advertising on television, it would go a long way toward improving this country in the long term.


The Lawyers' Party.  The Democratic Party has become the Lawyers' Party.  Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are lawyers.  Bill Clinton and Michelle Obama are lawyers.  John Edwards, the other former Democrat candidate for president, is a lawyer and so is his wife Elizabeth.  Every Democrat nominee since 1984 went to law school (although Gore did not graduate.)  Every Democrat vice presidential nominee since 1976, except for Lloyd Bentsen, went to law school.  Look at the Democrat Party in Congress:  the Majority Leader in each house is a lawyer.

Trial lawyers win when judges and juries become regulators.  Americans should beware of plaintiffs attorneys bearing gifts.  We will all be worse off now that judges and juries have taken over health care regulation in the California case of Lavender et al. vs Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc.  Lavender represents almost everything that is wrong with our legal system.

Parasitic Tort Lawyers.  Tort lawyers lie.  They say their product liability suits are good for us.  But their lawsuits rarely make our lives better.  They make lawyers and a few of their clients better off — but for the majority of us, they make life much worse.

ATM's could become a lot more scarce because of abusive lawsuits.  Think about how many times you or your family has used an ATM this summer.  Maybe you've needed cash to pay for dinner during vacation or just to buy a snack at a local convenience store.  Whatever the reason, the 24-hour access we have to our cash makes our lives a lot easier.  Unfortunately, this kind of self-service banking could become a lot less convenient because of abusive lawsuits.

Blogger beware:  Postings can lead to lawsuits.  The Internet has allowed tens of millions of Americans to be published writers.  But it also has led to a surge in lawsuits from those who say they were hurt, defamed or threatened by what they read, according to groups that track media lawsuits.

NY lawyer in terrorism case gets 10 year sentence.  A New York lawyer who helped a terrorism suspect smuggle messages to his followers from prison was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Thursday [7/15/2010].  Lynne Stewart, 70, has been in prison since November after she was initially sentenced to 28 months for helping her client, blind Egyptian cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, contact the Islamic Group in Egypt.

Woman who 'didn't know how to look both ways before crossing street' sues Google.  She said it was dark, she had never been to the area before and didn't know how to look both ways before crossing the street.  And now Lauren Rosenberg has gone to court, blaming Google Maps for bad directions.

Mississippi lesbian student sues over rejected tux photo.  Another teenage lesbian is suing a rural Mississippi school district, this time over a policy banning young women from wearing tuxedos in senior yearbook portraits.

Barack Obama, Esq.  President Obama's crisis leadership is like that of trial lawyer.  The Obama approach towards the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has the same storyline as television commercials which describe some sad and poignant medical problems which plague many Americans and which then offer hope... sort of.  These sponsors do not offer any new cure or better treatment for heartrending diseases.  Instead, they say:  We can sue someone for you.

Republicans question trial lawyer tax cut.  Ranking Republicans in the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committee asked the Treasury Department for clarification on a change in tax policy that could underwrite frivolous lawsuits.  Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Michael Mundaca had confirmed last week that the Treasury department is considering granting trial lawyers a tax break that could cost the federal government $1.52 billion over 10 years.

Surreal Fox News Interview with Woman Suing Airline for Not Waking Her Up.  The story of 36 year-old Ginger McGuire is strange enough already.  She fell asleep aboard a 1 hour flight from DC to Philly, where she remained asleep for 3 more hours in a locked, empty airplane.  She's suing United Airlines for not waking her up when the plane landed.

Frivolous lawsuit over global warming may go Supreme.  A few months back, I wrote about a global warming lawsuit in Mississippi, Comer v. Murphy Oil.  Landowners were suing an oil company for supposedly causing global warming, which supposedly caused Hurricane Katrina to hit them with extra ferocity.  The astounding, mind-numbing 5th Circuit decision (written by two Clinton appointees) to let this lawsuit go forward was vacated, and the case was sent to an en banc panel.  This suit is now getting far less attention, because trial lawyers' energies are now being spent in hopes of cashing in on the misery caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

The sweet stench of $uccess.  He's filthy, rich.  The city's most litigious bum, Richard Kreimer — infamous for winning a $230,000 suit 20 years ago after being kicked out of a Morristown, NJ, library for his body odor — is about to file his 18th lawsuit since 1988.  The 61-year-old hobo plans to go after Amtrak in Philadelphia because he claims police forcibly removed him from the train station.  He already has another lawsuit pending against NJ Transit for the same thing.

Detroit-area bus agency sued for rejecting aids encouraging Muslim defectors.  A group that says it helps Muslims quit their faith sued Detroit's regional transit system Friday [5/28/2010] for violating its First Amendment rights by rejecting bus ads that ask, "Fatwa on your head? ... Leaving Islam? Got questions? Get answers!"

County worker who slept on job files discrimination claim.  A Maricopa County drinking-water inspector who admitted sleeping on the job and was suspended without pay alleges in a discrimination claim that White supervisors did the same thing and were not disciplined.

Blumenthal and the Liars' Party.  [Scroll down slowly]  There is a pattern to this misbehavior. Blumenthal, Edwards, Clinton, and Kerry lied about their personal lives, hiding sins or inventing heroism.  Each man was very specific in his false statements.  All four of these men were lawyers, and three out of four were married to lawyers.  Two of the four — Clinton and Blumenthal — were chosen as Attorney General for their home states, a position that should be held by scrupulously honest men.

There's always a lawyer who is willing to help.
 16 illegals sue Arizona rancher.  An Arizona man who has waged a 10-year campaign to stop a flood of illegal immigrants from crossing his property is being sued by 16 Mexican nationals who accuse him of conspiring to violate their civil rights when he stopped them at gunpoint on his ranch on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Why America Is One Nation Under God — Not a Nation of Lawyers.  Those who wish America a godless society have developed a plethora of arguments to support their agenda.  But arguments are not facts... We watch as lawyers make arguments every day, seldom concerned with any facts or even any sense of real justice.  But they can make an argument, sometimes a very successful argument.  If their argument is not true, has justice been served?  Is the argument right if it was made on a premise that was all wrong, even though the argument is effective?

Lawyers on the prowl after US oil spill.  Armies of lawyers are turning their sights to the massive oil slick spreading across the Gulf of Mexico, eagerly seeking damages from the companies at the center of the disaster.

Malpractice litigation is costly.  [Scroll down to page 24]  Malpractice insurance, litigation, and the practice of defensive medicine are responsible for part of the unnecessarily high cost of health care in the U.S. ... In real terms, malpractice claims grew 10-fold and malpractice premiums tripled during the past 30 years.  In 2001, 52 percent of malpractice awards were for amounts in excess of $1 million, compared to a median award of less than $500,000 just five years earlier.

Why No Presidential Wrath Aimed at Trial Lawyers?  Given Barack Obama's alleged passion for containing health care costs, just why is it that the president has steadfastly refused to take on greedy trial attorneys, those ambulance-chasing barristers who are largely responsible for out-of-control jumps in health care costs?  Even socialist wild man Howard Dean admitted that health care change without tort reform would be a meaningless charade.

Gulf spill draws flock of lawyers.  Teams of lawyers from around the nation are mobilizing for a gargantuan legal battle over the massive Gulf Coast oil spill, filing multiple lawsuits in recent days that together could dwarf the half-billion dollars awarded in the Exxon Valdez disaster two decades ago.

Woman says she fell asleep, woke up alone on plane.  A Michigan woman who fell asleep on a United Express flight to Philadelphia says she woke up and was shocked to find she was alone on the plane.

Trial lawyers love Obamacare.  President Obama made a big show about being open to some Republican reform ideas to rein in lawsuit abuse.  Those pledges — which Mr. Obama made twice in major public forums — were worthless.  The final version of Obamacare, as signed into law, is a dream come true for big-money plaintiffs' lawyers.

ObamaCare Whets Lawyers' Appetites.  It turns out the Democrats tucked away a little gift for one of their biggest constituencies, the trial lawyers, in Section 2304 of the new health care law.  It alters the section of the U.S. code that defines what "medical assistance" means for state government health care programs, including Medicaid.  That leaves states open to far more liability.

How many lawyers does it take...  Thousands of lawyers now find themselves drowning in the unemployment line as the legal sector is being badly saturated with attorneys.

Judicial hellholes.  A new report on "Judicial Hellholes" arrives just in time, albeit indirectly, to remind Congress that no health-system changes can qualify as real "reform" if they don't include serious lawsuit reforms as well.  The annual report by the American Tort Reform Foundation, released Dec. 15, shows that President Obama's own Cook County, Ill., is the nation's third-worst place for lawsuit abuse.  Maybe that helps explain why Obamacare, especially as translated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, discourages lawsuit reforms rather than promoting them.

Health-Care Reform Must Serve Patients, Not Lawyers.  As the Obama Administration faces the reality that some sort of compromise with Senate Republicans will be necessary to pass health-care reform, personal injury lawyers have launched a campaign of misinformation to protect their wallets.  The American Association for Justice, a special interest group for lawyers, would have Americans believe that legislation that limits how lawyers can gain from the legal system would hurt patients.  However, it is because of massive lawsuit abuse initiated by the trial bar that many Americans cannot afford health insurance.

