COMPARING SCRUGGS, LERACH & WEISS TO KOZLOWSKI, SKILLING AND LAY, ATRA PRESSES CONGRESS TO LOOK INTO TRIAL LAWYER MISCONDUCT

Washington, DC, April 23, 2008 -- With an op-ed in today’s edition of The Hill newspaper and recent quotes in CQ Weekly, American Tort Reform Association president Sherman “Tiger” Joyce has pointedly asked: “Why isn’t this Congress — always quick to drag corporate executives or baseball players into hearing rooms — willing to investigate alleged misconduct among trial lawyers?

“Within the past several months, three of the nation’s most powerful, widely known plaintiffs’ lawyers have all pled guilty to federal felonies in connection with their corruption of our civil justice system?” Joyce wrote in his Hill op-ed.

“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.”

Joyce pointed out that the crimes of the three notable trial lawyers were not “qualitatively different than the crimes of Dennis Kozlowski at Tyco or Jeff Skilling and the late Ken Lay at Enron,” which led quickly to congressional hearings and enactment of a strict reform law known as Sarbanes-Oxley.

He acknowledged that, “while no credible critic of America’s litigation industry alleges that all plaintiffs’ lawyers are criminals, Bill Lerach himself, using an ‘everybody does it’ argument to minimize his crimes in an online interview published on the eve of his February sentencing,” suggested that trial bar corruption may be rather widespread. “‘Believe me, it was industry practice,’ Lerach insisted, referring to lawyers’ unlawful payments to lead plaintiffs in class actions.

“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,’” he continued.

“So why aren’t chairmen of the House and Senate judiciary committees and other congressional leaders calling for hearings into apparent corruption within the litigation industry?” Joyce’s Hill piece concluded.

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The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) is the only national organization dedicated exclusively to tort and liability reform through public education and the enactment of legislation. ATRA's membership includes non profits, small and large companies, as well as state and national trade, business, and professional associations.