Weekly Legislative Update
March 28, 2008

In this issue:

• • New edition of The Reformer
• • LRC seeks input for Judicial Scorecard
• • LegalNewsLine features McKenna, Childers
• • Wall Street Journal: The Felony Bar

 

New edition of The Reformer

The newest edition of the LRC’s quarterly newsletter, The Reformer, is now at the printer and should arrive in mailboxes soon.

In this issue, LRC executive director Dana Childers writes about efforts by plaintiff lawyers in this state and nationally to re-brand and re-package their liability expanding agenda. Please read the attached electronic version of the April issue and then pass it along to others.

LRC seeks input for Judicial Scorecard

The LRC is seeking recent liability cases for inclusion in the upcoming 2008 Judicial Scorecard.

The Judicial Scorecard focuses on decisions rendered in liability cases over the past two years by the Washington Supreme Court.

LRC members are invited to submit information on liability cases that should be included in the Scorecard. Please forward your suggestions to Dana Childers, LRC executive director. Information deadline is May 1.

LegalNewsLine features McKenna, Childers

In a recent LegalNewsLine interview, Washington AG Rob McKenna said out-of-line tort laws cost taxpayers millions. Because the legislature and the governor rejected reforms he proposed in 2006, McKenna does not plan to introduce further tort reform without indications the governor and key legislators will take such action seriously.

LRC executive director Dana Childers is quoted in the LegalNewsLine article also, with comments on the aggressiveness of trial lawyers in Olympia.

Read WSJ opinion on ‘The Felony Bar’

Don’t miss reading the Wall Street Journal’s opinion on tort lawyer Melvyn Weiss’ felony plea for his part in a scheme to provide kickbacks to professional plaintiff in shareholder class action suits.

In an opinion titled “The Felony Bar,” the WSJ editors lament that there’s been no meaningful tort reform dealing with the abuse of class action lawsuits because “tort lawyers have seen to that by sharing a percentage of their riches, almost like a service fee, with the politicians who prevent any meaningful legal reform.”