Costs of Personal Injury Lawyers
July 23, 2004 — -- Trial lawyers are making a case for putting John Edwards in the White House. If a former plaintiff's lawyer is so close to the presidency, we should take a closer look at the unintended consequences of what these lawyers do.
Vice presidential candidate Edwards made millions of dollars by doing good, say his supporters.
He was a personal injury lawyer who punished bad doctors and was awarded money for those who were victims of malpractice. He won't give the total of how much money he made doing that, but in just the four years before he became a senator, he made over $26 million.
Lawyers were the biggest contributors to his presidential campaign, and now they've become the biggest givers to the Democratic Party — bigger than labor unions, corporations — bigger than anybody.
Trial lawyers comprise one of the most powerful professions in America, yet we rarely hear about the unintended consequences of what they do, and how the lawsuits they pursue impact our lives.
Profitable Litigation
Edwards' career as a lawyer was such a success, juries gave him record-breaking verdicts. He was such a powerful speaker that other lawyers went to court just to watch him.
He's described as an "articulate advocate for his client," by Richard "Dickie" Scruggs. Scruggs may be America's most successful trial lawyer. He made a billion dollars from tobacco lawsuits alone.
John Edwards has said he loved being a trial lawyer because he was able to help the little guy, but lawyers hurt the little guys, too. Every product you buy has a built-in cost to cover what lawyers make through lawsuits. The cost of paying Dickie Scruggs a billion dollars in the tobacco settlement gets passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices on cigarettes.
But paying higher prices is not the biggest effect of what the lawyers do. What may be worse is what the fear of lawsuits do to medical care and innovation.
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