Why is a trial lawyer a bad thing?

[southernleftylady]

please explain this to me?
isnt a trial lawyer for the little people? are all trial lawyers snakes? of course not!
ack these people drive me crazy!

[GOPisEvil]

1. Trial lawyers are bad because they support Democrats.

Everyone hates trial lawyers until they need one.

[bushwakker]

12. Pro-choice Catholic politicians are bad if they're Democrats

Entertainers should keep their mouths shut if they support Democrats.

[goodboy]

2. Because they take money from shrubby's buddies....nt

[newyawker99]

23. Hi goodboy!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Triana]

3. to a Repug...

...a trial lawyer is a bad thing only when said lawyer defends the 'little people' against the big corprat interests such that the big corprat can't screw said little people and get away with it - THAT is what Repugs hate.

But of course they'd hate Edwards whether he was a trial lawyer or not, it's just the easiest target for them. And let's face it, they're none too imaginative when it comes to the demogogury they have to use because they can't win on the issues (at least not the ones important to the larger population) so they gotta sit-n-spin on something. With Edwards, it's that he's a trial lawyer - and one for the "little people" no less!

[Tosca]

4. Trial lawyers

Bite into corporate profits and that's bad, bad, bad. Think what they did to our poor tobacco companies! What a travesty!

[Jade Fox]

5. Anyone who thinks there is something inherently wrong with trial lawyers..

ought to rent the movie "Erin Brockovich" and see what a real lawyer did
for some very cheneyed-over people in California.

I can't remember where I heard/read this, but the writer John Grisham
(Runaway Jury) said that this whole anti-lawyer/tort reform thing is about
huge Corporations wanting to make it more difficult to sue them for large
damages. I figure he's as good a source as any.

[SharonAnn]

10. Absolutely. Trial lawyers hold corporations accountable.

THey don't like that. They REALLY don't like that.

[Champion Jack]

6. Lincoln was a trail lawyer.

Abe, I mean.

[DAGDA56]

7. I'll bet "Kenny Boy"'s opinion...

...of trial lawyers has changed recently.

[displacedtexan]

8. Republicans don't hate trial lawyers. They hate juries.

I wrote about this today on my blog:

http://www.ascrivenerslament.blogspot.com/

Scroll down.

[bushwakker]

13. I always point this out to people who rant against trial lawyers

Who do you think serves on a jury? The editorial board of The Nation magazine? The local Communist Party cell? The mailman, the housewife, the retired guy down the street, the college student, the small business owner, the corporate exec - in short YOU serve on the jury. Rational, thinking fellow citizens who have heard the facts and been instructed about the law make the decisions.

[SharonAnn]

9. Because the opposite, a corporate lawyer, is a good thing!

Isn't it?

[welshTerrier2]

11. it's not !!

read this: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1951219&mesg_id=1951219

[onecitizen]

14. It isn't a bad thing.......

that's just Right Wing hyperbole.
I've decided that the Right Wing doesn't want to be held accountable for ANYTHING they do. PERIOD. So they hate Lawyers, cause Lawyers hold them to account to a certain extent. Take bush for example, NOTHING is HIS fault. Nothing. His deceptiveness knows no bounds.

[Mechatanketra]

15. This is it in a nutshell.

Republicans hate trial lawyers for the same reason mob bosses hate a clean cop -- they make it harder to conduct dirty business. And you're dead on when you connect this talking point to the RW's overall behavior.

Generally, the GOP is in favor of anything that produces more criminal convictions (regardless of their validity) and against anything that could produce more civil judgements (regardless of their validity). The important thing to them is not that anyone's life actually be safer, but just that they think something's been done about the problem.

This is, of course, entirely in keeping with this administration's approach to just about everything. Worries about unemployment? Change the way we count the jobless. Worries about manufacturing losses? Start reclassifying the jobs we still have as "manufacturing". Worries about pollution? Change the rules so global warmers don't count as pollutants. Worries about falling wild salmon populations? Reclassify released farm salmon as "wild". Worries about Geneva violations at Abu Ghraib? Censor news about Abu Ghraib citing Geneva. In just about every situation, the approach is not ever to actually solve the problem, but just to hide it.

Is it any wonder this is the most secretive administration in history? Every problem the nation has means something they have to hide.

[onecitizen]

25. Amen! nt

`

[bleedingheart]

16. my father in law is a trial lawyer and a liberal democrat

he is a good guy.

[notbush]

17. Not all trial lawyers are bad ...but some are

I don't care where you live there's a trial lawyer who spends a small fortune advertising on TV. Had a wreck????don't sign the insurance company's offer, we can get you more.(we'll threaten a lawsuit). Get hurt at work...don't settle with workman's comp., we can get you more.(We'll threaten a lawsuit).
In my area that guy is Bradley J. Pistotnic. Ambulance chaser extrodinair.
If you had a legitimate lawsuit....you sure wouldn't go to him.

[Sweetpea]

18. Well maybe a trial lawyer can look at false report and know that

isn't a basis for a war.

[notbush]

19. You can do better than that

Like I said in my previous post......No matter where you live you've got a Bradley J. Pistotnic.
The trial lawyer that everybody hates.
And as I said before... the lawyer you wouldn't go to if you had a real lawsuit.

[notbush]

20. It's late...but I really want someone to defend your communities

local ambulance chaser......

[Gyre]

21. All kinds out there

Other's have said it better, but the nub is that trial lawyers are sometimes the vehicle to hold corporations accountable for the people they injure. Hence, they are instrumental in a redistribution of wealth. All rich people hate that anybody can take their money away from them no matter how badly they've behaved. Frequently, "rich" equals repubs. Lawyers an easy target because almost everybody has a bad lawyer story to tell. The ambulance chasers you see on TV are a disgrace, but an American tradition at the same time. I'm a prosecutor and a trial lawyer and I personally resent the hell out of Bushites trying to make trial lawyers the boogey man when it's them that's undermining the Constitution that they swore to uphold. They can go to hell with their simple-minded soundbites. :grr:

Gyre

[Yupster]

22. The lawyers I don't like are

the ones who file ridiculous class action claims knowing they won't go to court, but will make them plenty.

I've been in two class action suits. They were both nonsensical in my opinion.

The first one was filed against my mortgage company. The suit alleged that the company kept too much money in escrow accounts, more than was necessary to cover taxes and insurance. The suit alleged that the customers were ripped off of the difference between what the escrow account paid and what could be gotten by some funds rate. Anyway, I got a check for about $ 3 and the escrow company agreed to keep a smaller escrow surplus. After that when taxes were raised by the local school board, I'd get a letter asking for an additional check since the escrow account was short. My house has been long since paid off, but I thought that was ridculous, and the lawyer no doubt made a million.

The other case was even more ridiculous. A lawyer claimed an insurance company I had an investment in didn't fully enough exlain its mortality and expense fee in its prospectus. The settlement awarded me $ 2,500 of accidental death and dismembermnt insurance free for two years. A completely worthless benefit. The lawyer no doubt made a million. As an investor, I know I ended up paying for the cost of the suit somehow.

Anyway, the only people who benefitted from either of those cases was the lawyer.

[DaveSZ]

24. Gore would be pres if it weren't for trial lawyers

.