Trial Lawyers Lobby Sinks $6.2 Million In Debt

by S.A. Miller and Kara Rowland - September 28th, 2009 - Washington Times

The American Association for Justice, the most prominent group representing plaintiffs' attorneys, has seen a shake-up in its executive suite and has struggled to deal with what appears to be a mounting budget shortfall. To help it fight congressional efforts to make it harder for patients to sue doctors and lawyers, it recently sent out an extra solicitation to its members, asking them to fork over money for a lobbying campaign.

The most striking evidence of its financial woes is a swift decline in income, which resulted in a more than $6.2 million deficit in its operating budget for the fiscal year ending July 31, 2008, the most recent year for which data are available.

The reality is that most of the money that lawyers win in lawsuits goes into the pockets of lawyers, not the people who may or may not have been mis-treated by doctors. In most cases, they are winning lawsuits like John Edwards won them, based on fraudulent claims. It is now well known that increasing the frequency of Cesarean section deliveries does not protect either the babies or the mothers, especially when a singnificant number die as a result. John Edwards got rich by killing mothers based on a lie.

When do we get to sue him for his fraud?