Plaintiff-Lawyer abuses

[Jolie75]

Following corporate accounting scandals at Enron, WorldCom and elsewhere several years ago, Congress quickly went to work tightening the regulation of corporate governance. But the Congress yet to acknowledge three of the nation’s most powerful, widely known plaintiffs’ lawyers who have all pled guilty to federal felonies in connection with their corruption of American civil justice system. Melvyn Weiss of the firm formerly known as Milberg Weiss, his former law partner William Lerach, and Mississippi legend Richard Dickie Scruggs each copped to conspiracy charges — Weiss and Lerach for paying a stable of on-call shareholder clients used in trumped-up securities litigation, and Scruggs for bribing a judge over the distribution of lawyers’ fees in a Hurricane Katrina insurance lawsuit.

There’s also a growing body of bullet-proof evidence documenting comparably endemic corruption in asbestos and silica litigation, and a 2006 Harvard School of Public Health study concluded that four out of every 10 medical malpractice lawsuits filed in America each year are “groundless.”

But this Congress doesn’t seem to care. In the past, lawmakers showed an interest in reining in the trial bar’s abuses. The Class Action Reform Act, signed into law by President Bush in early 2005, has been credited with reducing the number of speculative, constitutionally questionable class actions that personal injury lawyers had previously shopped to friendly state court judges around the country, regardless of where the plaintiffs and defendants resided or did business, or where the alleged injuries in a given case may have taken place. The House a in 2004 also passed the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act, which aimed to reinstate serious sanctions for attorneys found by a judge to have filed a “frivolous” claim or motion. Both times, senators failed to consider the measure.

Dick Weekley who is active in community affairs and the CEO of TLR seems unhappy of the turns of events as many foreign countries with which America competes economically maintain commonsense safeguards against lawsuit abuse. And the crimes of Dickie Scruggs, Bill Lerach and Mel Weiss aren’t qualitatively different than the crimes of Dennis Kozlowski at Tyco or Jeff Skilling and the late Ken Lay at Enron.

[doG]

IMO this is just one more example in a long list of Congress' dereliction of duty. The people and the States are having the same problems getting Congress to do anything about illegal immigration, tax reform, lottery litigation and frivolous lawsuits, domestic energy policy and exploration, etc., etc.. Representation in our government is malfunctioning at an astounding level. It seems it is no longer of the people, by the people and least of all for the people. It has become the people vs the government

[Phi for All]

It has become the people vs the government

Agreed on all the rest except this, doG. I think the government is the tool being wielded badly. Corporations have too much power and they've moved beyond simple bribery and corruption. Now they're actively engaging in a reformation of the way the government deals with them. They've created yet another business partner, this one with the deepest pockets of all.

 

We can still take the government back. I think it's obvious that our government can still oppose the mega-corps, otherwise why are the mega-corps working so hard to change it?

[doG]

It has become the people vs the government

Agreed on all the rest except this, doG...

We can still take the government back.

 

This looks contradictory. First you disagree then in the end you agree.

 

IMO we do not currently have a Congress that is working for the people but one that it working against it and yes, we need to take it back.

[ParanoiA]

This looks contradictory. First you disagree then in the end you agree.

 

IMO we do not currently have a Congress that is working for the people but one that it working against it and yes, we need to take it back.

 

Allow me to split hairs even further. We do not currently have a Congress that is working for the people, but one that is working irreverent to the people - and yes we need to take it back.