Money talks: Lawyers’ cash equals legislative power

Most of Philip K. Howard’s “Life Without Lawyers” is focused less on rogue lawyers than it is on the laws and rules that provide fertile ground for those lawyers to operate.

Still, Howard doesn’t ignore the fact that many of those laws are written by legislators deeply beholden to rapacious lawyers who finance their campaigns.

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On Page 157 of his book, Howard recounts “a meeting with a Democratic leader in the House of Representatives to discuss better ways of handling Medicare malpractice disputes.” A large and diverse coalition of groups was behind a particular idea for a pilot project, and the congressman said it sounded like a good idea.

Then the congressman asked, “How do the trial lawyers feel about it?”

“They hate it,” Howard answered.

And that was the end of it. “We can’t support it,” the lawmaker said, “if the lawyers are against it.”

Similarly, on Page 160, Howard tells how Democratic Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia “tried to champion legal reform in the late 1990s.” But, one staffer told Howard of Rockefeller: “He’ll never make that mistake again.”

Writes Howard: “Most Democratic politicians I know believe that lawsuits have gotten out of hand. But they would never say it publicly because that would offend the trial lawyers, the party’s second-largest source of campaign funds.”

The statistics bear out the immense difference in how the plaintiffs’ lawyers treat the respective parties.

The plaintiffs’ most prominent national organization is the American Association for Justice (formerly named the Association of Trial Lawyers of America). According to opensecrets.org, AAJ consistently made its biggest donations to Democrats.

In 2008, of 154 House or Senate candidates who received $10,000 or more directly from AAJ, 149 were Democrats and only five were Republican. In 2006, only five of 191 were Republican. In 2004, only six of 137 were Republican, with the rest, again, all Democrats.
(The five Republican recipients of $10,000 each from AAJ in 2008 were Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Bill Posey of Florida, Timothy V. Johnson of Illinois, and Lee Terry of Nebraska, along with Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho.)

The congressmen’s constituents, Howard writes, “are not mainly the folks back home. ... The important constituents are the special interests that provide the resources for political campaigns.”

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Top recipients of campaign donations from the American Association for Justice, 2008

Cazayoux, Donald J. (D-La.) House $25,000
Kissell, Larry (D-N.C.) House $16,000
Richardson, Laura (D-Calif.) House $16,000
Tsongas, Niki (D-Mass.) House $16,000
Carmouche, Paul J. (D-La.) House $15,000
Childers, Travis W. (D-Miss.) House $15,000
Foster, Bill (D-Ill.) House $15,000
Mahoney, Tim (D-Fla.) House $12,500
Carson, Andre (D-Ind.) House $12,000
Kagen, Steve (D-Wis.) House $12,000
Murphy, Christopher S. (D-Conn.) House $11,000
Shaheen, Jeanne (D-N.H.) Senate $11,000
Merkley, Jeff (D-Ore.) Senate $10,750
Braley, Bruce (D-Iowa) House $10,500
Van Hollen, Chris (D-Md.) House $10,500
Warner, Mark (D-Va.) Senate $10,500
Begich, Mark (D-Ark.) Senate $10,250
Durbin, Richard J. (D-Ill.) Senate $10,250
Edwards, Donna (D-Md.) House $10,250
Oberstar, James L. (D-Minn.) House $10,250
Udall, Mark (D-Colo.) House $10,250