Trial lawyers buy Democrats in Congress.  Judging by Federal Election Commission data on the political contributions of people associated with the top 15 class-action plaintiffs' law firms, it's no accident that malpractice reform is not part of health care "reform":  Trial lawyers are investing heavily in their Democratic friends who control the White House and both chambers of Congress.  Since Jan. 3, 2009, 581 contributions worth $1,261,023 have been made by donors identifying themselves as employees of the 15 firms (contributions by employees who did not identify their employer are not reflected in this data).  Democratic candidates and committees received $1,241,978, or 98 percent of the total.

Activist 'Green' Lawyers Billing U.S. Millions in Fraudulent Attorney Fees.  Without any oversight, accounting, or transparency, environmental activist groups have surreptitiously received at least $37 million from the federal government for questionable "attorney fees."  The lawsuits they received compensation for had nothing to do with environmental protection or improvement.  The activist groups have generated huge revenue streams via the obscure Equal Access to Justice Act.

Trial lawyer lobbyist to head traffic safety for Obama.  A former lobbyist for the nation's largest trial lawyer industry group, the American Association for Justice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) is Obama's nominee as administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In England...
 Scandal of lawyers' NHS payout bills.  The cost of fighting clinical negligence claims against the NHS is soaring and most of the payouts are going in the pockets of lawyers, figures show.  In one case, a law firm received 58 times as much as the victim.  In each of the past five years there have been examples of lawyers receiving more than 10 times the sum paid to the victim in compensation.

Murder by Lawfare — How Liberal Lawsuits are Taking American Lives.  Not being able to stop a terrorist before he strikes.  Not being able to remove Muslims who are engaging in threatening behavior on a plane.  Not able to take action against a terrorist plot for fear that the terrorists will be allowed to walk free.  That is what the domestic version of the War on Terror looks like today.  Those are the wages of Lawfare, the legal campaign on behalf of terrorists waged by well known liberal legal advocacy groups...

What the trial lawyers don't mention about their agenda.  American Association for Justice President Anthony Tarricone, the head of the nation's trade organization for trial lawyers, gave a press briefing earlier this month to promote his group's agenda.  There's nothing too surprising in the agenda he outlined. ... But if you pull up AAJ's lobbying filing for the fourth quarter of 2009, you'll find two items that escaped mention altogether.

Here's what is stopping tort reform.  In his Sept. 9, nationally televised speech before a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama made news by saying that medical-malpractice litigation "may be contributing to unnecessary costs" in the U.S. health care system.  Since then, trial-lawyer advocates — including their lobbying arm, the American Association for Justice (AAJ), and various allied "consumer" groups such as the Center for Justice and Democracy — have been engaged in a fierce counterattack.

The Costs of Defensive Medicine.  Many doctors feel the need to practice "defensive medicine" — the ordering extra tests, scans, consultations and even hospitalization — to protect against malpractice lawsuits.  Doctors say the hidden costs of the tests along with malpractice insurance and lawsuit awards are major drivers behind the soaring cost of care and account for up to 10 percent of health care spending.

Tort Reform Is Key To Health Reform.  Though common-sense Americans repeatedly raised the issue of tort reform while discussing health care legislation with members of Congress during town hall meetings this past summer, too many lawmakers and analysts still stubbornly insist that medical liability lawsuits do not contribute significantly to rising health care costs.  These lawmakers and analysts are wrong.

Obama's Tort Reform:  A Tale of Two States.  Consider Pennsylvania, where liberal medical liability laws have enabled more than 10,000 lawsuits to be filed against doctors since 2002, although the Pennsylvania Medical Board reports that only 73 lawsuits were found to have merit.  According to the American Medical Association (AMA), the state is suffering from an "extreme-level" medical crisis.  Pennsylvania's medical liability insurance rates are among the highest in the nation.

Questions Even Glenn Beck Hasn't Asked.  [Scroll down]  How it was that of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence, only 24 were lawyers or jurists, but of the current 100 senators, 60 are lawyers?  While it's true that there are slightly more than a million lawyers in America, that is less than one percent of the adult population.  So how is it that 60% of the U.S. Senate and slightly over 30% of the House members, in addition to their party affiliation, are entitled to put Esq. after their name?

The Malpractice Problem.  The extra imaging study, the extra day in hospital at the end of an admission, the repetitive laboratory testing, the admission to the hospital to be "sure" about the diagnosis are all inherent in the culture of American medical care.  The avoidance of litigation has become ingrained into all aspects of medical care.  Since physicians are not liable for the increased costs of care but are liable for any error or missed diagnosis, it would be foolish for them to act in any other fashion.

Follow the Money.  In case anyone was still sophomoric enough to believe Democrats' pledge that the health care bill is about improving health care, Congress and the White House have consistently opposed the easiest method for lowering health care costs:  limiting malpractice lawsuits.

Report: Limiting medical lawsuits could save $41B.  Limits on medical malpractice lawsuits would lead doctors to order up fewer unneeded tests and save taxpayers billions more than previously thought, budget umpires for Congress said Friday [10/9/2009] in a reversal that puts the issue back in the middle of the health care debate.

There's no shortage of lawyers.  The insufficient regulation and subsequent massive amount of cash available to those pursuing malpractice suits ensures a huge oversupply of lawyers.  Try Googling "medical malpractice" and you'll be faced with hundreds of advertisements for tragedy solicitors trolling for a big malpractice payday.

Lawsuit Firesale.  Here and there across America, good news does happen.  Take Oklahoma, where the looming prospect of legal reform is causing a run on lawsuits.  Earlier this year the state legislature passed a reform abolishing joint and several liability and imposing a $400,000 cap on noneconomic damages, among other medical malpractice changes.

Woman slips on strawberry, gets $21,000.  A woman who was injured after slipping on a piece of strawberry was one of several Newport-Mesa Unified School District employees to receive thousands of dollars in compensation recently.  Board officials at a recent meeting approved settlements in four slip-and-fall cases.

Woman hit by train while taking photos on Tupelo tracks seeks millions from railroad.  Helen Gable was taking pictures on the railroad tracks in Tupelo in 2006 when a train cut her leg nearly off as she tried to get out of the way.

Don't squeeze the telecoms.  Certain Democratic senators are doing their Pavlov's dog routine again, responding to the bell of the trial lawyers who finance their campaigns.  In this instance, they are reopening a fight to make telecommunications companies liable for trillions of dollars for complying with a presidential directive to assist in a "warrantless surveillance" program against suspected terrorists.

Joe Wilson's War.  [Scroll down]  The president threw the GOP something of a carrot by saying he would "look into" malpractice reform and support "demonstration projects" at the state level.  He ignores that malpractice reform has already been acceptable at the state level, most notably in Texas, and no further study is needed.  He knows the Democrats' No. 1 lobby, the trial lawyers, would never permit real reform at the national level.  As we have written, malpractice abuse accounts for between 2% and 10% of all medical costs today.

Obamacare Only Healthy for Lawyers.  Tucked away in the thousands of pages of the Democrats' health care overhaul bill are a number of gifts to the trial lawyers.  Which, by the way, are the Party's largest financial backers.

Why Democrats won't cross trial lawyers.  A former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential aspirant, [Howard] Dean was a practicing physician before he entered politics, so perhaps we should not be surprised by his explanation for why medical malpractice caps (i.e., tort reform) is not in Obamacare.  "The reason tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everybody else they were taking on," Dean said.  "And that's the plain and simple truth."

Tort Reformed.  The Founding Fathers envisioned the states as laboratories for ideas and choices.  If the administration needs a demonstration project for successful tort reform, it need look no further than Mississippi.

Climate lawsuits are coming, Gore & Browner warn.  Former Vice President Al Gore and current White House climate change czar Carol Browner are warning companies and lawmakers that the courts will step in to regulate greenhouse gases if Congress fails to act.  "All of the discussion has been about the president and the Congress," Gore told journalists at a U.N. press conference Tuesday.  "We have a third branch of government:  the courts."

Did someone mention Al Gore?

Manufactured Healthcare Crisis.  The increasing costs of medical care resulting from Medicare, Medicaid and the dramatic growth of malpractice lawsuits have provided activists with the rationale they need to agitate for socialized medicine.  This has been their strategy all along.  Medicare and Medicaid were designed to undermine private healthcare, making it ever more expensive and unmanageable, until enough interest could be generated for systemic change.  Similarly, changes in tort law aimed at turning our courts into vehicles for income redistribution have overburdened our legal system with massive caseloads and the highest liability costs in the world.  While doubtless many thought they were doing good, the ultimate goal, as elucidated by the Left, has everywhere and always been Socialism.

Tort Reform Can Lower Costs Without Harming Health Care.  It seems that the president should be desperate to find some savings in his health care plan, as the Congressional Budget Office has said almost every Democratic Party idea increases rather than decreases spending.  Tort reform may very well be the ticket to heath care savings that President Obama is looking for.

Obama Taps ex-Trial Lawyer Lobbyist to Look at Tort Reform.  There are credible estimates that serious tort reform could save the country between $100 and $200 billion annually in wasteful spending, as doctors practice defensive medicine to preempt lawsuits.  Trial lawyers are adamantly opposed to any caps on damages and have made fighting tort reform their top priority for years.  So tort reform was excluded from Obama's version of health care reform because the trial lawyers would have bitterly opposed it.

