| While money from trial lawyers has gone to all kinds of Democratic committees,
the lawyers have made it clear that their No. 1 target was Mr. Bush. Last
month, Mr. Bush issued a five-point plan to curb frivolous lawsuits and said
he wanted to expand nationwide efforts that he had pushed in Texas that he said
had saved Texas businesses $3 billion by reducing civil litigation. |
| Moreover, one prominent trial lawyer, Michael V. Ciresi of Minneapolis, who
represented the state of Minnesota in the tobacco litigation, was running for
the United States Senate in the Democratic primary there. Mr. Ciresi declined
to be interviewed. |
| If you had Bush in the White House and a Republican House, bingo, tort reform
would go to the top of the agenda, Mr. Makinson said. And the tobacco
settlement has been the pot of gold that has enabled trial lawyers to suddenly
have lots of capital behind them. |
| This year, though, the ill will has peaked. Trial lawyers have been gearing up
for new battles in Congress to pass a patients bill of rights and in the
courts against health maintenance organizations and the gun industry. |
| Over all, trial lawyers raised $2.7 million in soft money donations for
Democrats in 1999, of a total of $49.4 million in soft dollars raised so far by
the party, according to a recent report from Common Cause, a Washington
nonprofit group. (By contrast, the Republicans got $2,800 in soft money from
trial lawyers, Common Cause reported, of $57.8 million in soft dollars over
all.) |
