The following are quotes from government officials and prominent attorneys on the need for civil justice reform.

"The era of big government may be over, but the era of regulation through litigation has just begun." Robert B. Reich, former Secretary of Labor, USA Today, February 11, 1999, 15A.

"We would not foreclose that possibility." Attorney General Janet Reno, when asked whether the Federal Government might consider hiring private plaintiffs' lawyers to assist in President Clinton's proposed suit against the tobacco industry.

"Are there other public issues that in my view merit this type of litigation?...We have a problem right now with chemicals that are flooding into the water supply and an industry that just again refuses to address the problem." Wendell Gauthier, who represents the city of New Orleans in its suit against gun makers, New York Times, Wednesday, March 10, 1999, A14.

"...Lawsuits make gun controllers look less like advocates of a meddling nanny state and more like champions of consumer protection and corporate responsibility." E.J. Dionne, Washington Post, Tuesday, March 2, 1999, A17.

"Right now our plates are full tackling these politically powerful and unregulated industries. But we are interested in taking a close look at the exorbitant prices of prescription drugs for the elderly for example. Unless the courts reject our approach, we will continue to utilize it to tackle industry bullies." John P. Coale, who also represents the city of New Orleans in its suit against gun manufacturers, Washington Post, January 31, 1999, B5.

"...the decision to take two of the most intractable public health disasters to court are born out of the same deep frustration with lobbies and legislatures....Now the public has a new weapon. Ready. Aim. Sue." Ellen Goodman, Washington Post, Saturday, February 27, 1999, A21.

"...because the more natural and democratic alternative of getting the legislature to do something seems to be ruled out by the lobby power of the industry." Harvard University Law Professor Lawrence Tribe, Washington Post, Saturday, February 27, 1999, A21.

"Fifty or more years from now, as mankind travels to the outer reaches of the solar system, lawyers will still be clipping their $500 million tobacco coupons." Professor Lester Brickman, The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, December 30, 1998, A10.

"Quite simply, contingent fee contracts between a state and a private attorney should be illegal. In a free society, we cannot condone private lawyers using the power of the state to enforce public law -- with an incentive to increase the penalties. As the Supreme Court cautioned more than 60 years ago in Berger v. United States, (295 U.S. 78 (1935)) an attorney for the state, 'is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all.'" Robert Levy, Legal Times, February 1, 1999, 29.

"The caffeine lobby has borrowed a tactic or two from the nicotine gang." Helen Cordes, Washington Times, July 23, 1998, A20.

"We're negotiating with AG's on another disease area. We're also negotiating too on some business tort cases. And some consumer protection cases." Plaintiffs' lawyer Ron Motley, Fortune, July 21, 1997.

"I can't discuss the theory of our case, but if the evidence suggests that we should pursue other industries, we'd be happy to review it." Attorney General Janet Reno, when asked by Rep. Charles Taylor whether the Federal government planned to sue industries other than tobacco.