Health care run by trial lawyers.  Political power, rather than substance, is at the heart of the Democrats' proposed health care legislation.  Admission of that power-politics reality was the most significant occurrence in a very odd town-hall meeting Tuesday night [8/25/2009] held by Virginia Democratic Rep. James P. Moran.  It is now clearer than ever that plaintiffs' lawyers collectively are the political powerhouse running the health care show.

Caving to Trial Lawyers.  We've always suspected that fear of angering trial lawyers was the only reason President Obama refused to embrace tort reform as a crucial part of achieving his goal of reduced health care costs.  Now we know for sure.  A moment of candor by Howard Dean, the former chairman of the DNC and an enthusiastic backer of Obama's health reform initiative, confirmed our suspicions.

Robber sues store worker who shot him.  The owner of Nick's Party Stop on Cass Avenue in Clinton Township and several people connected to his store are being sued by a man who was shot while robbing the store. ... John Acho, owner of the store and one of the people sued, said his customers are mad that an armed robber is allowed to file a lawsuit after he threatened the store's employees with a knife.

Why I Cancelled My AARP Membership:  [Scroll down]  For any age group, many tests and procedures are ordered because they are available and in the patient's best interest.  Yet how much utilization is caused by physicians practicing defensive medicine?  They fear being sued over missing something that might be found in a diagnostic test.  Ordering guidelines are inconsistent.  Inconclusive tests lead to more tests, in the hopes of ruling out or confirming suspicions.  We are a litigious society and some trial lawyers are all too eager to line their own coffers representing frivolous cases.

Health care reform that actually works!  Here's a modest proposal.  Rather than looking to Massachusetts or Tennessee for examples of health care reform, why not look to Texas?  The Lone Stare state has its problems, but in recent years it has made major progress in improving health care availability, especially in predominantly poor and minority regions. ... Their answer?  They got rid of the lawyers.

Fraud by Trial Lawyers Taints Wave of Pesticide Lawsuits.  After responding to a radio commercial seeking former banana-plantation workers for a lawsuit against Dole Food Co., Marcos Sergio Medrano thought he might be entitled to some money. ... Mr. Medrano is part of the sorry fallout from a group of U.S. personal-injury and other lawyers who descended on this small, impoverished city, seeking to recruit thousands of clients and earn up to 40% of any awards.

Abusive lawsuits:  Suing America into ruin.  To save jobs, stop abusive lawsuits.  That was the gist of the timely message Monday at a hearing on legal reform sponsored by the Senate Republican Conference. ... Orthopedic surgeon David Teuscher, a Desert Storm veteran, told how doctors are literally flooding into [California] as a result of a series of lawsuit reforms Texas adopted in 1995.

Litigation Nation.  Called to a Florida school that could not cope, police led the disorderly student away in handcuffs, all 40 pounds of her 5-year-old self.  In a Solomonic compromise, schools in Broward County, Fla., banned running at recess.  Long Beach, N.J., removed signs warning swimmers about riptides, although the oblivious tides continued.  The warning label on a five-inch fishing lure with a three-pronged hook says "Harmful if swallowed"; the label on a letter opener says "Safety goggle recommended."

Tax cut for trial lawyers.  Congress adjourns for August recess this week.  As lawmakers try to explain to their constituents back home why the world's most advanced health care system should be altered, the one special interest that ought to be targeted is the only one that may get off scott-free — trial lawyers.  In fact, the lawyers want a tax cut.

Why John Edwards Is Responsible for More Unnecessary Operations Than "Greedy Doctors".  It's interesting that President Obama discusses unnecessary operations as one of the causes of high health care costs.  Do you know what the most often performed operation is in the United States?  With heart disease being the number one killer in America, you might think it would be related to that, perhaps bypass surgery or angioplasty.  It's cesarean section.  In 1965, only 4.5 percent of children were delivered via c-section.  Today, 31 percent are.

Climate bill could trigger lawsuit landslide.  Self-proclaimed victims of global warming or those who "expect to suffer" from it — from beachfront property owners to asthmatics — for the first time would be able to sue the federal government or private businesses over greenhouse gas emissions under a little-noticed provision slipped into the House climate bill.  Environmentalists say the measure was narrowly crafted to give citizens the unusual standing to sue the U.S. government as a way to force action on curbing emissions.  But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sees a new cottage industry for lawyers.

Lawsuit alleges unsafe salt at Denny's.  A class action lawsuit filed Thursday by a New Jersey man alleges meals at Denny's contain unsafe salt levels, a non-profit groups said.  The lawsuit, filed with the support of the food advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, seeks to compel Denny's to disclose on menus the amount of sodium in each of its meals and to place a notice on its menus warning about high sodium levels.

The Silicosis Abdication.  It is going on four years since a Texas judge blew the whistle on widespread silicosis fraud, exposing a ring of doctors and lawyers who ginned up phony litigation to reap jackpot payouts.  So where's the enforcement follow-up?

A Chemical Scare Campaign Is Good Business for Some.  If you're unfamiliar with Bisphenol A (BPA), it is a chemical used to make lightweight, versatile, durable, high-performance plastics.  It's also one of the most extensively tested products in the world.  For example, as Norris Alderson, the FDA's associate commissioner for science, said just last year, "a large body of available evidence" demonstrates that products made with it are safe.

Wheelchair granny who shot Harlem crook sued for $5 million.  A gun-toting grandmother who shot a man she says tried to mug her in her wheelchair in Harlem is being sued by the career criminal for $5 million.  Margaret Johnson, 59, whose grandfather was an infamous Harlem crime boss who inspired a character in the film Shaft, says that she now wishes she had killed Deron Johnson when she wounded him in the arm in 2006.

Lefty Foes Attempt to Bankrupt Palin Family.  Since Alaska governor Sarah Palin was named John McCain's running mate, her foes and various Alaskan liberals have begun a new exercise, attempting to bankrupt the Palin family through legal fees, by filing endless ethics complaints against her.

Well, I Do Have Two B.A.s.  In thirty-five years of defending lawsuits, one case sticks out more than the rest.  I have thought about this case a lot lately.  Perhaps the "2009 Pass the Pork Bill" signed by Obama which mortgages our great great grandkids' future reminded me of this case.

Five Ways that Insanity Has Become the New Normal in America:  In our legal system, you can injure yourself doing something utterly stupid, sue someone who just happened to be in the vicinity while you acted like a lunatic, and if you get lucky, you can walk away with millions of dollars while he's driven out of business.  It's like playing the lottery, except your odds of winning are much better.  The evidence of how warped our legal system has become is all around us.  It's difficult to find an obstetrician in some parts of the country because they've been sued out of existence.

Legal Services Unleashed.  The Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress may soon gain another valuable ally in their effort to radically expand government.  On March 26, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) introduced legislation that ends the restrictions on the ability of legal services organizations, funded by the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), to file ideologically motivated lawsuits.  In addition, Harkin's bill, "The Civil Access to Justice Act of 2009," nearly doubles the LSC budget from $390 million to $750 million.  If Harkin's bill is enacted, thousands of legal services lawyers will unleash a barrage of lawsuits in the nation's federal and state courts to advance a liberal political agenda.

How Modern Law Makes Us Powerless:  Americans don't feel free to reach inside themselves and make a difference.  The growth of litigation and regulation has injected a paralyzing uncertainty into everyday choices.  All around us are warnings and legal risks.  The modern credo is not "Yes We Can" but "No You Can't."  Our sense of powerlessness is pervasive.  Those who deal with the public are the most discouraged.

Motley Paint Crew.  The trial lawyer set is getting a lesson in the real definition of "public nuisance."  Late last month, Rhode Island Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein ruled that defendants in a legendary lead-paint litigation should be reimbursed for $242,000 in "co-examiner costs" for a lawsuit they won in July.  The reimbursement may be pocket change to some, but it sends a strong signal to trial lawyers and state Attorneys General that filing frivolous lawsuits is not cost-free.

Buying off trial lawyers to grease the stimulus.  Who knew that plaintiffs' lawyers need to be stimulated?  In a "recovery plan" that President Barack Obama said must be passed with "urgency," why does the Senate weigh down its version of the economic stimulus bill with extraneous provisions having nothing remotely to do with invigorating the economy?  Several sneaky parts of the bill are designed solely to make it easier and more profitable for class-action plaintiffs attorneys to file lawsuits against more businesses.  Not only are the provisions unfair, they also are likely to be job killers in a bill supposedly aimed at job creation.

The trial lawyers' "justice" myth.  Although trial lawyers say they "protect the little guy," that's a myth.  In truth, for every little guy they help, they hurt thousands.

A perversion of Justice:  As vile as pederasts, pedophiles, bottom-feeding scum-suckers, are, there are others who are even worse, if only because they are far more numerous.  For openers, there are the lawyers who use all their guile to con juries into letting these freaks run loose.  I have no idea how these shysters sleep at night, knowing full well that their children and grandchildren could be the creep's next prey.  Next we have the judges, the parole boards, the ACLU and the legislatures, who are all in cahoots to pretend that these perverts are just like other criminals.  It's just not so.

