Posted on 03/28/2008 8:12:20 AM PDT by Graybeard58
As the prison doors prepared to swing open to admit yet another notorious trial lawyer, this time Melvyn I. "The Class King" Weiss, Vanderbuilt University law professor Richard A. Nagareda found some solace in the mounting troubles in the plaintiffs'-bar world.
The publicity accompanying the spate of prominent attorneys who bribed judges, paid kickbacks, hired professional plaintiffs for fraudulent class-action lawsuits or otherwise corrupted the legal system is "in some ways fortuitous," he told The New York Times, because now "there is more awareness that there is some level of abuse going on."
That's sort of like Josef Stalin confessing that guests of his gulags may have suffered some level of maltreatment. But it is gratifying to hear a member of the fraternity admit, even this belatedly, that the class-action industry is corrupt and that trial lawyers aren't the squeaky-clean, justice-seeking altruists they pretend to be. Albeit obliquely, Mr. Nagareda admits America's courtrooms have become warrens for felonious money-grubbers on steroids.
Mr. Weiss has agreed to plead guilty to participating in a criminal conspiracy for his part in a scheme involving side payments to professional plaintiffs in class-action lawsuits brought by his firm, which the feds say shelled out $11.7 million in kickbacks that helped it collect $209 million in tainted fees.
Three of Mr. Weiss' partners pleaded guilty previously, and the firm, which has been generous in its support of the political careers of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, and a fifth partner remain under indictment.
Mr. Weiss, who faces up to 33 months in prison and $10 million in penalties, apologized to all "the wonderful and extremely talented lawyers and other employees of the firm," but had nary a word for the corporations and shareholders he financially damaged or ruined with his subterfuge and his quest for multimillion-dollar legal fees.
Perversely, trial lawyers share their ill-gotten fees with liberal politicians to ensure meaningful tort-law reforms, which could have prevented the sort of abuses that made Mr. Weiss and countless others in his profession very wealthy, never come to pass.
Alas, the damage inflicted by Mr. Weiss, his partners, Richard "Dickie" Scruggs and other trial lawyers in and out of prison remains. As Nell Minow of the research firm Corporate Library told the Times, the fruit of their nefarious labor is America's sue-crazy culture: "Because of what he has accomplished, lawyers do not need to scrounge for plaintiffs."
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
If you want on or off this list, let me know.
I was reading an article with Chief Justice Roberts asking congress to address pay raises for judges who frequently earn less in a year than some of the lawyers arguing before them earn in an hour.
Sentence structure alert!
If the Republicans had any stones and any concern for their constituents they would be riding these convictions all the way to Tort Reform.
What makes you think the Republicans want to see any real change?
Oh, BTW, Trent Lott is Dickie Scruggs’ brother-in-law, and he just happened to have called to chat with one of the judges in question.
There isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the 2 parties.
Tort reform has been working well in Texas. So many doctors are moving here from other states there's a 3-6 month backlog in licensing.
Let me clarify - the ones that aren’t in on it lack the will to take on the Dems and the lawyers and the others who don’t care about their constituents are making too much money to want to stop it.
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