Unraveling of liberal financing: "Miracle in Mississippi"

Wall Street Journal ^ | dec 3, 2002 | Editorial

[The Raven]

The old expression that "You can't fight City Hall" has been replaced in some circles with a belief that you can't fight the trial lawyer lobby. But last week the trial bar suffered a major defeat in Mississippi, and if reform can happen there it can happen anywhere.

[The Raven]

[standing and applauding]

[txzman]

The absolute #1 Goal of the Republican Party and conservatives everywhere should be Tort Reform in every nook and cranny of this country's economy.

Also standing and applauding.

[goldstategop]

Yup. Life ain't all Erin Brokovich.

[Claire Voyant]

Finally!! 60 Minutes did something right.

[The Raven]

>> "The jury awarded these people the money because they felt as if they were going to get a cut of it," he told "60 Minutes." "They benefit after court . . . under the table."

If this scam is going on (asbestos, pharaceuticals, tobacco, etc)....the "fair thing" to do is first prove it and then reverse the decsions made and give the companies their money back.

[friendly]

Lt. Governor Amy Tuck announced yesterday she is changing parties to become a Republican. One reason is the excessive influence she says trial lawyers have over the Democratic Party.

Wow! An honest democrat!

By the way, the poorest counties in Mississippi no longer have obstetrical or trauma care, having been decimated by the utterly corrupt lawyer industry. The judges also receive blatant pay-offs as documented on the Overlawyered.com web site.

[iopscusa]

"...this scam is going on (asbestos, pharaceuticals, tobacco, etc)....the "fair thing" to do is first prove it and then reverse the decsions made and give the companies their money back"....

and put some Trial Lawyers / Scammers and their political enablers in JAIL!

[The Raven]

>>and put some Trial Lawyers / Scammers and their political enablers in JAIL!

Good point.

Follow the money.

[FreedomPoster]

>>In Jefferson County, the number of litigants in asbestos-related cases alone exceeded the county's population.

If many of these were actually going to trial, and I was a local getting called to jury duty for this nonsense, I would be extraordinarily annoyed with my State's legal system.

Glad to see some rationality being injected. This is an important issue for the long-term health of the American economic system.

[Cacique]

btt

[fone]

An OB/GYN friend of mine just opened up his own office (Ohio) and had to come up with $70,000 down payment for malpractice insurance (now he can afford the monthly premium). He invested almost his entire life savings...

The madness needs to stop somewhere, and TORT reform seems like the best avenue. The American Dream is no longer owning a home, it is hitting the jackpot. A lawsuit seems to have better odds than the lottery, eh?

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Also standing and applauding.

Dittos for all that standing and applauding... Breaking the trial lawyers could be the biggest achievement yet for the GOP -- and one of the very best things that could happen for this society.

[friendly]

Jackpots for vermin lawyer scum (am I being too subtle?).

BTW for every dollar spent on liability insurance 10% goes to the insurance co., 30% to the plaintiff, and 60% to the various lawyers (including the defense lawyers).

In the case of New York State, about 10% goes as payoffs to crooked judges. At least that is the going rate in Brooklyn according to testimony in the rare trial and conviction of a judge.

[GBA]

This is great news! For Mississippi and for America in general.

The other real surprise is that CBS's 60 minutes would air a program like it did. I didn't see, having given up on the possibility of objective journalism coming from ABC, CBS, and NBC long ago. (All of their major news anchors make me ill when I watch them) No doubt CBS has fired whoever produced that story. I mean, how could Clinton's DNC ever allow CBS to produce such a program.

[FormerLib]

60 Minutes did something right.

Even a stopped clock...well, you know.

[TroutStalker]

This has got to be the top issue for the new Republican congress. Winning this will take away a lot of democRAT issues about health care and the economy, since their goal has been to drive providers of all kinds of goods and services out of business so that the government becomes the defacto provider.

Tort reform needs to become the first item of business for the administration on domestic issues.

[TroutStalker]

In case you haven't seen this.

[bourbon]

the Jackson Clarion-Ledger exposed how the state's image as a "tort hell" was hurting the state economy.

Whatever! The Clarion-Liar is just the propaganda arm of the MS Trial Lawyers Association.

Despite this minor error, this is article is VERY good news. MS has definitely been suffering for years in need of this kind of reform.

I think that there is a good lesson here for conservatives.

But that changed as business groups and doctors organized.

When the good, hard-working, honest people decide to get organized and fight back, they can get results. In Mississippi, tort reform has been publicly debated for about two years. Eventually, the majority of citizens there just stopped believing the claims of the trial lawyers. At some point, the trial lawyers' masks came off and they were revealed to be not the well-intentioned populists they said they were, but an underhanded, self-interested faction who were bent on controlling the state and managing her for their own profit. Perhaps one too many people compared the public utterances of this crowd, complete with all its Bryan-esque rhetoric of "helping the little guy," to the unbelievably lavish, indeed downright decadent, lifestyles these lawyers lead? Perhaps, one too many people caught sight of Dickie Scruggs' Gulfstream V or saw Roe Frazer speeding to work in downtown Jackson in his Ferrari?

Oh, an here's an additional piece of good news that's not in this story! Many of the state judicial nominees who were hand-picked by Musgrove and his merry band of trial lawyers were summarily rejected at the polls in November.

It was only a matter of time before the conservative elements in MS woke up and fixed this problem. I for one am very glad they did!

[bourbon]

(((PING)))

Excellent News!

[bourbon]

IN OTHER GOOD NEWS:
Conservative to become chief justice of MS Supreme Court.