Hello:

Can somebody educate me? I'm lost... There's this group of businessmen called trial lawyers. Republicans HATE 'em. I don't know why. They're really no different than any OTHER group of businessmen that Republicans love. They don't screw over the little guy any more than any OTHER group of businessmen. So, it can't be because they're looking out for you.

Actually, trial lawyers DO look out for the little guy by offering him contingency fees. Maybe THAT'S why Republicans don't like them - because they DO help the little guy... Otherwise, WHY do Republicans HATE trial lawyers?

I think something actually happened. I think there was a confrontation. I'll bet tom can tell me what it is. Or do they just hate the fact that a little person can get heard in court?

excon

A lawyer once told me... 99% of lawyers give the rest of us a bad name.

I'll give a short answer and come back later when I have more time... John Edwards the ambulance chaser. .

In my view too many lawyers write laws . Now if we could ban lawyers from running for public office I bet their stock would rise .

Hello again, tom:

I ain't buying it. You don't like John Edwards for lots of reasons, none of which has to do with how he made his money... I'm not going to look right now, but I'll bet there's plenty of right wing wealthy ambulance chasing lawyers that you think are just fine...

Please try to not go all political on me.

excon

PS> What is WRONG with ambulance chasers? Ethics?? Why are their ethics questioned, when the ethics of the insurance company who might be denying services for their client, ISN'T?

Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants. That's what's wrong with ambulance chasers, suing McDonald's because some moron didn't realize coffee was hot.

Because trial lawyers suck 10% of the GNP away with predatory litigation .
Punitive damages. - Free Online Library

Because there are too many of them for the good of the nation . Because they invent this legalese language that only they can decipher and then they write the laws with this pigeon Latin-English so that people are dependent upon them to defend themselves. If the law was written in plain English most people would not need to retain their services.

Because their job does not have justice as it's primary concern ,and there is no level too low that they aren't willing to stoop to in their client's behalf... lies, deceit ,character assassinations are tactics .Their professional ethics say nothing about right and wrong, fairness and unfairness, justice and injustice .

Because the trial lawyer lobby uses it's deep pockets to kill real health care reform if it negatively impacts their fee potential . Because as I said there is a conflict of interest when lawyers get to write the laws. Because the laws they write don't penalize frivilous lawsuits. Because it is one of the few industries that effectively polices themselves without any outside oversight. Because they will make a career out of making malpractice cases against the medical profession but are generally not subject to malpractice claims for their own actions .
And that's just scratching the surface.

Trial lawyers make lots of money. They only make money if they win or they've taken on a case and got paid ahead of time. The insurance defense attorneys make money regardless if they win or lose. Hey, if we had laws capping jury awards at reasonable limits instead of the 12 bazillion dollars for a personal injury lawsuit, then how are the trial lawyers going to make out? (The Plaintiff attorneys that is).

Trial lawyers fight tooth and nail to keep such "caps" away from the court rooms. The trial lawyers have a huge lobby in Washington and they spread the dough around quite freely to keep things that way.

If we had legislators who were not attorneys draft the laws of the land - gee, it would make more sense. But, sadly, that will NEVER be the case regardless of if it's the Dems or Repubs in control of the Congress.

Because they are not Republicans, You can't like them if they are not one of the good ole boys.

And I don't understand why rich business people would want to support a party that wants to take the money away from rich business people,

What is your problem, ex, it is all part of that wonderful free enterprise system which isn't about freedom after all but about how much you can extract from the other guy with the minimum of squealling, now if you can stick an insurance company in the middle so much the better. Where I come from we have such things as taxed costs, that stops the lawyers inflating the bill, however the bills are still huge. I agree with you there should be limits on liability but the difficulty is how do you calculate them. The insurance industry has been good at setting limits and values in policies on certain sorts of damages. Obviously what might be reasonable damages for you or I is very different when you are dealing with multimillion corporations. What should be stopped is the ability of lawyers to stonewall a case for years so that the plaintiff might ultimately die before the case comes to trial