There are thousands of good, honest trial lawyers in America –- men and women who represent the interests of their clients faithfully without trying to subvert the judicial system or shake down legitimate businesses and wreak havoc on our economy. But you might not think so judging from the words of their official spokesmen.
Mostly liberal, trial attorneys are inclined to support the monopolistic, government-run health care plan touted by President Obama and House and Senate Democrats. There seems to be a limit to their ideological commitment, however.
Trial lawyer lobbyist Linda Lipsen, senior vice president of public affairs for the American Association for Justice (AAJ), warned her organization's members at its July meeting that the health care "medical utopia" being created by Democrats in Washington might face a "danger zone."
As reported exclusively by LegalNewsline.com, Lipsen identified U.S. Senators Max Baucus (D-MT), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), and Tom Carper (D-DE) as moderate Democrats who could jeopardize health care "reform." She described the trio as "business Democrats that aren't necessarily that great for us."
Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, is known to favor nonprofit member-owned health care cooperatives over the single-payer public option. His committee is the "danger zone," apparently, because it's there that amendments are likely to be proposed for tort reform and limits on medical malpractice claims.
In other words, the American Association for Justice has no problem supporting the nationalization of one-seventh of the economy, the biggest government takeover of private enterprise in the history of our country. But any effort -– however feeble -– to attack the problem of lawsuit abuse and thereby limit the earning potential of big bucks attorneys, that's verboten.
Strange sense of priorities, it seems.
If Lipsen truly speaks for them, one could conclude that AAJ members see themselves as adversaries of American businessmen; that they put their own interests above the common good, and that none of them understand that a thriving economy redounds to the benefit of all.
If that's the case, we might want to scuttle Obama's health care "reform" and nationalize the legal industry instead.