A LAWYER SPEAKS OUT

Whatever might be said about John Kerry’s candidacy–one thing for sure is that his choice of John Edwards as his VP running mate should give everyone a reason to reject this ticket–and that is that Kerry has chosen a trial lawyer to sell his philosophy to the American people.

I have been a lawyer for almost 40 years. I am generally proud of the profession, notwithstanding the many corny lawyer jokes I’ve had to suffer. However, there is one segment of the legal profession of which I am not proud, and that is the so-called trial bar–the plaintiff’s’ attorneys who have for years raped, pillaged and plundered American society, usually in guise of rectifying ills that don’t exist.

True, there are some wrongs that needed to be righted, but for every one of those, there are thousands of lawsuits that have been filed solely for the purpose of lining the pockets of some trial lawyer or group of trial lawyers. The class action lawsuit has become the mainstay of this group of these vultures, and the result of most of these class actions has been to put millions of dollars in the bank accounts of the lawyers and nothing, or next to nothing in the pockets of those on whose account the lawsuits were supposedly filed.

The other day, I received a check from a bank who had fallen victim to a class action for violating one of the myriad of regulations that are supposed to protect consumers. The check, which has been framed and is hanging on my office wall is for four cents — $00.04 ! That represents my share of the recovery for the evil that was allegedly perpetrated upon me by the bank. The lawyers who brought this lawsuit received millions of dollars.

There are thousands of examples of such absurdities. Take the lawsuit filed by trial lawyers against the United States on behalf of illegal immigrants and their families for causing their death or injury in the desert while attempting to illegally enter the U.S. That might sound outrageous, but it is no more outrageous than hundreds of other such cases filed by trial lawyers across America every day.

Much has been made by the media about how John Edwards is the son of mill workers. A lot more needs to be said about how he made his millions–and that was from medical malpractice lawsuits. The result of these “med-mal” lawsuits has been to drive many doctors from practice solely because the premiums for med-mal insurance have become so monstrously high, the practice of medicine, particularly in some specialties like OB-GYN, is almost prohibitive. Many small communities have lost their doctors altogether – thanks to lawyers like John Edwards.

This ridiculous state of affairs can only be corrected by what has been called “tort reform”. In its simplest form, tort reform means placing limits on the damages, especially punitive damages, that can be recovered against a defendant. There has been an effort made in the Congress to do just that–but that effort has been beaten back by, guess who? The American Trial Lawyers Association, which is one of the largest contributors to members of Congress, Republican and Democrat.

Of course John Edwards is a member of the ATLA, and has become wealthy from the many lawsuits he has filed against doctors and others. Now, there is nothing whatsoever wrong about becoming wealthy — that is the American dream. But when you do it on the backs of doctors who are trying to serve a community as best they can and have to abandon their practice because they can’t afford medical malpractice insurance thanks to the lawsuits filed by Mr. Edwards and his friends in the trial bar, that is nothing to be proud of.

One thing for sure, tort reform won’t be in the platform of a Kerry-Edwards ticket You can expect to see the ATLA and it’s individual members support Edward’s candidacy with vigor and money. It’s been bad enough that I have had to suffer the disrepute of lawyers caused by these members of the legal profession. I certainly don’t want to suffer even more because of the Vice-President of the United States.

Brent Moody is a practicing attorney in Phoenix, Arizona.