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New Report: How Trial Lawyers, Inc. Buys Political Influence, Blocks
Tort Reform, and Costs Americans Billions
Over the last few decades, the plaintiffs’ bar has grown into
an organized industry (which the Manhattan Institute calls Trial
Lawyers, Inc.), and the trial-lawyer lobby has emerged as a major
political force that combines large-scale political giving with
K-Street lobbying sophistication.
Although the trial bar’s political clout is well known, a
new report released by the Manhattan Institute, Trial Lawyers,
Inc.: K Street—A Report on the Litigation Lobby, 2010,
the latest edition in its Trial Lawyers, Inc. series, shows that
the extent of its influence is greater than even many seasoned political
observers realize.
- What is the extent of the plaintiffs’ bar political giving
to the Democratic Congressional leadership?
- Lawyers have donated $1.05 billion to federal candidates since
1990, including $33 million in contributions from the trial lawyers’
political action committee, the American Association for Justice
- Two of the top five private contributors to the Democratic
Senatorial Campaign Committee in the last campaign were plaintiffs’
law firms
- Plaintiffs’ law firms are four of the top seven contributors
to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the top two
(and seven of the top twenty) contributors to Senate Majority
Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)
- How has the litigation industry parlayed its Congressional clout
into an aggressive legislative agenda?
- The first bill signed into law by President Obama made it
easier to file discrimination suits by limiting statutes of limitations
- Numerous bills in Congress would eliminate arbitration contracts
that encourage resolution of disputes that are too expensive
to take to trial—including a defense-contractor amendment
that was the first legislative success for Senator Al Franken
(D-Minn.)
- Senator Arlen Specter (D-Penn.), whose son Shanin is a major
Philadelphia plaintiffs’ lawyer, has introduced a bill giving
the plaintiffs’ bar a $1.6 billion tax cut
- How is Trial Lawyers, Inc. aggressively pursuing a political
agenda at the state level?
- Lawyers have donated $725 million to state political candidates
over the last decade
- The litigation lobby is pushing state legislation that would
authorize new kinds of lawsuits, weaken limitations on collectible
damages, and give private lawyers authority to sue on behalf of
the state
- Concentrated political giving in states with elected judiciaries
has led to an escalating spending race that harms public confidence
in judicial impartiality
- What is the effect of lawsuit abuse on American competitiveness?
- The annual direct cost of American tort litigation exceeds
$250 billion, almost two percent of GDP
- Indirect costs, like defensive medicine and reduced research
and development, likely exceed direct costs
- The share of the U.S. economy devoted to tort litigation is
two to three times higher than that in other developed nations,
like Germany, Britain, and Japan—yet Americans are not safer
as a result
Read the full report: http://www.triallawyersinc.com/kstreet/kstr01.html
To schedule an interview with the author,
Jim Copland, please contact Hannah Martone at (646) 839-3313
or hmartone@manhattan-institute.org.
The Manhattan Institute, a 501(c)(3), is a think
tank whose mission is to develop and disseminate new ideas that
foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility.
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