Web Site Exposes Earmarks for Trial Lawyers

A online and media campaign exposing the vast number of liability-expanding provisions slipped into key legislation by the plaintiffs’ trial bar was launched today by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform.

The site, TrialLawyerEarmarks.com, illustrates the breadth and scope of the trial lawyer agenda through a tangle of vines overtaking the U.S. Capitol Building. The vines, rooted in areas of law the plaintiffs’ trial bar is working to revise in order to bring more lawsuits, highlight and monitor the 48 trial lawyer provisions currently pending in the 110th Congress.

I decided to check out some of those earmarks and was stunned by what I found. For instance:

• The Carbon Neutral Government Act of 2007 (H.R. 2635) seeks to authorize lawsuits against the government on behalf of citizens “aggrieved” by a covered agency’s failure to meet the act’s emissions requirements. Under the Act, defendants could be required to pay a fine to the U.S. Treasury and damages to the plaintiff for the impact of global climate change. Through this legislation, trial lawyers are looking for ways to cash in on the effects of global warming by tapping the taxpayers to pay if federal agencies fail to limit greenhouse gases.

• The Energy Independence and Tax Relief Act of 2008 (S. 3125) would grant a $1.6 billion tax break to trial lawyers by changing the rules on how expenses incurred during the representation of a contingency fee client are deducted. Through this legislation, contingency-fee attorneys want to get a special tax deduction for money they loan to their clients AND have those loans later reimbursed as part of their clients’ awards.

• The Consumer Product Safety Act Reauthorization (S. 2045) contains provisions that would grant authority to state attorneys general to enforce the federal act in addition to, and independently of, the Consumer Product Safety Commission. It also contains a dramatic increase in penalties (including fine amounts and possible asset forfeiture) for violation of the statute. Adoption of these earmarks will result in higher prices for consumers because companies would have to worry about complying with different standards in different states.

There are, of course, many other examples of proposed trial lawyer-friendly earmarks. Check them out here.

-- Bob McCarty Writes