he problem with our legal system, comedian Steven Wright points out, is that “99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.” He must have hit a nerve. In 2006, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America realized their name wasn’t exactly generating warm fuzzies, prompting them to rebrand as the “American Association for Justice.”
So, we had it all wrong. They’re not greedy trial lawyers, they’re here for “justice.” And get with the times, do not accuse them of “ambulance chasing.” How gouache. No, today’s justice warrior is modern and sophisticated, he can find all the victims in need of his services right on their living room couches or Posturepedics watching late-night TV.
Like a mile-long tuna net dragging through the Atlantic, trial lawyers … er, justice guys, snag clients by the boatload with the help of lead generators and aggregators. In 60 seconds, TV viewers and internet surfers can quickly be folded into massive multi-billion-dollar tort litigations against medical companies or other businesses unfortunate enough to have the financial assets that make them worth targeting.
Of course, there are people with legitimate claims, but the attorneys behind the ads don’t care whether the viewer actually suffers a condition or if that condition is tied to the targeted company; the more plaintiffs that sign up, the higher the likelihood of forcing defendant companies to settle for outrageous amounts of money. With contingency fees that may be as high as 40 percent, lawyers rake in the cash as their clients receive a mere pittance, if anything at all.
The attorneys and firms that specialize in this kind of litigation are expanding. In 2021 alone, an estimated $971 million was spent on 15 million TV ads for legal services or soliciting legal claims. Utilizing this strategy enables attorneys to aggregate personal injury cases they can turn into mass tort litigations or federal court Multidistrict Litigations (MDLs) that allow similar allegations to funnel down to a single judge. The court system is being swamped, as the volume of these cases has tripled from 2013 to 2019, with nine out of 10 consisting of mass torts or product liability cases.
Tort litigation moves slowly, and plaintiff attorneys benefit from the substantial costs of prolonged discovery and endless motions that drive up their fees at settlement or final judgment. Even more appalling is that these efforts are frequently funded by high-dollar investors who expect a big return. And that return comes directly out of our pockets.
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