Boston Globe / Robert Kuttner: Now, smearing the trial lawyers

[gristy]

A good proactive Op-Ed piece on the Trial Lawyer thing bubbling up. I wholeheartedly agree with his comments on the benefits of regulation.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/08/25/now_smearing_the_trial_lawyers/

August 25, 2004

IF YOU LIKE the Karl Rove-inspired attack on John Kerry's Swift Boat service, you're going to love the US Chamber of Commerce's coming assault on John Edwards. Like the right-wing vets smearing Kerry's Vietnam record, the anti-Edwards group is nominally an independent committee. But as The New York Times reports, the cochairmen of the new "November Fund" are a former Republican National Committee charman, Bill Brock, and a former chief of staff to Bush Sr., Craig Fuller. The core of their attack will be that Edwards is (gasp) a trial lawyer. For decades, "trial lawyer" has been used in Republican speeches as an epithet. Business executives applaud in appreciation -- and everyone else scratches his head. What's so terrible about trial lawyers? Are they worse than, say, corporate lawyers?
<snip>

Not really. For starters, the right can blame itself. As more of the economy becomes deregulated, the common-law remedy of going to court is often all that allows victims any redress. The right's war on health, safety, financial, and environmental regulation is substantially responsible for the litigation they now oppose as well.

Regulation, in this respect, is the ounce of prevention. Litigation sorts out the mess afterwards when regulators could not police corporate conduct in advance, and lawsuits usefully bring ugly facts to light. If the tobacco industry didn't want lawsuits, it shouldn't have hidden evidence that smoking caused cancer.

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[chelsea0011]

1. Very good article. Bush must have used trial lawyers for his DUI's

Why no outcry from Bushies about trial attorneys making money getting people off from DUI's?

[whistle]

2. Don't trial lawyers work for the interests of the wealthy and....

...big corporations as well? How else do companies get away with over charging, enforcing binding contracts or just screwing the little guy? Or does that all get done outside of the court rooms? Or are the attorneys who represent the interests of the privileged called something else? Perhaps it's because successful trial lawyers have skills that the run of the mill corprate lawyer envies as outlined below:

<snip>

Why Trial Lawyers Must Be Good Storytellers

By: Scott Vick, Esq.
Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan LLP

Published in The Century City Lawyer
August 2001 (Vol. 10, No. 6)

Think of the best trial lawyers in Los Angeles. What makes them so effective? While there are as many answers as there are good trial lawyers, there is one trait that they all share: they are all good storytellers. By no means do I intend to suggest that a bad lawyer can become a good lawyer by learning how to tell good stories. But a lawyer with strong technical and analytical skills who can also tell a good story will likely be a good trial lawyer.

Much of the advocacy practiced by litigators in front of a judge is oral. Almost all of the advocacy in front of a jury is oral. Since ancient times, stories have been the most effective tool for communicating information orally. Indeed, stories may be the most effective way to communicate information in writing, as well. The reason: it is natural for us to organize information in terms of stories.

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Very few jurors think like lawyers. For that reason, what the lawyer thinks will be a good theme may not work.The lawyer needs to think like the jurors to whom he or she will be trying the case. Where the stakes justify the expense, the lawyer should consider conducting mock trials or using focus groups to distill the best themes.It is important for a lawyer to understand how potential jurors -- who have not lived and breathed a case for five years -- will reduce and organize the evidence.

Good trial lawyers are much more than good legal technicians.They are good screenwriters. They marshal the facts of the case and organize those facts in the language of the jury: the story.

<link> http://www.alschuler.com/print/art1tsv.html