16 illegals sue Arizona rancher.  An Arizona man who has waged a 10-year campaign to stop a flood of illegal immigrants from crossing his property is being sued by 16 Mexican nationals who accuse him of conspiring to violate their civil rights when he stopped them at gunpoint on his ranch on the U.S.-Mexico border.  Roger Barnett, 64, began rounding up illegal immigrants in 1998 and turning them over to the U.S. Border Patrol, he said, after they destroyed his property, killed his calves and broke into his home.

Your Land Is Their Land.  Our southern border is so out of control you can now be sued by those illegally entering the country and trespassing on your property.  Illegal aliens, it seems, have a right to interstate travel.

Update:
 Rancher ruling adds to border debate.  Arizona rancher Roger Barnett initially faced the possibility of paying $32 million to compensate several illegal immigrants he stopped at gunpoint on his land.  He walked away instead with a verdict that rejected any notion he violated the trespassers' civil rights and affirmed that U.S. citizens can still detain aliens crossing the border.  What remains to be seen, though, is what impact the $77,800 in damages that a jury Tuesday ordered Mr. Barnett to pay will have on America's larger immigration debate and the efforts of some illegals to get compensation from a country they aren't even allowed to enter.

Setting the Bar for Corruption.  The real name of the nation's foremost securities class-action firm is Milberg Weiss. … Since 1965, the firm has won, often by tactics indistinguishable from extortion, $45 billion from corporations — more than $1 billion a year for plaintiffs claiming to have been cheated as investors.

The Law is an Ass.  When even Harvard law professor and one-time member of O.J. Simpson's so-called dream team Alan Dershowitz claims that over 90% of all criminal defendants are guilty, why would any sane person want to devote his life to trying to spring hundreds, maybe even thousands, of felons?  I realize that our legal system insists that every murderer, rapist, pedophile and kidnapper, is entitled to the very best defense his lawyer can provide, but what sort of human being wakes up in the morning and, even before brushing his fangs, is busy thinking up ways to aid and abet those monsters?  And just how is he morally superior to the goon who drives the getaway car?

For legions of lawyers, bad markets are good business.  As the corporate victims continue to pile up in Wall Street's great financial collapse, that flapping noise coming from the skies over Manhattan isn't the pigeons circling, it's the vultures.  With personal fortunes, retirement savings and institutional assets evaporating each day, swarms of attorneys from some of the nation's most prestigious firms are positioning themselves to cash in on the escalating misery.

Did someone mention the bailout bill?

No Lawyers, Please.  A poll released this week finds that most Americans do not want their day in court.  Rather, they prefer cheaper and faster methods of settling arguments.  When asked how they'd like to settle a dispute with a company, 82% chose arbitration, which avoids the time and expense of going to court.  Only 15% opted for litigation.

'Over-lawed' nation:  For our money, attorney Norman Pattis still holds the record for the best summation of the legal profession:  "Each year, the bar belches forth a new class of lawyers; we add them faster than they die off.  Lawyers need cases or controversies to survive. As the number of lawyers grows, plaintiffs' lawyers reach ever deeper into the cesspool of human need to find clients."

LA judge rules in $247-million seatbelt suit.  Car owners who claimed a seatbelt installed in some 4 million cars in California was improperly tested and its buckle might open in a crash lost a $247-million lawsuit against the manufacturer. ... The suit didn't claim anyone was injured by the seatbelts but argued they might cause future problems.

Arsonist seeks pension; it's the 'Chicago Way'.  In what squeaky-clean city would a fire department lieutenant known as "Matches," convicted of multiple arsons  — including one sparked at an elementary school — feel that he's still entitled to his taxpayer-funded pension of $50,000 per year?  Oh, don't pretend you don't know the city.  It's Chicago, which must be the epicenter of political reform now that Mayor Richard Daley's guys are running the White House and the U.S. Census, and are about to wet the beaks of federal road and bridge contractors.

Drunk Rides Gravy Train.  He got so drunk that he fell into the path of a subway train — costing him his right leg — but a Manhattan jury still awarded him $2.3 million after finding that NYC Transit was to blame.

In Tight Race, Victor May Be Ohio Lawyers.  If the outcome of next week's presidential election is close, this precariously balanced state could be the place where the two parties begin filing the inevitable lawsuits over voting irregularities, experts say.  The battles could be over the rules for a recount, or how to deal with voters who were not added to the rolls even though they registered properly and on time.  Lawyers could fight over how to count the paper ballots used when the electronic machines break down, or whether a judge was correct in deciding to keep certain polls open late.

Biden Benefits From Trial-Lawyer Donations, Backs Them in Votes.  Joe Biden has been an ally of trial lawyers throughout his tenure in the U.S. Senate, opposing every effort to curb lawsuits against businesses and doctors.  The lawyers are returning the favor.

America Needs a Trustworthy President — Not a Lawyer.  When polled about who they trust (by occupation), people have consistently ranked Doctors and Teachers at the top of the list, and Lawyers at or near the bottom.  In a 2006 Harris Poll, lawyers would have maintained their position at the bottom of the trustworthiness barrel, except for the fact that the Pollster included Actors as a new choice.  Actors are now at the bottom of the list, bumping Lawyers up a notch to second least trustworthy.

The Lawsuit Gravy Train:  Doing It the Black Way.  Writer Shahrazad Ali described the antics of blacks who either had filed class-action lawsuits or were plotting lawsuits against their white employers for so-called discriminatory practices.  Calling this stratagem "a new job related lottery," she chided such blacks for their "perpetual begging" and willingness to have whites "buy and sell" them.  Thanks to today's political climate, the perpetual begging has turned into perpetual demands….

After I-35W bridge collapse, lawyers promptly pounced.  The last victim of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse has been recovered from the water.  The long, complex search for the disaster's cause is ramping up in earnest.  It's about the time we'd expect the lawyers to descend.

The "climate change" gravy train ...
 Flooded Village Files Suit, Citing Corporate Link to Climate Change.  Lawyers for the Alaska Native coastal village of Kivalina, which is being forced to relocate because of flooding caused by the changing Arctic climate, filed suit in federal court here Tuesday [2/26/2008] arguing that 5 oil companies, 14 electric utilities and the country's largest coal company were responsible for the village's woes.

Lawyers Embrace U.S. Climate Practice at $700 an Hour.  Lawyers are becoming some of the best-paid environmentalists.  Twenty of the 100 highest-grossing U.S. law firms have started practices advising companies on climate change, according to a Bloomberg survey of the firms' Web sites.  The attorneys help clients finance clean-energy projects and lobby Congress, typically billing $500 to $700 an hour.

Exposing Trial Lawyer Earmarks Growing in Congress.  Every summer, I suspect that those who work at garden supply stores are inundated by people looking for advice on how to fight back against invasive vines and weeds that creep into their yards. … A similar lesson holds true for trying to contain the growth and threat to our economy of the plaintiffs' trial bar:  no matter how much work we put into bringing balance to the U.S. legal system, there's a good chance plaintiffs' lawyers will regroup and look for new ways to sue.

Judge Ahab and the Whales:  In its storied history the U.S. Navy has defeated German U-boats and the British and Japanese Imperial navies, but we are about to find out if it can be whipped by whales and activist judges.  Welcome to the new world of lawsuits as antiwar weapons.

See also Environmentalists vs. Military Preparedness.

Sublimely Ridiculous Suits.  There's a guy I'd never heard of (and whose name I will not repeat) who has plenty of time on his hands because he resides in a federal slammer down South, where he is serving time for wire fraud and identity theft.  Alas, he has enough time on his hands to be his own lawyer and launch his own lawsuits.  He's claiming I caused him "major mental damage" when I supposedly said, "Anyone who steals credit cards and does identity theft should rot in prison."

After more than 400 lawsuits, disabled man can sue no more.  Whether Jarek Molski is a crusader for the disabled or an extortionist who abused the law for personal gain, the vexatious litigant has filed his last lawsuit.  The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to hear the case of Molski vs. Evergreen Dynasty Corp., owner of a Chinese restaurant in Solvang, Calif., in a legal Waterloo for the 38-year-old Woodland Hills man.  Molski filed more than 400 suits under the Americans With Disabilities Act before a federal judge barred him from future litigation.

Parents Sue Philadelphia for Letting Them Kill Their Child.  The abdication of individual responsibility, along with the chutzpah and greed that drive our legal system to ever new extremes of absurdity, may have reached a climax in Philadelphia, where parents have filed a suit against the city for letting them kill their child.

Lawyer Reveals Secret, Toppling Death Sentence.  For 10 years, Leslie P. Smith, a Virginia lawyer, reluctantly kept a secret because the authorities on legal ethics told him he had no choice, even though his information could save the life of a man on death row, one whose case had led to a landmark Supreme Court decision.  Mr. Smith believed that prosecutors had committed brazen misconduct by coaching a witness and hiding it from the defense, but the Virginia State Bar said he was bound by legal ethics rules not to bring up the matter.

Inmate's freedom may hinge on secret kept for 26 years.  For a quarter of a century, defense lawyers Dale Coventry and Jamie Kunz were bound by the rules of law to hold onto a secret that now could mean freedom for a man serving a life sentence for murder. … Bound to silence by attorney-client privilege, Kunz and Coventry could do nothing as another man, Alton Logan, 54, was tried and convicted instead.

The Editor asks...
 Is attorney-client privilege more important than justice?

