July 07, 2004

The Dems & the New New Left. "The trial lawyers represent a whole different strain of activism, which people haven't really figured out yet. Unlike public-policy-preneurs, the new breed of legal sharks are private-sector entrepreneurs operating within the government, although with few checks and balances. These lawsharks learned their profit-maximizing craft not in a legislature, but in a law school. Nobody votes for them, except for juries, and yet most people instinctively cheer for them, because these attorneys pose as champions of the "little guy," and people haven't yet figured out that a) other little guys end up paying the bills for such lawsuiting; and b) the legal tycoons typically keep a third of what they rake in.

In other words, we are all poorer so that a few trial lawyers can get really rich. But until that weird process of upward-redistribution is better understood, Edwards can pose as Mr. Underdog. And he can take pride in his "accomplishments" -- not legislating in the Senate, but litigating in the South, most notably against doctors and auto companies. According to The New York Times, from 1985 to 1997 he racked up $175 million for his plaintiff-clients from 1985 to 1997; his personal fortune is estimated by North Carolina Lawyers Weekly to be at least $38 million.

To be fair to Edwards, he's not just in it for himself; he's in it for other trial lawyers, too. In the Senate, he was Their Man. Not only did he oppose caps on malpractice awards, he supported legislation to allow new lawsuits against HMO's .. After 9-11, he even helped defeat an amendment to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, an amendment that would have limited on trial lawyers' ability to sue in wake of a terrorist attack. In other words, Al Qaeda attacks the US -- and after the attack, the trial lawyers can go in to shoot wounded companies ..

According to the Manhattan Institute: "'Trial Lawyers, Inc.' behaves like the biggest of businesses, as it generates cash from traditional profit centers (like asbestos, tobacco and insurance), explores potential growth markets (like lead paint, mold and regulated industries), and develops new products (like suits against the fast-food industry) ..

"Out of total U.S. tort costs of over $200 billion -- more than 2% of GDP -- Trial Lawyers, Inc. grosses $40 billion per year in revenues, or 50% more than Microsoft or Intel and twice those of Coca-Cola."

These big-dollar figures made by big-bucks barristers have taken the favored vehicle, the Democratic party, light-years away from its origins among the sons of toil; the new leading men are sophists of tort. In fact, the Edwardsite trial lawyers have wiped out jobs in whole factories and industries, from tobacco to aviation to construction, as they made their millions and billions ..

MORE -- James Pinkerton. Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack