Hillbilly Heroin And The Unholy Alliance Between Trial Lawyers and State AGs
October 9, 2008
The West Virginia State Journal takes a long look at yet one more example of the unholy alliance between state Attorneys General and wealthy trial lawyers. Four years ago, West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw agreed to a $10 million settlement in the state’s lawsuit against the maker of OxyContin – a painkiller so widely abused in the Mountaineer State it became known as Hillbilly Heroin. Mr. McGraw, a Democrat, is locked in a tough re-election campaign – and he’s facing an opponent that wants to know what happened to the $10 million.
That’s where the fun starts. Right off the bat, a one-third cut ($3.3 million) went to a handful of personal injury lawyers, including one run by the former Chairman of the West Virginia Democratic Party. Cozy contingency fee arrangements were outlawed in federal cases last year because of what Lisa Rickard of the Institute for Legal Reform called “the perverse incentive” of “combining the power of the government with the personal financial interest of some plaintiffs’ lawyers.”
What about the other two-thirds? That’s where it gets murky. In a normal lawsuit, the bulk of the settlement money would go to the clients – in this case three West Virginia state agencies. Yet two of the clients have yet to see a penny and the third has gotten a pittance. Instead, according to Steve Cohen of West Virginia Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, AG McGraw “basically converted the proceeds from the settlement into his own slush fund.”
The State Journal has asked Mr. McGraw’s office to provide a list of disbursements from this fund. So far, none has been forthcoming. The paper might be waiting a while.
“There’s six months (worth of disbursements) that for whatever reason somebody’s misplaced,” said the AG office’s comptroller.
Critics charge the funds are being used to further Mr. McGraw’s re-election bid. In the past, they paper notes:
the attorney general has used settlement money to buy television commercials featuring him. In one case, funds were used to pay for a fleet of “mobile offices” that had McGraw’s name emblazoned on the sides.
Here’s a case where a state’s legal system and attorney general’s office was abused to pad the pockets of trial lawyers and further the incumbent AGs re-election prospects.
Where are all those nonpartisan, good government groups when you need them?