We'll Rue Having Judges on the Battlefield.  The Supreme Court's decision in Boumediene v. Bush is being hailed in many quarters as a great victory for civil rights and the rule of law.  It is not.  In fact, it is a watershed in judicial hubris, and in the continuing trend in our society to convert every form of decision making into a lawsuit.

Did someone mention Boumediene?

Safety mania bursts clown's bubbles.  A clown has had to stop blowing bubbles for children to chase after being warned it could be a safety hazard.  Tony Turner, also known as Barney Baloney, will now stick to clowning and juggling after being refused insurance by several companies which feared youngsters might slip on the bubbles' residue.

Professor Sues Students For Doubting Hairbrained 'Theories'.  She claims that her students violated her civil rights.  She says student's "anti-intellectualism" made her life a living hell.  So, this ex-Dartmouth professor is threatening to sue her students for the temerity to have doubted her hairbrained theories on "ecofeminism" and the "French narrative theory." … Why, it was so horrible for her that she felt she had to consult a physician for her symptoms of "intellectual distress."

Stuff and Nonsense.  The drink maker Snapple claims its products are "made from the best stuff on Earth."  But what does "stuff on Earth" mean, exactly?  Does it mean "stuff" that naturally exists?  Or is it enough that the "stuff" can be artificially created?  The answer could be worth $100 million to persons who bought Snapple thinking its ingredients were "all natural," according to a lawsuit filed in early July in federal court in New York City.

Man says hold the cheese, claims McDonald's didn't, sues for $10 million.  A Morgantown man, his mother and his friend are suing McDonald's for $10 million.  The man says he bit into a hamburger and had a severe allergic reaction to the cheese melted on it.

The Editor says...
 A person who is so severely allergic to cheese would have to be an utter fool to trust his health to McDonald's minimum-wage burger-flipping employees.  And wouldn't a person in that fragile state of health look inside the burger before biting into it?  And how do we know it's really cheese and not some artificial look-alike?  I wish I could be on that jury!

The Black Trial:  The human drama the jury didn't see.  Just before the case went to the jury, Conrad Black's two lead attorneys sent him a demand for an additional million bucks each.  No messing around with billable hours and 15-minute increments and $27.59 for photocopying:  just a nice round seven-figure sum by way of supplementary retainer.  A day or two before closing arguments to the 12 men and women who'll decide your fate is no time to pick a quarrel with your lawyers.

Sometimes First Prize is Not an Honor.  If it weren't so sad, it would be funny.  We've become so accustomed to various warning labels that we often forget their proliferation is a direct result of frivolous litigation.  When runaway juries fail to penalize plaintiffs in frivolous cases for their own stupidity — it's called "contributory negligence" in legalese — they think they are raiding corporate deep pockets.  In fact, the pockets they are picking are their own.

Inmate Files Another Bizarre Lawsuit, Names Barry Bonds, Bud Selig and Hank Aaron's Bat.  The prisoner who made headlines by filing a "63,000,000,000 billion dollar" lawsuit against NFL quarterback Michael Vick is at it again, this time suing new home run king Barry Bonds, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and a character unable to defend itself — Hank Aaron's bat.

The Editor says...
 The legal system is in need of repair when an inmate is permitted to file lawsuits unrelated to the case that put him or her in prison.

A ruling so silly, the dissenting judge didn't even read it  This is a case about nothing. … Now, after years of litigation over two dollars, the majority will impose on a busy judge to conduct a trial on this silly thing, and require a panel of jurors to set aside their more important duties of family and business in order to decide it.

John Doe vs. flying imams:  Imagine you're waiting to board a plane and you see fellow travelers acting strangely and muttering words that you don't understand.  Maybe they're Muslim, maybe they're not.  You're afraid that they are up to no good.  What do you do?  Nothing.  If you report the behavior, you might get sued.

Zero Tolerance or Unneccessary Legislation?  In New York the trademark jingle of the iconic ice cream truck has been silenced.  In Sacramento you have to use your inside voice on a thrill ride called the Screamer.  And in Murpheesboro, Tenn., the city council implemented a body odor ban on its workers.  Forget your deodorant and you could be breaking the law. … With more and more schools and local governments telling people what they can't do these days, some say America has become a nation of bans.

Tidal Wave of Lawyers Nears, Bar Applications Forewarn.  Even with 91,000 practicing attorneys in the five boroughs last year, a new wave of lawyers is hitting the city, as a record number of law school students are taking and passing the state bar, according to data provided by the New York State Board of Law Examiners.

When Lawyers Become Bullies:  There are only two ways to do things in life:  voluntarily or forced.  We reporters may be obnoxious, intrusive, stupid, rude, etc., but we cannot force anyone to do anything.  All our work is in the voluntary sector.  But litigation is force.  When a plaintiff sues, a defendant is forced to mount a defense.  If he settles or loses, he's forced to pay.  Government is the enforcer.

Clinton v. Obama:  The Lawsuit.  What splendid theater the Democratic Party presidential nominating process is shaping up to be.  And they are just getting started.  The real fun would be a convention deadlock denouement a few months from now, the prospect of which is already quickening the pulses of scores of Democratic lawyers who have been waiting more than seven years for an encore of their 2000 presidential-election performances.


The $65 Million Dollar Pants

Lawyer's Price For Missing Pants:  $65 Million.  When the neighborhood dry cleaner misplaced Roy Pearson's pants, he took action.  He complained.  He demanded compensation.  And then he sued.  Man, did he sue. … Pearson is demanding $65,462,500.  The original alteration work on the pants cost $10.50.  By the way, Pearson is a lawyer.  Okay, you probably figured that.  But get this:  He's a judge, too — an administrative law judge for the District of Columbia.

Judge suing D.C. dry cleaner chokes up in court while recalling lost trousers.  A judge had to leave the courtroom with tears running down his face Tuesday [6/12/2007] after recalling the lost pair of trousers that led to his $54 million US lawsuit against a dry cleaner.  Administrative law judge Roy Pearson had argued earlier in his opening statement that he is acting in the interest of all city residents against poor business practices.

The Editor asks...
 Can a sane person become so emotionally attached to a pair of pants?

The Great American Pants Suit:  When attorney Roy Pearson filed suit demanding $67 million from the Chung family, whose Washington dry cleaners had mishandled his pair of trousers, he must have felt he was sitting pretty. … Mr. Pearson probably had no idea that his Great American Pants Suit … would stir commentary around the world and come to symbolize the extent to which lawsuits in America can serve as a hobby for the spiteful and a weapon for the rapacious.

The tale of the judge with no clothes:  Showing that he's not totally unreasonable, Pearson acknowledged before trial that $67 million in damages was going a little overboard.  He reduced his damage demand -- to $54 million.  Pearson also asked the judge presiding over the case to award him attorney's fees.  He is representing himself and … Pearson figures he deserves as much as $425 an hour.

Why Judge Pearson's Lawsuit Matters:  Judge Roy Pearson's lawsuit against his drycleaners for losing his pants induces an equal amount of outrage and mockery, but it's important to remember that this kind of legal excess is not that unusual.  U.S. businesses and citizens are constantly bedeviled by litigious cranks and cranky litigators.  Small business owners are especially vulnerable to frivolous but destructive lawsuits.

How quickly the chickens come home to roost...
 Pants lawsuit could cost D.C. judge his $100,000 job.  The boss of Roy L. Pearson Jr., the administrative law judge whose $54 million pants lawsuit has turned the D.C. legal system into a punch line on late-night talk shows, has recommended that the city deny Pearson another term on the bench, D.C. government sources said Thursday.

Dry Cleaner Wins Missing Pants Case.  A judge ruled Monday [6/25/2007] in favor of a dry cleaner that was sued for $54 million over a missing pair of pants.  The owners of Custom Cleaners did not violate the city's Consumer Protection Act by failing to live up to Roy L. Pearson's expectations of the "Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign once displayed in the store window, District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled.  Bartnoff ordered Pearson to pay the court costs of defendants Soo Chung, Jin Nam Chung and Ki Y. Chung.

Pants suit judge hanging on to job by a thread.  For months, calls have poured in from around the globe demanding the dismissal of Roy Pearson, the city judge who unsuccessfully sued a Northeast Washington dry cleaners for $54 million over a missing pair of pants.  A five-person commission today is expected notify Pearson and his boss of their concerns with Pearson.  Some D.C. government officials had hoped to have the matter wrapped up last month.

Judge Who Filed Suit Plans to Appeal Defeat.  The Pants Judge isn't giving up.  A day after the dry cleaners he sued tried to make peace, D.C. Administrative Law Judge Roy Pearson filed notice yesterday that he plans to appeal the verdict against him to the District's highest court.  The owners of Custom Cleaners in Northeast Washington had hoped to head off Pearson by withdrawing their demand that he pay tens of thousands of dollars in attorney fees and prevailing on him to let the case lie.

Even if you win, you lose.
 Dry cleaner in pants suit closes.  The owners of a dry cleaner who were sued for $54 million over a missing pair of pants have closed and sold the shop involved in the dispute, their attorney said Wednesday.  The South Korean immigrants are citing a loss of revenue and the emotional strain of defending the lawsuit.

