In the eighth installment of the text version of the Luntz Republican playbook, Frank reveals the truth about those filthy 'Public Protection Attorneys' and explains the delicate nature of convincing the public that big business should run wild and free of the restraints imposed by 'ethics' and 'law'.

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LAWSUIT ABUSE REFORM:

A Common Sense Approach

THE TEN PRINCIPLES OF LAWSUIT ABUSE REFORM

This is a winning issue for Republicans. The public is on your side — well over 70% of the American public want lawsuit abuse reform. But unless you get the tone right, that won’t matter — you will lose the argument. The key is communicating it.

Especially in the wake of September 11, the public has less tolerance than ever for anyone perceived to be taking advantage of other Americans. Out--of--control lawsuit abuse can seem like an illogical Alice in Wonderland creation in light of the shift in priorities that has taken place since the war on tenor began.

Adherence to these ten principles will help you communicate your effort to restore sanity to the legal system:

1) Tone and context is everything. If you don’t get the tone and the context right, nothing else matters. Yes, there is a strong desire for lawsuit abuse reform, BUT there is a right way and a wrong way to speak to that desire. Get it wrong, and you will undermine your credibility — not the personal injury lawyers. Americans are opposed to the abuse of the system, not to every lawyer out there.

2) Talk about the specifics — spell out the problems caused by lawsuit abuse. You have to address the specific problems that America’s out--of--control legal system is creating. It is essential to take Americans with you each step of the argument. So relate lawsuit abuse to the real life problems it is causing.

3) Personalize, Personalize, Personalize. It is a communications mistake to talk about the effects of lawsuit abuse on the economy as a whole or any other big abstraction. You must talk about the consequences for ordinary Americans — how it impacts everyone from pregnant mothers to America’s hardworking employees.

4) Don’t overstate the impact of lawsuit abuse. Americans believe that lawsuit abuse is a serious problem, but they don’t buy arguments that lawsuit abuse is the sole cause of rising healthcare costs, doctor flight or outsourcing. You can say lawsuit abuse contributes to these problems, but you can’t say it’s causing them.

5) Third party endorsements matter. Let me blunt. The B.S. meter of the average American voter is high. People want to know that respected authorities agree with you. It is important to people that the American Medical Association has designated their state a ‘state in crisis’ because of the shortage of doctors.

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6) Individuals who have been wrongly injured deserve their day in court. Americans believe that everyone has a right to their day in court. They agree that we need to make our courts more accessible to real victims and less accessible to unfounded lawsuits. And they agree that it should not take years to bring legitimate cases to trial because the system is jammed with frivolous lawsuits.

7) It is essential that Americans can access healthcare when and where they need it. Runaway lawsuits are forcing doctors, including many OBGYNs, out of the profession and forcing many more to practice defensive medicine, blocking access to healthcare for all Americans and risking lives in emergency situations.

8) There must be a common sense cap on punitive damage awards. Someone who buys hot coffee at a drive--thru and then spills it on herself is not entitled to a $2--million settlement. An employee who finds an employer’s language offensive is not entitled to tens of millions of dollars because of “pain and suffering.” Americans believe it’s time to restore common sense to financial rewards.

9) It’s time to return to responsibility as the core principle of our legal system. Damages should be awarded according to who is at fault rather than who has the deepest pockets. Those who are primarily responsible for damages should pay promptly, but it’s time to stop targeting people and businesses just because they are financially successful.

10) Lawsuits should not be “strike it rich” schemes for lawyers — and losers should pay the costs of frivolous lawsuits. There must be reasonable limits to what lawyers can take from their clients. Otherwise, lawyers get the lion’s share of the settlement and the victims end up with scraps. Judges should discourage lawsuit abuse by holding lawyers who file frivolous lawsuits accountable for their actions

OVERVIEW

A New Mexico woman buys a cup of coffee at McDonald’s, spills it in her lap, sues the fast food giant, and the jury awards her more than $2 million. A Port Isabel, Texas, man injures his knee when a small dog runs in front of his bicycle. He sues and is awarded $1.8 million. A drunken San Antonio man wanders into a public stairwell to urinate, falls down, injures his back, sues, wins!!, and is awarded $8,000 in damages.

America has far too many frivolous lawsuits, absurd jury awards and outrageous plaintiffs’ lawyers. They wreck small businesses, damage the economy, punish consumers, deprive Americans of essential healthcare and cost all of us a lot of money.

Republicans can never go wrong criticizing lawsuit abuse. For statistical purposes, you start with a potential pool of 81% of the electorate that believes “laws should be enacted to make it tougher for lawyers to file frivolous lawsuits.” That’s pretty darn good.

So you start out with the American public on your side. But to keep them there, you need to talk about this issue using the right tone, context and language.

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KEY COMMUNICATION POINTS

1) The system is broken. Start here. Americans fundamentally feel the current legal system is broken. No doubts. No exceptions. It isn’t fair. It isn’t balanced. This is a winner with the electorate — the eight out often who want to make it tougher to file frivolous lawsuits.

Talk about the ideals of the profession, and how lawsuit abuse is tarnishing those high ideals. It isn’t working. 90% of Americans believe major changes are needed ‘to restore common sense and balance’ to the legal system.

So say it. ‘The current system is needlessly confusing, takes too long, costs too much money, makes health care more expensive for others, and ends up truly benefiting only the lawyers involved.’ Then talk about the alternative.

The phrase “frivolous lawsuit” is fully understood and says everything you want it say. The language voters used to describe a frivolous lawsuit should be music to your ears: crooks, fakers, cheats, rip--off, scam, fraud, etc. Here, you definitely have the language advantage.

WORDS THAT WORK

Access to quality healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Unfortunately, America’s personal injury lawyers are threatening that right with frivolous lawsuits and courtroom antics that are raising everyone’s premiums and pushing doctors out of the profession.

YES, lawsuit abuse IS crippling our healthcare system. YES, lawsuit abuse IS a ‘crisis’ in America. And YES, people ARE paying more and getting less because of the lawsuit epidemic.

The fact is, doctors are closing up shop because insurance premiums are skyrocketing. The price of saving lives is just too high so they simply stop practicing, in fields where excessive awards are commonplace. And when the life--savers stop saving lives, we know what chilling reality ensues...

There is too much fraud. There is too much abuse. Too many doctors are leaving and too many hospitals are closing. Something must be done, and done NOW.

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MORE WORDS THAT WORK

Individuals who have been wrongly injured deserve their day in court. We must make the courts more accessible to real victims, and less accessible to unfounded lawsuits. Tragically, our court system is so jammed with frivolous and groundless lawsuits that it can take years to bring a legitimate case to trial. This must end.

2) Personal in jury lawyers, not trial lawyers, is the term you should use. A good indicator of the depth of emotion Americans have regarding the current legal system is their utter disdain for the term personal injury lawyer. When asked what comes to mind when they bear the term ‘personal injury lawyers,’ Americans use words like … ‘creeps,’ ‘.bottom--feeders, ‘overpaid,’ and ‘evil’ You don’t want to use those terms yourself — and you don’t have to — just call them personal injury lawyers — Americans already know what they think of them.

There is universal agreement that navigating the current system cannot be accomplished without the aid of a lawyer or, more likely, a team of lawyers. Americans do not believe this is a good thing, or an accident. They suspect that it was the personal injury lawyers themselves who have designed the current system ... and with their own financial gain in mind.

WORDS THAT WORK

As a matter of principle, damage awards should go to the victim, not the lawyers. They absolutely deserve to be paid, and they deserve fair compensation when they perform well, but lawsuits should not be “strike it rich” lotteries or schemes. There has to’ be some limit to what lawyers can take from their clients. Otherwise, lawyers end up with the lien’s share of the settlement and the victims end up with little more than the scraps...

…There is no reason — NONE — that a personal injury lawyer should walk away with a $50 million dollar cut of a medical liability settlement That money belongs to the victim, or the hospital, or to us. And if you don’t agree, be prepared to pay more, a lot more for your healthcare, because someone’s going to pay.

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3) Link lawsuits with healthcare access and affordability. Americans accept the direct link between lawsuits and higher insurance premiums and declining access to quality healthcare — but they don’t want to blame lawsuit abuse for the entire problem, so make sure you communicate that it contributes to the problem. The argument for reform with the most resonance is the one that demonstrates the adverse domino affect these lawsuits have on the health care system. In particular, all the legal baffles necessitate the spending of huge sums of money in the lengthy defense process, regardless of culpability. In a sentence: “Money that should have been spent in the operating room ends up being spent in the courtroom.”

The result? “Doctors and medical facilities are distracted and diverted from their proper health care mission, spending money to defend themselves rather than helping others. In the end, it is the consumer, the patient, and those in need of medical attention who suffer.” This is a good argument, so make it.

WORDS THAT WORK

Remember that every time you hear about another $100 million verdict, two things will happen. Number one, the cost of healthcare will go up for you and for the doctors and hospitals you need. And two, whether or not YOU can afford the higher costs, your doctor, your emergency room, and your hospital may be forced out of business. It’s happened in Nevada. It’s happened in West Virginia. It’s happened in a dozen states. And it can happen right here.

When one person wins big, we ALL LOSE.

Another effect of runaway costs and the growing burden of medical malpractice insurance that Americans will relate to is the drain of doctors and medical facilities from states without caps on malpractice awards; While money will always be a concern, “accessibility can be a matter of life or death.” in an emergency, cost is not a consideration ... access is:

> Families of individuals with chronic conditions may be forced to relocate if there is healthcare flight. Give them real life examples.

> The unavailability of OBGYN care for young mothers and families is another issue that moves your audience and should be emphasized.

Access is the key word, and the lack of access to healthcare is the most direct threat if the current system is not reformed. But when you talk about access you must spell out in detail why lawsuit abuse is forcing good doctors to close up shop and practice defensive medicine. If you don’t, voters won’t make the link between healthcare flight and lawsuit abuse.

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MORE WORDS THAT WORK

Doctors are closing up shop because it’s too expensive to practice medicine, thanks to skyrocketing insurance costs caused by skyrocketing court costs. In some communities there may be no doctors, no trauma centers and no hospitals, forcing people to drive long distances to get the care they need.

Increasingly, for Americans, the doctor is not in — and consumers like us are out of luck. It shouldn’t be that way.

Lawsuit abuse is forcing up the cost of health insurance. Every huge settlement from a frivolous lawsuit makes it more expensive for doctors and hospitals to provide medical care. And that means it costs more to get medical care. As a result, millions of Americans go without the healthcare they need and everyone with health insurance is paying more than ever but getting less in medical coverage.

Instead of improving care, lawsuit abuse is forcing doctors to practice defensive medicine. Instead of encouraging doctors to use their best judgment, knowledge and experience to help their patients, lawsuit abuse forces doctors to practice a form of lowest common denominator medicine.

Instead of investing in healthcare that is delivered in the operating room, we are spending way too much money suing each other in the courtroom. There must be a better way.

As a mailer of principle, we deserve a system that provides the highest quality care to the most people when, where and how they need it. But lawsuit abuse is making this goal unachievable.

Just pick up the newspaper or turn on your TV and you’ll understand why this is happening. Verdicts of $20 million, $40 million, even $75 million against doctors and hospitals. And you know who pays them? Not the doctor. Not the hospital. We do.

4) The best approach on healthcare is to talk about ‘States in Crisis.’ The fact that a state has been designated a ‘state in crisis’ by the American Medical Association is effective because it is personal — it is about your state — and because it connects lawsuit abuse to healthcare — a big priority for voters. It also works because the AMA has huge credibility among American voters, more so than ... er ... politicians. Back the AMA designation up with stories from local--newspapers.

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THE BEST OPENING LINE

Did you know that your state is considered a ‘state in crisis’ by the American Medical Association?

4) To win support for the cap, personalize the issue. Once people see liability reform as an issue of accessibility, it becomes real and personal to them. It is about them. It is about their family. And it goes beyond party affiliation. When the issue becomes patient protection, even some Democrats want change (they will disagree with you only about the size of the cap).

Yes, talk about the abuse; the fraud; the get-rich-quick mentality among personal injury lawyers that is crippling our healthcare system and hurting too many innocent Americans, but personalize it by explaining what it means in dollars and cents and in decreased access. If you don’t make it personal, it won’t matter.

THE PERFECT PITCH

If we don’t get this national greed under control the doctors won’t be there when we need them.

Let’s face it. We are making it impossible for doctors and hospitals to stay in business. Nineteen states today are in crisis due to a legal system that’s out of control. This is not a lottery. For each multi-million dollar, frivolous settlement, we are forcing doctors and hospitals out of business, and we all pay the price. Curbing lawsuit abuse is not only a matter of the rising cost of our health insurance.

If we don’t control this situation, our doctors and emergency rooms and trauma centers will not be there when we need them most We need to wake up. This is a life or death situation, and we need to take action right now.

Why is that last statement effective? It causes them to personalize this issue. It causes them to think in terms of their family, not the family across the street. Moreover, this statement paints a vivid picture of the abuse prevalent in the current system. It allowed these voters to envision a person sitting on their couch and being swayed by a personal injury lawyer commercial. No medical situation is more frightening than not being able to access treatment in an emergency.

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WORDS THAT WORK

Expectant mothers need to know that the medical and childbirth care they need is nearby -- not several hours’ drive away. Distance matters in emergencies. How long it takes to get to the nearest ER can literally mean the difference between life and death.

What if the worst were to happen to you or someone in your family? In those circumstances, we all want the very best medical expertise available. But what if it’s not? What if the trauma center has closed? For people in several states across the country, that "what if’ is now a real life reality. States that have passed lawsuit abuse reform don’t have this problem, but states that haven’t are heading into crisis. And the crisis is here.

Again, the most personal is the most credible:

WORDS THAT WORK ...AGAINST YOU

When innocent people who are injured seek compensation from those who caused their injuries, it’s anything but frivolous. When a preventable careless medical error forces a child into a wheelchair for the rest of his life, it’s anything but frivolous. And when someone close to you suffers due to doctor negligence, their right to a day in court is anything but frivolous.

That’s why you need to start with the argument that innocent victims deserve their day in court. Then emphasize that there is NO cap on economic damages being proposed. Everything from medical bills to lost wages will be covered -- which is what scares people the most about a medical accident. Then tell them you are simply trying to end the fraud and abuse that exists in the current system.

5) Justice and fairness are the two principles that matter MOST to Americans so they need to matter most to you. Americans are genuinely moved by human suffering. We have a deep desire to help and protect those we see as victims. You must make it clear again and again that the cap is just, fair, and protects those who have been hurt.

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WORDS THAT WORK

Let’s talk about what lawsuit abuse is doing to the medical community. Doctors are suffering. Their insurance premiums are on the rise, which is forcing many of them out of fields of medicine that are at risk for huge settlements. And while insurance premiums increase for a number of reasons, the single biggest reason are the excessive malpractice lawsuits.

Don’t try to find an OBGYN in any of the states the American Medical Association has designated as ‘in crisis.’ They’re closing up shop because they can’t afford the insurance. Don’t expect to see trauma centers fully staffed. Same reason. Doctors are leaving the fields of medicine where they are most needed because their insurance costs are through the roof. If we truly want to protect our access to quality healthcare, we need reform now.

6) Stress the balance in the legislation. That is, don’t start by telling voters what they can’t have (more than $250,000 in punitive damages). Start by telling them what they CAN have. In communicating this legislation, begin by describing the full gamut of awards still being received by the ‘victim.’ Americans have a very difficult time putting a cap on the value of human life. A cap of $250,000 on the value of ‘pain and suffering’ makes even supporters of the legislation somewhat uncomfortable. With a cap of one million, almost everyone would support the change. So what should you say?

WORDS THAT WORK

All medical expenses will be covered, both now and in the future as a result of malpractice. The patient’s anticipated earnings will also be awarded for as long as necessary, possibly for life. There will be no out-of-pocket expenses, and the victim will receive medical treatment at no cost to him/her. In addition, the victim will receive additional compensation for pain and suffering, up to $250,000. It is only the pain and suffering award that will be capped. The patient will be taken care of and supported in full, for life.

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MORE WORDS THAT WORK

First and foremost, as a matter of principle those who have been wrongly injured deserve their day in court. Legitimate mistakes and, tragically, even true negligence, still exist in medicine today. There are times when people go into hospitals seeking care and come out worse off than when they entered. Those victims have every right to a judicial system that is fair and speedy.

Patients will receive ongoing compensation for their medical expenses, their rehabilitation costs, their domestic expenses, and any past or future lost wages, if they are harmed by a physician’s negligence.

...So let me be clear. The main goal of any lawsuit abuse legislation must be to put an end to the out-of-control PUNITIVE damage awards in America ... the $50, $75 and even $100 million dollar paydays and legal lotteries that are crippling the healthcare industry, costing all of us more and more, and making healthcare less available and accessible.

We all remember the McDonald’s lawsuit ... millions paid out to a woman who, at a drive-through window, spilled coffee on her lap that was-- go figure-- HOT!

7) Never attack juries. To do so is, essentially, to blame Americans for the problem -- and they won’t like it at all. Instead, focus on the system. As one person put it, it is not the lawyers that decide these outrageous verdicts; they are simply working within the confines of the system. So too are the juries. We need instead to get at the root of the problem ... and that is the very system that facilitates this abuse.

Talk about the broken system. Talk about the politicians -- but don’t be partisan -- who are saying ‘no’ to balance and to change ... who are saying ‘no’ to patients, doctors and the future of the healthcare system in America. And talk about the personal injury lawyers who are enriching the democratic coffers to ensure that lawsuit abuse reform is never passed.

WORDS THAT WORK

Democrats and Republicans should come together in partnership with legislation to end lawsuit abuse.

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8) Beware of tangents. The cost of healthcare is a highly charged issue for most people. Raising the topic of medical liability reform often leads people to another issue close to their hearts -- the rising costs of HMO’s, health insurance and prescription drugs. They easily confuse one with the other. It’s important to keep your audience specifically focused on the issue of medical liability reform. That’s why it’s important to focus on lawsuit abuse as contributing to these wider problems -- rather than claiming it is their sole cause. And that’s why you must always explain how and why lawsuit abuse is driving up the cost of healthcare.

9) Talk about the EXCESS. It is the exception that proves the rule. While the system is widely recognized to be in need of reform, Americans retain a strong concern for the victim. After all, there, but for the grace of God, go each one of us. The way to sway these voters is to emphasize the extremes -- everyone opposes the excesses… Talk about the abuse -- the $80 million settlement in Texas ... the exorbitant legal fees ... the McDonald’s ‘hot coffee’ case. This is a zero sum game. Today, it is a lottery. When a few can win big, we all suffer.

WORDS THAT WORK

As a matter of principle, damage awards should go to the victim, not the lawyers. Lawsuits should not be "strike it rich" lotteries or schemes for lawyers. There has to be some limit to what lawyers can take from their clients. Otherwise, lawyers end up with the lion’s share of the settlement and the victims end up with little more than the scraps.

And it’s not about the additional money in the pockets of the victims, but rather the message that this would send to bad doctors. Again ... this is an absolute winner.

We found overwhelming consensus on this point... a system that is supposed to be about justice has become too much about money. There is too much fraud. There is too much abuse. Our legal system has become, quite literally, a lottery.

THE PERFECT PARAGRAPH

No amount of money will make someone whole again. As a matter or principle, if a doctor is found to be responsible for negligence they should be punished to the greatest extent of the law. But let us not destroy the healthcare system in the process. Let us not make healthcare LESS available. Let us not make healthcare LESS affordable. We must enact balanced reforms that will preserve America’s access to a superior healthcare system. Our ultimate goal is NOT to limit justice, but to limit abuse.

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10) Talk about the economy in terms of small businesses, not statistics. Americans won’t accept that lawsuit abuse is the cause of outsourcing there are simply too many other factors involved. But you can say that lawsuit abuse is making it more expensive for small businesses to do business. And you can explain that those higher costs make it harder for small businesses to hire and retain workers. Americans accept that this is largely an American problem.

WORDS THAT WORK

Unfortunately, America has become the lawsuit capital of the world, and a personal injury lawyers’ paradise. There are now more attorneys in California than the entire continent of Europe.

You can say that the increased fear of lawsuits is just another reason for companies to look elsewhere to build new factories and expand their business.

REPUBLICAN RHETORIC THAT WORKS

It is .a crisis. It is getting worse. It should be no surprise that this medical malpractice liability crisis is having a negative effect on the way these much needed specialists practice medicine...

...In fact, a recent survey--a fascinating survey--showed that 70 percent of neurosurgeons responding said they have had to make at least one of five practice changes. So if 100 responded, 70 said they have had to do one of these following things to narrow down or change their practice in response to the medical malpractice crisis: referred complex cases, closed their practice, moved to a different state, stopped providing patient care or retired. Runaway lawsuits are forcing neurosurgeons and other specialists to limit emergency services.

Again, it is not the doctor who is being hurt, it is the patients who are being hurt, and it is future patients, and that means potentially everybody listening to me now.

-- Senator Frist

Patients and doctors ought to be on the same side, working together; but fear of the legal system puts them in opposite corners and pits them against one another. There has to be a better way.

-- Senator Enzi

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REPUBLICAN RHETORIC THAT WORKS

All of us want access to quality, affordable health care. When the quality is not there, when people die or are truly sick due to negligence or other medical error, they should be compensated. When healthy plaintiffs file meaningless lawsuits to coerce settlements or to shake the money tree to get as much as they can get, there is a snowball effect and all of us pay the price.

For the system to work, we must strike a delicate balance between the rights of aggrieved parties to bring lawsuits and the rights of society to be protected against frivolous lawsuits and outrageous judgments that are disproportionate to compensating the injured and made at the expense of society as a whole. I repeat that again. For the system to work, we must strike a delicate balance between the rights of the aggrieved parties to bring lawsuits and the rights of society to be protected against frivolous lawsuits... Society as a whole.’

-- Senator Voinovich

This is not just about big hospitals with shiny buildings owned by corporations. This ultimately comes down to the individual who wants what we all want, and that is access to good quality health care, but who simply cannot find it because they either cannot afford the health insurance or their employer has been priced out of the market because of booming health insurance premiums, in large part caused by this liability crisis or, as we have seen, simply the doctors who, rather than live in the crosshairs of this broken system, decide to retire or to move away to some other location.

-- Senator Cornyn

With this data in mind, I have created a comprehensive 25-minute speech, found on the next page, that covers virtually all areas of the issue. States that are considering some aspect of legal reform will find the rhetoric very helpful.

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REPAIRING OUR BROKEN LEGAL SYSTEM: A CALL TO REFORM

Plaintiffs’ attorneys: $49 million! Flight attendants: zero!

That’s the negotiated outcome of a national class action suit brought by nonsmoking flight attendants who claimed injuries caused by exposure to second-band smoke while working. The plaintiffs got a study that will be financed by the tobacco industry -- and that’s it. Their lawyers got all the cash. All of it.

Wherever one stands on the merit of this case, its outcome illustrates that America’s civil justice system has fallen into serious disrepair. It has been hijacked by a small number of plaintiffs’ attorneys who have poured millions of dollars into the political system and transformed America into the lawsuit capital of the world.

As a nation, we face truly unprecedented economic, social and political opportunities. Power -- once defined solely by geographic boundaries and bombs -- is now better illustrated by hard drives, gigabytes and access to the World Wide Web. Americans are the world’s cultural icons, and our economy alone will propel the rest of the world in the 21st century.

It’s an exciting time, but a disturbing trend is emerging, and it threatens to stifle economic growth, hinder prosperity and undermine the principles of fairness and justice in this country.

This trend isn’t the result of foreign competition, for our products and services are the best in the world.
It is not the result of unfair trade practices, for our economy has withstood and overcome this challenge before.

And it isn’t because American businesses cannot compete successfully, for we have the most productive and highly trained workforce on the planet.

The trend I speak of is the slow and insidious destruction of our legal system at the bands of a small group of personal injury lawyers. We have allowed personal injury lawyers to abuse our legal system -- and it’s costing all of us a fortune. But what’s most disturbing is that this trend discourages medical innovation, delays the finding of cures for disease, bankrupts small businesses and tears the social fabric of our great nation.

That’s why our greatest challenge, as a business community and as Americans, is reeling in renegade personal injury lawyers and ending the climate of lawsuit abuse in our country.

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Repairing Our Broken Legal System (contd.)

The statistics are staggering: The tort system alone now costs consumers and businesses an estimated $160 billion a year -- $2,400 far a family of four. That’s more than the federal government spends on transportation and Head Start combined!

Less than half the money transferred through the tort system ever reaches the victims, yet lawyers routinely earn multi-million dollar fees in class action suits.

There are more lawyers in California than there are in all of Europe

So bad has lawsuit abuse become, that even some of the earliest opponents of reform have recognized that this isn’t a partisan or ideological issue -- it’s an issue that rattles the very core of our country’s economic foundation

After a run for the presidency and a quarter century on Capitol Hill, George McGovern left public service and became a business owner. And what did McGovern say about how plaintiffs’ lawyers have changed society? In his own words: "We have begun to see one another not as compatriots, neighbors and fellow citizens but as potential plaintiffs and defendants."

McGovern is right. He was flushed out of business after nearly drowning in lawsuits.

Indeed, by undermining the foundations of our legal system, lawyers are undermining American society itself the personal injury lawyer, once regarded as guardian of the unprotected, champion of the little guy, has become a robber baron with his own little scam. Armed with the title juris doctor and open-ended contracts known as contingency fees, personal injury lawyers seek not to balance the scales of justice, but to line their own pockets at the expense of American businesses and consumers. They get rich, and you and 1 foot the bill.

Our courts should concern themselves with establishing right and wrong, instead of turning over the legal system to those who want to overturn the scales of justice. Litigation, it seems, is now more highly valued, and more profitable, than innovation. The class action lawsuit -- in which a lawyer sues on behalf of some supposedly-wronged group, often composed of millions of people, and collects millions while the offended parties themselves get less than a dollar each, if they bother to claim it -- has been the subject of particular abuse.

A study by the RAND Institute for Civil Justice noted that some personal injury attorneys "routinely scan electronic databases and the press to find reports of product recalls, safety warnings, regulatory actions and other consumer complaints that can provide the basis for class actions." Lawsuits are often filed on behalf of

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Repairing Our Broken Legal System (Contd.)

people who don’t even know they are parties to a suit. The lawyers then seek out a friendly jurisdiction -- and, since federal courts have tended to be strict about criteria for class action suits, these attorneys often file in friendly state courts. They also go shopping for sympathetic juries that will levy huge punitive damages awards.

Some personal injury lawyers are particularly fond of finding a high tech company that hasn’t performed as well as projected and suing it.

It doesn’t take a genius, an economist or a psychologist to figure out the allure of these class action lawsuits. Attorneys’ fees sometimes reach $35,000 or more an hour. In the tobacco settlement, one firm scored a $780 million dollar windfall. Is that justice?

Is it surprising that faith and trust in our legal system is at an all-time low? A fair and balanced legal system is critical to the political health and well being of our nation. Yet today, we have a legal system that is unfair, unbalanced and widely unpredictable. How many of you truly believe that the guilty are punished and the innocent go free? How many of you truly believe that justice in America is swift and sure? How many of you have complete faith and confidence that our legal system works for all Americans?

The real victims of all this legal activity are the small business owners, teachers, doctors and homeowners whose lives are ruined by baseless lawsuits. More often than not, it’s the "little guy," the innocent, hard-working American who gets taken to the cleaners. A recent case involving flight attendants resulted in $49 million in legal fees for the lawyers and no compensation for the attendants.

Just think about how much more you have to pay for everyday household products, for medical care, for car insurance, for thousands of different necessities ... all because of unreasonable lawsuits.

The legal system should protect the innocent, punish the guilty and make people whole again. It should not exist to make lawyers rich and fat. For too long, Washington has protected high-priced, high-flying lawyers. It’s time to return fairness to the legal system.

So the question we face as elected representatives of the people, sworn to uphold the Constitution and dedicated to a strong, healthy economy for all Americans, is how to approach the trial lawyer industry.

Make no mistake. It is an industry, business is booming, the personal injury lawyers’ lobbyists are powerful, and they never quit.

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Repairing Our Broken Legal System (Contd.)

Since I began my remarks tonight, somewhere in America, another personal injury lawyer in search of a big payday filed another class action lawsuit.

By the time I’m finished a few minutes from now, a thousand Internet hours will have been cumulatively spent in search of the next corporate victim. They’ll have downloaded millions of bytes of data from their litigation web-sites -- dedicated to topics ranging from, and I quote, "Tipping vending machines," "How to seek out auto accidents," "Trip and fall for a million dollars," and "Settling claims for fun and profit."

Suing corporations is the fasting growing profession in America, and the trial lawyer industry has sectors specializing in medical law, auto accidents, employment law and financial law. There is even an emerging market of suing industries in emerging markets. And thousands of lawyers have ideas for new state laws that will increase their profitability and make it easier for them to sue.

For example; we’ve all heard the story of the New Mexico woman who bought a cup of coffee from a McDonalds drive-thru, spilled it in her lap and then sued the fast food giant for more than $2 million. For those of you wondering why your coffee is always cold ... you can stop wondering.

Or how about the Port Isabel, Texas, man who injured his knee when a small dog ran in front of his bicycle? The jury awarded him $1.8 million.

And haven’t things gone too far when a drunken San Antonio man wanders into a public stairwell to urinate, falls down, injures his back, sues and wins $8,000?

Incidents like these speak volumes about the depths to which our personal and professional lives have been affected by the excesses of the legal profession. A balanced, fair legal system is critical to the political, economic and social well being of our nation. Yet, today we have a legal system that is unfair, unbalanced and widely unpredictable.

The shattering of faith in our legal system goes hand-in-hand with the shattered faith in. many of our institutions government agencies, our political system and even community based non-profit organizations. We should also realize that excessive litigation has become ingrained in our culture. To fix it, we need to end it. We need to sue each other less and care for each other more.

Yet it is clear that reform won’t come from within the legal profession itself. So today I am introducing the Common Sense Legal Reform Act to mark a starting point on the road to the restoration of common sense and decency in the field of law. The legislation has five specific components:

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Repairing Our Broken Legal System (Contd.)

1. It limits excessive punitive damage awards. They destroy small businesses, damage the economy and cost taxpayers too much money.

2. It gives juries specific guidelines on awarding punitive damages. Some limits must exist or we’ll continue to succumb to "lotto fever."

3. It gives judges the authority to make losers pay the costs of frivolous lawsuits.

4. It protects state laws and measures that limit the fees and percentages personal injury lawyers may charge to reasonable levels.

5. It protects reasonable caps on lawsuits and discourages lawsuit abuse.

This is just the beginning. We need to create a judicial system that is accessible to everyone and provides full and speedy redress for genuine injury, but limits frivolous lawsuits and outrageous attorneys’ fees.
And so I challenge the legal profession to join this effort and not stand in the way. Next to American consumers and companies, the biggest losers in allowing the litigation explosion to continue unchecked are the respectable lawyers whose profession has been tainted by the actions of a relative few.

That’s why all Americans should join us in our fight to reform the American legal system and ensure that small businesses and American consumers continue to enjoy their place as the world’s economic leader. I invite all Americans, including those in the legal profession, to join us in charting a course of responsible reform, to restore vitality, fairness and common sense to a justice system that once was, and can again be, a model for the world.

We owe it to our children to pass on to them our American traditions, our great institutions and our pioneering, entrepreneurial spirit, all anchored by a legal system of unquestioned balance and integrity.

Frank Luntz Republican Playbook (New American Lexicon) -- Searchable Text-Version

• PART I "Introduction"
  
• PART II "Setting the Context and Tone"
  
• PART III "Growth, Prosperity, & Restore Energy and Economic Security"
  
• PART IV "International Trade: Promoting America's Competitiveness"
  
• PART V "The Budget: Ending Wasteful Washington Spending"
  
• PART VI "Tax Relief & Simplification"
  
• PART VII "Social Security = Retirement Security" (Part a)
  
• PART VII "Social Security = Retirement Security" (Part b)
  
• PART VIII "Lawsuit Abuse Reform: A Commonsense Approach"
  
• PART IX "An Energy Policy for the 21st Century"
  
• PART X "Appendix: The 14 Words Never to Use"
  

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