:: The “Trouncing of the Trial Lawyers”
By focusing on litigation reform at the state level, business has won key battles. Suddenly, it’s a tough time to be a plantiffs’ attorney.
An interesting article appears in this issue of BusinessWeek. By channeling huge investments into advertisements, elections of judges and Congressional races, the business community has succeeded in suppressing plaintiff’s cases across the nation. Ironically, the article suggests that perhaps the effort has gone too far:
Sitting in a conference room high over Houston’s Galleria neighborhood, James L. Reed Jr. and two other attorneys from Looper, Reed & McGraw contemplate the new legal landscape. Looper Reed’s 60 attorneys represent small and midsize businesses, so one would presume that their clients have only benefited from the new environment. But Reed notes that there has been a “ripple effect” from the changes that is affecting commercial cases, too. His colleagues J. Cary Gray and Jack Rains, both self-described conservative Republicans, agree.“It’s a hell of a lot harder for one of our clients when a contract gets breached to collect all of their damages,” complains Gray, noting that conservative judges take a very narrow view of what kind of damages they will even allow a jury to consider. In general, Gray says, he thinks many Texas judges are “afraid of big verdicts coming out of their courtrooms,” even in a dispute between businesses. Citing a group of rice producers he and Gray represent and the limits they may face on their claims, Reed notes: “They’re starting to get educated about how much tort reform is too much tort reform.”While the success of tort reform cannot be disputed, the cause of the current trend will be the subject of debate.
Insurance companies with poor complaint versus market share ratios have been at the forefront of the successful campaign for limiting plaintiffs’ rights. And medical malpractice insurance rates rose dramatically during the past five years, though the amount insurers paid out in claims did not according to a CBS News Report. The article contains the following comment which sums up the obvious question:
“This is wacky,” said Jay Angoff, a former insurance commissioner in Missouri and the primary author of the study. “Now what’s the insurance companies’ defense to this?”
Nonetheless, successful trial lawyers have neglected the public relations aspect of their high profile cases. The focus has shifted from the harm visited on the consumer by reckless and negligent acts to the fees and conduct of lawyers representing the consumer. The issue has become so acute that the trial lawyers have actually changed their name.
In the end, the consumer will most likely be the casualty of the large scale battle between the special interests groups. The ultimate irony will be that each protagonist will continue to battle using the small consumer as a proxy for their cause.