Judge Who Lost Pant Suit Loses Job.  Roy L. Pearson Jr., the administrative law judge who lost his $54 million lawsuit against a Northeast Washington dry cleaner, lost his job yesterday [10/29/2007] and was ordered to vacate his office, sources said.  Pearson, 57, who had served as a judge for two years, was up for a 10-year term at the Office of Administrative Hearings, but a judicial committee last week voted against reappointing him.

Victims of $67 Million Dry Cleaning Suit Speak Out.  Jin and Soo Chung came to the United States in search of the American dream.  What they experienced was the nightmare of American lawsuit abuse.  While the Chungs may not be household names, most Americans are aware of the $54 million lawsuit over pants they temporarily misplaced.  That lawsuit, which was laughable on its face, has had a very unfunny impact on their business and their lives, forcing them to close two of their three dry cleaning stores and causing years of anxiety and sleepless nights.

Judge in pants lawsuit sues to get job back.  The former judge who last year lost a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against a dry cleaners over a missing pair of pants wants his job back.  Roy Pearson was not reappointed after his term expired as an administrative law judge in the District of Columbia.  He filed a lawsuit Thursday [5/1/2008] in federal court accusing city government and others of an "unlawful demotion and subsequent termination."

[Filing lawsuits is apparently what he does best.]

Appeal begins in lost pants case.  An appeals court has begun a case brought by a former judge who is suing a dry cleaners for $54 million claiming they lost his pants.  "A written opinion should be issued in two to four months" from three appellate judges, said Christopher Manning, lawyer for Jin and Soo Chung, a South Korean immigrant couple that runs the drycleaning business.

$54 Million Missing Pants Case Rejected by Appeals Court.  An appeals court says there will be no new trial for a former District of Columbia judge who sued his dry cleaners for $54 million over a lost pair of pants.  The D.C. Court of Appeals on Thursday rejected the request from Roy L. Pearson to overturn a 2007 ruling that denied him damages.  Pearson had argued that Custom Cleaners failed to live up to its promise of "Satisfaction Guaranteed."

This guy just can't take "denied" for an answer.

The latest:
 Ex-Judge Won't Drop $54M Pants Lawsuit.  A former judge who unsuccessfully sued his dry cleaners for $54 million over a lost pair of pants isn't giving up.  Roy Pearson has filed a petition with the D.C. Court of Appeals, requesting the case be reheard — this time by a nine-judge panel.


No window desk?  That'll cost you $33M, she says in suit.  She's definitely not a woman for all seasons.  A Connecticut secretary who suffers from the "winter blues" is suing her ex-employers for $33 million, claiming they wouldn't give her a well-lit desk with a window view.  Caryl Dontfraid says she has seasonal affective disorder, which causes depression during the fall and winter and can be alleviated by exposure to bright light.

Man sues Zondervan to change anti-gay reference in Bible.  A Canton man is suing Zondervan Publishing and a Tennessee-based publisher, claiming their versions of the Bible that refer to homosexuality as a sin violate his constitutional rights and have caused him emotional pain and mental instability.

Bible Causes 'Emotional Pain' To Man Who Sues Christian Publishers.  A man who claims the Bible has caused him emotional pain is suing two major Christian publishers over their Bibles.  Bradley LaShawn Fowler of Canton, Michigan is suing Zondervan for $60 million and suing Thomas Nelson for $10 million.

Man moved by spirit of God sues church over injury.  A man says he was so consumed by the spirit of God that he fell and hit his head while worshipping.  Now he wants Lakewind Church to pay $2.5 million for medical bills, lost income, and pain and suffering.

Nebraska woman with hearing disability sues McDonald's.  A hearing-impaired woman has filed a federal lawsuit against a local McDonald's, saying workers there refused to let her order food at the drive-thru window.  Karen Tumeh of Lincoln says they insisted she either order at the electronic speaker along the drive-thru lane or come inside to order.

Science is not a democracy.  Because of liability fears and minimal profit margins on lifesaving vaccines, only five companies are still in the vaccine business, down from 26 a few decades ago.  If these few sense increased liability after a verdict against vaccines in federal court, they will flee the market as well.

Leading Class-Action Lawyer Is Sentenced to Two Years in Kickback Scheme.  William S. Lerach, a former partner of the law firm now known as Milberg Weiss, was sentenced Monday [2/18/2008] to two years in prison and ordered to forfeit $7.75 million for concealing illegal payments to a plaintiff in the class-action lawsuits for which the firm became famous.

Canadian Court to Father:  Grounding Daughter 'Too Severe' a Punishment.  What started as a simple case of parent-child disagreement has turned into what some fear is a precedent-setting ruling.  In Quebec, a 12-year-old girl repeatedly ignored her father's rules and posted a profile of herself at an online dating site.  Her father then grounded her from attending her sixth grade field trip.  The punishment lasted as long as it took the girl to notify her court-appointed lawyer, have the judge "fast-track" the case, and ultimately get her punishment overturned by a Quebec Superior Court.

Richland girl sues Hasbro after Easy-Bake Oven incident.  A 6-year-old Richland girl is suing the maker's of the Easy-Bake Oven, Hasbro, Inc., for $1.2 million after she got her hand stuck in the oven for more than three hours.  Emergency room doctors were forced to cut the device off with a bone saw after conventional methods failed.

High court to decide if man should be compensated for bottled fly.  Canada's highest court is to rule Thursday [5/22/2008] on whether a man who found a fly in his bottle of water should be compensated for anxiety and depression.  Martin Mustapha of Windsor, Ont. said he was forever altered by finding the insect, despite the fact he didn't drink from the bottle.  He said he developed a phobia about flies, cannot sleep, is irritable and his sex life has suffered.

Update:
 Hairdresser loses dead fly case.  A Canadian hairdresser who says he suffered from depression and phobias after finding a dead fly in his bottled water has lost a case for damages.  Waddah Mustapha had been awarded $341,775 in damages in 2005, but the Supreme Court of Canada has now overturned that award.

Convict takes Executive to court over 'embarrassing' telephone warning.  A serial offender serving 21 years in jail is spearheading the latest legal challenge for prisoners' rights in Scotland -- complaining that outgoing telephone calls carry a pre-recorded warning.  After a lengthy battle to secure thousands of pounds in legal aid, Stewart Potter, 43, has taken a case to the Court of Session in Edinburgh, claiming the phone message "is an ... embarrassing reminder to his family" that he is calling from prison.

Greedy Trial Lawyer?  Naaah.  When is a contingent fee too high, even for the American Trial Lawyers Association?  How about when it makes their members blush.

Man sues himself in court.  A Californian [of course] has taken the nation's litigation craze to a new level by effectively suing himself.

The Fourth Yacht's the Charm.  Or, "Not only loose lips sink ships."

Bad Medicine:  Numerous anecdotes about frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits.

Tears help in court.  A study by two Norwegian researchers finds clear advantages for those who shed tears during courtroom testimony.  The landmark study will be published in a range of recognized foreign journals, newspaper Dagsavisen reports.  The study found that both victim and accused were judged more credible if they cried during their testimony, and that this effect could be seen even on experienced police officers.

Assault on alcohol industry is a case of litigious malfeasance.  There's nothing new about lawyers attempting to profit from tragedy.  When an individual dies after behaving irresponsibly, an attorney always can be found to blame someone with deep pockets.

Police won't chase if thief has no helmet.  [British] Police refused to chase a thief who had stolen a moped because the youth was not wearing a helmet, the victim said yesterday [6/29/2006].  Max Foster, 18, said officers told him they feared being sued if the thief fell off the moped and injured himself.

Foiled Burglar Sues Store Employees for 'Emotional Distress'.  A man who was beaten by employees of a store he was trying to rob is now suing.

Clinton pardon helps ex-con to law degree.  Serena Nunn is set to graduate from University of Michigan law school — even though she served 11 years in prison on felony drug charges.  Nunn was only able to get into the school after getting pro-bono legal assistance and a White House pardon.

[One has to wonder what kind of lawyer she will be.]

Mentally Retarded Sue, Charging Condo Discriminated.  The condominium board of a Washington Heights building is facing a discrimination lawsuit on behalf of five mentally retarded adults who want to move in.  The lawsuit, filed recently in federal court in Manhattan, is the latest chapter in Margaret Puddington's effort to find a suitable home for her son and four of his friends.  Mark Puddington, 26, and his intended roommates are mentally retarded to varying degrees.

Man files lawsuit to take wife's name.  Mike Buday isn't married to his last name.  In fact, he and his fiancee decided before they wed that he would take hers.  But Buday was stunned to learn that he couldn't simply become Mike Bijon when they married in 2005.  As in most other states, that would require some bureaucratic paperwork well beyond what a woman must go through to change her name when marrying.

[Here we have a man filing a lawsuit to facilitate abnormal behavior, and apparently he found a lawyer who was willing to abet, for a nominal fee.]

Prescription Drugs:  The "Next Wave" of Patient Lawsuits.  To gain leverage against the companies, trial lawyers aim to build "inventories" of hundreds or thousands of plaintiffs that they can settle simultaneously for hundreds of millions of dollars.

34 People Accused Of Fat Fraud.  U.S. Attorney's Office announced Thursday the arrest of 34 people who investigators said defrauded social security using obesity as an excuse not to work.  The 34 Miami-Dade County residents who were named in 25 separate indictments allegedly claimed that they were so overweight that they were unable to work.  Investigators said not a single one of those indicted had a legitimate claim to benefits.

