A Setback For The Unholy Alliance
February 3, 2009
The unholy alliance between enterprising trial lawyers and politically ambitious state Attorneys General took another hit in Rhode Island recently, the Wall Street Journal editorial page reports. It was bad enough last July when the state Supreme Court threw out a 2006 jury decision that would have meant billions in damages – and, it goes without saying, a Powerball-sized payday for the trial lawyers. Now a RI judge has ruled the state must reimburse lead-based paint manufacturers for $242,000 in legal costs.
Is Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch going to shake down RI taxpayers for the bill? Or will he go after the South Carolina trial law firm that got the state committed to spending nine years and untold taxpayer-financed resources on a bogus legal theory that ended up in the trash can. He still brags on the AG website about how he “successfully litigated a public nuisance lawsuit against three major corporations responsible for manufacturing lead paint.” Guess it depends on your definition of “successfully.”
The Journal says:
“… the real benefit [of the case] is in discouraging state AGs and their pals at the trial bar from a free-for-all against honest companies.”
We can only hope.