Two! Four! Six! Eight! … Protesters just here to litigate!.  The professional protesters who intend to disrupt the Republican National Convention keep going to court with strange demands.  It can only be concluded that they are professionals, incidentally, for they seem to have time to keep going to court. … While it is certainly true that the citizens have every right in the world to protest, there is no constitutional protection for their demands that they be seen or heard by a certain number of people.  That is their latest complaint.

A Thought Experiment.  One of the most prominent tort lawyers in the country, Melvyn Weiss, was sentenced yesterday to 30 months in federal jail after pleading guilty to paying plaintiffs to file class-action suits.  He must report by August 28th.  His former partner Bill Lerach, equally well known, is already in jail for the same crime, serving two years.  Richard Scruggs, perhaps the most famous and certainly one of the richest tort lawyers in the country (he made hundreds of million in the tobacco settlement case), recently pled guilty to the attempted bribery of a judge.  He will be sentenced July 2nd and faces up to five years.

Class-Action Lawyer Gets 30 Months in Prison.  Melvyn I. Weiss, the prominent class-action lawyer, was sentenced on Monday to 30 months in prison by a Federal District Court judge in Los Angeles for his role in concealing illegal kickbacks to plaintiffs.  He was also ordered to pay $9.8 million in forfeitures and $250,000 in fines.

How does this guy sleep at night?  He defended John Hinkley, Jr. after the latter's attempt to assassinate President Ronald Reagan.  He defended former Bolivian Defense Minister Carlos Sanchez-Berzain, a human rights violator accused of 67 deaths.  He was a "personal attorney" for Kofi Annan in the UN Oil for Food scandal and he provided "special counsel" to Bill Clinton during his impeachment trial. … And he's a senior foreign policy advisor to presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama.

Tort Tribute:  How Democrats repay the plaintiffs bar.  Democrats devoted their first months in the majority to paying back unions for their electoral support.  Now it's time for the other huge campaign bankrollers.  And don't think the trial bar, beat down by years of GOP tort reform, isn't expecting to feel the love.  Since 1994, law firms and lawyers have thrown a half-billion dollars at getting lawsuit-friendly Democrats back in the majority.

Lawsuits make us less safe.  Why do we have to worry about shortages of flu vaccine?  Because only a handful of companies still make it.  And why is that?  Because when you vaccinate millions of people, some get sick and sue.  Between 1980 and 1986, personal-injury lawyers demanded billions of dollars from vaccine manufacturers.  That scared many American drug companies out of the business.

Ex-Professor Claims Dog Feces Is Political Expression.  The lawyer for an ex-professor accused of leaving dog feces at a congresswoman's office said her client's actions qualify as protected speech under the First Amendment.

Homework Case Gets an "F" for "Frivolous".  Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly reported in February 2005 that a Wisconsin high school student and his father had filed suit against the student's math teacher and the school district that employs him, alleging it was unconstitutional to deprive the student of a "homework-free summer."

Environmental activists' suits damage wildlife in the long term.  Environmental groups are unwittingly destroying forests and killing wildlife with lawsuits.  Ironically, they are doing so while claiming to save them.  Activists again are filing lawsuits to stop forest management, and the government pays them to do it.  They craft settlements that pay them handsomely with taxpayer money so that they can live well and file the next lawsuit.  No wonder they are inflexible.

Cleanliness is next to ... Litigiousness.  A Denver, Colorado woman has been sued by her elderly neighbors for bathing.  According to news reports, Marvin and Goldie Smith, 83 and 78 respectively, have sued their neighbor, Shannon Peterson, alleging that her 5 a.m. baths cause the water pipes to shake so violently that the elderly couple cannot sleep.  A letter from the Smith's son, a partner in the Holland and Hart law firm … ordered her to stop running water in her unit before 8 a.m.

No Escaping a Lawsuit.  The families of seven illegal immigrants who died after being abandoned in a sealed truck trailer while being smuggled into the United States are suing the trailer manufacturer in federal court.  Specifically, the relatives claim that the manufacturer is liable for the deaths because there "were no warnings, instructions, decals or other means of warning of the dangers of transporting individuals inside the trailer."

Supreme Court Buries Patent Trolls.  The U.S. Supreme Court has tipped the balance in patent disputes ever so slightly toward the users of patented technology and away from inventors, owners of intellectual property and the hated "patent trolls" — companies that make money by suing for infringement of patents they own but don't use.

West Virginia Sees Some, Not Enough, Tort Reform.  There are two tort systems in West Virginia, or so it seems to observers of the litigation climate there.  The first has been reformed in recent years, delivering the benefits of competition and choice to consumers, lowering prices, and luring companies and professionals.  The second tort system, however, continues to drag down the West Virginia economy, delivering verdicts against defendants that bear little relation to actual damages or a fair reading of liability.

Pick up the pace.  In my years doing consumer reporting, I watched every American industry find ways to do things better, faster, and cheaper.  Today's computers cost less, but are more powerful.  Cars got better.  Supermarkets offer more for less.  Most every business is better.  But not the law business.  In law, everything is slow and expensive, and our choices limited.

The peculiar fruit of the legal profession:
 Wacky Warning Labels.  Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch (M-LAW) conducts an annual "World's Wackiest Warning Label Contest," and many of the winning labels are highly amusing. … Plaintiffs' lawyers who file the lawsuits that prompt these warnings argue they are making us safer, but the warnings have become so long that few of us read them anymore — even the ones we should read.

Teflon accusation doesn't stick.  Teflon has recently gone from the frying pan into the fire, thanks to some money-hungry lawyers.  They've cooked up a scary story, adding a dollop of hyperbole for good measure.  Unfortunately, they left out common sense and science.

When sexual "harassment" is a joke.  By the year 2020, every American will be a victim.  Give it another 15 years, and there will be a study that puts every man, woman and child into one aggrieved group or another.

Death by a thousand lawsuits.  Though many Islamic groups across the United States have been closed since 9/11 for ties to terrorism, some Muslim organizations being accused of having similar such connections have turned for help to a branch of the government, specifically the courts.  In most instances, though, the point does not seem to be winning or clearing one's own name, but rather to do what the government cannot:  stifle criticism.

City Gun Suits Are No Business of Congress.  Quite simply, the power to control frivolous lawsuits belongs to the states.  Those who would have it otherwise, including the NRA, are asking for trouble.

Litigation central:  A flood of costly lawsuits raises questions about motive.

Fixing the jury system:  When prospective jurors are given 30-page questionnaires made up by lawyers, asking intrusive questions about their personal lives and beliefs, the situation has gotten completely out of hand.  Courts do not exist for the sake of lawyers but for the sake of the public.  Allowing lawyers to fish around in hopes of finding one mushhead who can save their client makes no sense.

Jurors more likely to convict unattractive people.  Lawyers have long suspected that the more attractive their clients are, the less likely they are to be convicted of an offence.  Now they know why.  A new study has identified two types of juror, with one group whose minds work emotionally rather than rationally, judging defendants by looks rather than evidence.

Wisconsin is about to become a Mecca for lawsuit abuse.  In July 2005, the Wisconsin Supreme Court abolished one of the classic requirements for recovery in lawsuits involving injuries allegedly caused by products.  The legislature approved a bill that would fix the damage done by the court, but Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed it on January 6.  The court's and governor's reckless decisions could open the doors to lawsuit abuse, resulting in heavy costs to consumers, workers, and investors in our state.

Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly — Special Hurricane Katrina Edition.  Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly readers will be dismayed — but not surprised — to learn plaintiffs' lawyers are following close on the heels of rescue workers in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Painting the Town … with Lawsuits.  Officials in Oakland and San Francisco have joined other California counties and municipalities in a lawsuit against eight U.S. paint and pigment manufacturers, the Lead Industries Association, and "up to 50 fictitiously named companies."  The suit, based on lead paint exposure among children, is akin to proceedings launched more than a year ago by the State of Rhode Island. … It is important to note the very special attribute of this suit:  local governments, not injured children or their parents, are the plaintiffs in this case.

Dr. Coburn, I Presume.  [Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, an obstetrician,] no longer accepts new patients and has withdrawn from a group partnership he belonged to with other physicians.  He estimates that in today's litigious climate he needs $200,000 a year to pay for his expenses, mostly malpractice premiums.

Arizona Prosecutor Has New Twist on Prosecuting Illegal Aliens.  [Maricopa County Attorney Andrew] Thomas said that since the suspects paid the coyotes to transport them across the border, they are complicit in their own smuggling and therefore guilty of conspiracy.

[That's a bit of a stretch, but it is quite clever!]

What left-wing law professors consider "mainstream".  Law school clinics weren't always incubators of left-wing advocacy.  But once the Ford Foundation started disbursing $12 million in 1968 to persuade law schools to make clinics part of their curriculum, the enterprise turned into a political battering ram.  Clinics came to embody a radical new conception that emerged in the 1960s — the lawyer as social-change agent.

Judicial Hellholes®  are places that have a disproportionately harmful impact on civil litigation.  Personal injury lawyers seek out these places because they know that they will produce a positive outcome — an excessive verdict or settlement, a favorable precedent, or both.

Judicial Hellholes® 2007.  The Rio Grande Valley and Gulf Coast of Texas ... is recognized as one of the toughest places in America for corporate defendants to receive a fair trial.  This year, there was a surge in personal injury lawsuits related to dredging, a judge's "pocket veto" of an appeal of a $32 million award against a pharmaceutical company in a case where a juror knew and had taken loans from the plaintiff, and several particularly ridiculous lawsuits filings.

This article is about the use of frivolous lawsuits to badger political enemies.
 CNS fights the good fight.  Well, I have just lost an argument with Brent Bozell, head of that indispensable media monitor, the Media Research Center.

Bill Would Punish Frivolous-Lawsuit Filers.  Lawyers could lose their licenses for a year for repeatedly filing frivolous lawsuits under a Republican bill headed for passage in the House.  Supporters say such lawsuits, deemed baseless by a judge for flimsy facts or faulty interpretations of the law, are a waste of court time and often a bonanza for lawyers rather than a chance to recoup legitimate damages for clients.

Conflict of Interest.  It's a simple system.  Deep pocketed personal injury trial lawyers flood Democratic coffers with cash won exploiting the legal system.  In exchange, elected Democrats pledge to reject tort or class-action reform or anything else that might drain their Golden River.  But what happens when trial lawyers are the lawmakers?  Massachusetts is finding out.

Teacher sues student over hall collision:  A New Jersey school teacher is suing an 11-year-old boy who accidentally collided in the hallway with her two years ago while he was running to catch his school bus.  The boy was unaware that his family was being sued until a sheriff's deputy showed up at his door with a summons.

Mothers sue over gender test that promised 99.9% accuracy.  In a class action lawsuit filed in the US district court in Boston on behalf of 16 women the makers of the Baby Gender Mentor are accused of breaking their promise.  Barry Gainey, the women's lawyer, said he knew of about 100 women whom the kit had failed….

The Editor says...
 These gender tests are not just to tell the mother what color of curtains to buy for the baby's room.  Many people use these tests to facilitate gender-selection abortions.  And naturally there are plenty of lawyers around if you want to file a "wrongful gender" suit.

The tort tax:  Having figured out how to win the legal lotto, [Erin Brockovich] and her firm are now suing several oil companies and the City of Beverly Hills, claiming some public high-school students in attendance there between 1975 and 1997 have cancer from oil-well vapors.

Jackpot Justice and the Wal-Mart Case.  Class action suits became tremendously more profitable, especially for lawyers whose contingency fees sometimes exceeded the money paid out to successful plaintiffs. Contingency fees are commonly viewed as a necessary device by which poor plaintiffs can access the court system. … But the excesses of contingency fees have become infamous, leading critics to label class action suits as "jackpot justice" for lawyers.

The Vioxx lawsuit:
 When punishment is the crime.  The story from Angleton, Texas, is — well, you know by now:  Merck & Co. killed Robert C. Ernst!  In fact, there's a far bigger story:  "Runaway Texas jury consigns untold thousands to pain, suffering and, for all anyone now knows, death."  Not the most economical headline you ever read but true — deadly true.

Book review
 Fire and Smoke:  Government, Lawsuits and the Rule of Law.  Author Michael Krauss, a leading legal scholar on the relationship between tort law and personal freedoms, systematically dissects the tobacco and firearm recoupment lawsuits.  He shows how such lawsuits betray every criterion of sound, effective, and just tort law.  The lawsuits against gun manufacturers can show no damages, no proximate causation, and no wrongdoing.  Similarly, governments have no direct damages to claim against tobacco manufacturers and cannot legally stand in the place of individual smokers or their families.  Fire & Smoke concludes that recoupment lawsuits are incompatible with civil freedoms, representative democracy, and the rule of law upon which institutions of a free society depend.

Interesting web site
 Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly:  A huge collection of news items (dozens, perhaps hundreds of anecdotes) about frivolous lawsuits all over the U.S.

About auto litigation:  Every mass maker of vehicles for the U.S. market — even Volvo, even Lexus, even BMW — has faced lawsuits in American courts alleging that its designs are impermissibly unsafe.  The explanation is not that all models are defectively designed, but that drivers of all models get into accidents — and when crash victims' injuries are serious and the other driver underinsured, lawyers will often stretch quite a ways to find some theory or other that allows them to pull in the maker of the car as a defendant.

Stupid Lawyer Tricks.  The tort system is corrupting.  By rewarding — in cold cash — irresponsibility and a tendency to blame others for unavoidable misfortunes, we are eroding our national character.

Illinois Supreme Court Reverses Billion Dollar Class Action Award.  The Washington Legal Foundation [has] scored a major victory for consumers, and a blow against "regulation by litigation," when the Illinois Supreme Court overturned an unprecedented $1.05 billion class action judgment entered against State Farm Automobile Insurance Company.  The Court ruled 6-0 that it was wrong for the case to be certified as a nationwide class action on behalf of auto insurance policy holders, and that in any event, the plaintiffs failed to establish breach of contract damages or consumer fraud.

More Microsoft Antitrust Suit Insanity.  I have to "admire" just how lucrative the antitrust racket can be.  Manufacture an injury under the antitrust laws, create a class (however lethargic and unresponsive) and simply stand by to cash in.  Why would anyone even bother defend the rights of businessmen when the real money is made in looting them — and the businessmen go along with it?

Florida Reins in Asbestos Litigation Abuse.  Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) on June 20 signed legislation to reform the state's asbestos litigation system.  Florida joins a growing number of states that are requiring plaintiffs to present evidence of actual medical ailments before recovering damages from companies linked to the manufacture of asbestos.

Some Asbestos Grace.  The asbestos lawsuit blob has grown so large that many companies have simply given up fighting it.  Then there's W.R. Grace, which is on the verge of making legal history with a trial proceeding that could alter the federal asbestos bankruptcy landscape forever.

Michigan House Considers Asbestos Bill.  On May 23, the recently organized Michigan House of Representatives Committee on Tort Reform, by a vote of five to one, reported favorably to the whole body House Bill No. 5851, which would greatly change Michigan tort law related to asbestos and silica lawsuits.

The $3,000 an Hour Trial Lawyer.  Five dollar vouchers for the "victims," hundreds of millions of dollars in cash for the lawyers.  Those are the proposed terms in just the latest in a long line of courtroom abuses perpetrated by America's trial lawyers.

Class Action Shakedown.  Trial lawyers continue to exploit the American legal system.  Will Congress finally stop the abuse?

A Country Named Sue.  American business people these days … know that just about any employee they fire, for good cause or bad, can (if possessed of a sharp lawyer and a dull conscience) use the leverage of a lawsuit threat to demand a whopping severance packet.

America Has Grounded the Wright Brothers.  Today we seek to escape the responsibility of judgment while demanding that progress be risk-free.  New products are expected to be instantly perfect, to last forever and to protect us from our own failings — or else we sue.  By the late 1970s, general aviation accidents reached their lowest point in 29 years — yet liability lawsuits were up five-fold, and manufacturers were sued for even such obvious pilot errors as running out of fuel.

Reparations or Rip Off?  What may become the most massive attempted financial rape of the American Government and its 200-million taxpayers, for crimes which no one living committed, is now being plotted by a consortium of trial lawyers.  They are well known for their excessive class-action lawsuit successes against segments of U.S. society in the past decade.  With the claim of seeking justice, if they win, the greatest injustice ever attempted could bankrupt the government and people of the United States.

Pair arrested for telling lawyer jokes at Long Island courthouse.  Did you hear the one about the two guys arrested for telling lawyer jokes?  But seriously folks, it happened earlier this week to the founders of a group called "Americans for Legal Reform," who were waiting in line to get into the First District Courthouse.

Courts $pank frequent filer.  In the courts, he's known as Mr. Litigious.  Meet Peter Malley, a former math teacher who has filed 18 federal lawsuits against the city after he was fired by the Board of Education in 1987.  But the Clifton, N.J., instructor never got over it.  Instead, he has filed 15 lawsuits in Manhattan federal court and three others in Brooklyn and New Jersey courts, seeking reinstatement and millions of dollars in damages.

Transgender Woman Sues Catholic Hospital for Refusing Breast Augmentation Surgery.  A transgender woman in California has gone to court, claiming that a Catholic-affiliated hospital discriminated against her when it denied her request for breast augmentation surgery.

Gun Control Group Stands Against Lawsuit Control.  A gun control group that uses lawsuits in an effort to bankrupt the gun industry says it is opposed to tort reform legislation — legislation, it says, that would "shut the courthouse doors to victims of negligence and mistreatment."

Asbestos Litigation Is Bankrupting America:  Sixty-five percent of the funds generated by asbestos litigation, according to a RAND Corporation study, doesn't reach the people who are supposed to benefit, but finances instead a complex and adversarial system that rewards lawyers much more richly and consistently than victims.  Congress has been repeatedly asked to remedy the situation, yet opposition from trial lawyers (who are major donors to the Democratic Party) has kept it from acting.

The Wrong Approach on Asbestos.  Hundreds of firms face the imminent threat of bankruptcy at the hands of a predatory trial bar with all the economic calamities that inevitably result — lost jobs, a depleted source of settlements and destruction of the retirement pensions of ten of thousands of employees.


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