What's A Frivolous Lawsuit?
I see and hear a lot in the media about frivolous lawsuits. Apparently these are a huge problem. It has even led to the creation of a wildly popular and wholly fictional forwarded e-mail describing the facts of these ridiculous, frivolous lawsuits. It is called the "Stella Awards", and circulates every few months to make to public aware of what a danger these stupid lawsuits are. They are called the "Stella Awards" because Stella was the first name of the Plaintiff in the infamous McDonalds "hot coffee" case.
It turns out, however that the lawsuts profiled in the "Stellas" are pretty much completely false. So that doesn't help me much in my quest to find out about these frivolous lawsuits that are such a problem. I continued searching on the web.
It turns out that there are entire groups devoted to ending frivolous lawsuits. One of these groups is right here in Maryland. Surely Maryland Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse will be able to tell me what a frivolous lawsuit is. They are "a nonprofit, nonpartisan grassroots watchdog organization dedicated to educating the public about the costs and consequences of lawsuit abuse and ensuring that our legal system is used for justice, not greed." They go on to tell us why this is so: "[l]awsuit abuse hurts the economy, threatens our access to affordable, quality healthcare and delays justice for the truly injured. MDCALA’s goal is to help restore balance, fairness and common sense to our civil justice system by shining a light on frivolous lawsuits and abusive personal injury lawyer tactics."
Well, I am not in favor of frivolous lawsuits or lawuist abuse. At least I think I'm not, if I could find them defined anywhere. The MDCALA website shows some stories of abusive lawsuits. Only two of them appear to have happened in Maryland, and neither of those is a personal injury case. In fact, I read MDCALA's entire website, and I could not find "frivolous lawsuit" or "lawsuit abuse" defined anywhere on the site. How can you have an entire "grassroots watchdog organization" dedicated to stopping something that you can't (or won't) define? I also think it's a little weird that a group opposing "abusive personal inury lawyer tactics" wasn't able to find a single example of a "frivolous" or "abusive" Maryland personal injury case to post on its website. I don't believe I file frivolous or abusive lawsuits. Maybe Maryland personal injury lawyers are just more ethical and professional than those in the rest of the country?
Who are these people anyway? Usually grassroots organizations are built out of a wide-ranging groundswell of public support on issues relating to the common good. Like, for example, the NAACP.
I tried to figure out who exactly MDCALA is. I discovered a few names. Apparently Todd C. Lamb is MDCALA's Executive Director. I found this out because their website posts various newspaper op-ed pieces by Mr. Lamb that state his position with MDCALA. Another article lists Dr. Ron Elfenbein, an Annapolis physician, as a MDCALA board member. Other articles list Earnest Hines, M. Jerome Miller, Patricia A. "Trish" Miller, Jerome Leonard and Ron Vitkum as past or present MDCALA board members.
The MDCALA website does not contain a list of its members, officers, or board of directors. The names I found were gleaned by viewing several articles posted in various places on the site. I think that is very strange. Normally, individuals want to publicize their involvement with a cause they think is righteous.
For example, I am a member of the Maryland Association for Justice. It is easy to tell who we are. Our officers and board members are prominently featured on our website, with contact information and biographies because we are proud of the MAJ and what we stand for. What is MDCALA hiding?
I did a little digging to try and find out. Lets start at the top. Todd C. Lamb is a former political lobbyist. He has previously worked for Dutko Worldwide, a Washington, D.C lobbying and public relations firm, and before that, for Chesapeake Govermnent Relations. Dutko integrates "traditional bipartisan lobbying, with research, polling, message development/testing, grassroots.grasstops advocacy and new media strategies...."
Next: Ron Elfenbein, M.D. Dr. Elfenbein is an emergency room doctor at Harbor Hospital and a "physician activist" who lost an election to the Maryland General Assembly. According to Maryland court records, he was sued for medical malpractice in 2007. The outcome of the suit was not available.
Earnest Hines: Mr. Hines is the former CEO of the failed local insurance company American Skyline Insurance. Before that, he worked with USF&G and the St. Paul Companies. He is also a member of the Baltimore County Board of Education. When he was with American Skyline, he was quoted as saying "[w]e want to go wherever the money's green."
Patricia A. Miller: She is an attorney in Annapolis, Maryland. A search of Maryland court records reveals at least 50 cases where she has served as a mediator to resolve cases out of court. She is also a principal of the National Institute for Conflict Resolution, where she works "with business, government and industry on conflict resolution processes." Her official biography does not mention her affiliation with MDCALA.
Ron Vitkum: He owns "Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts". He had a long career in the corporate world, and is now a member of the Hagerstown/Washington County Chamber of Commerce.
Jerome Leonard: He is the owner of the Taylor-Leonard Corporation. They offer "Risk Management Solutions for Your Business" and also shill for Pre-Paid Legal Services.
OK. Let's review. MDCALA is "a nonprofit, nonpartisan grassroots watchdog organization dedicated to educating the public about the costs and consequences of lawsuit abuse and ensuring that our legal system is used for justice, not greed." They don't tell you what lawsuit abuse is, and don't list their board of directors.
By digging I found out that at various times their board has consisted of a D.C. lobbyist who created grassroots campaigns, a doctor and "activist" who has been sued for malpractice, the CEO of a failed insurer who would "go wherever the money's green", an attorney who gets paid to work with business and industry on conflict resolution, and a guy who sells risk management and prepaid legal services.
Do you think these guys have an agenda? I don't see one single private citizen in that list without an axe to grind. I do see a list of folks with ties to business and insurance that are in one way or another acting out of economic self-interest. So why the cloak and dagger? MDCALA should admit who they are and stop claiming that it is a "grassroots organization."
I am a Maryland trial lawyer who earns a living by representing injury victims at Miller & Zois, LLC. You can read all about me and my firm here. Personally, I would be suspicious of any group that seems to conceal its leaders and true agenda. When you get your information about tort reform, make sure you know where that information is coming from.
Comments
"Apparently these are a huge problem."
Duh. Are you for or against our legal system?
Frivolous lawsuits DO hurt the economy. Your article is two-faced and you sound like a greedy attorney. Go get a life you scumbag.
Posted by: Bob | May 9, 2009 11:53 PM
Bob,
I tend to favor abolishing frivolous lawsuits, and understand that I have the luxury of being able to make employment based mistakes because I am not employed in a life and death occupation. John Bratt's article is factual, respectful, logical and cogent. In other words it makes sense.
You must have thought the same thing since you resorted to name calling instead of a logical counter-point.
People can disagree civilly. You just made a stronger case for John.
Posted by: Glen | September 21, 2009 12:59 PM
Listen to the American people. Various independant polls conducted by scores of polling agencies have shown that over 85% of Americans feel the tort system-something YOU MAKE A LIVING OFF OF-is out of control. Price Waterhouse Cooper estimates a so called "trial lawyer tax" that every American pays so you can stay in your BMW, nice house and Gucci loafers These are the facts. Conservative estimates place the costs of defensive medicine at 200-300 BILLION $ a year. You cannot deny this despite how your might try. The fact is lawsuit abuse occurs, frivolous lawsuits occur and this costs everyone. Howard Dean even said there is no tort reform in the Democrat health care bills because the trial lawyer lobby is too strong. Why, if you are "defending the little guy" do you need such a powerful lobby? Why are the trial lawyers (renamed the citizens for Justice or some laughable likeness) the SINGLE LARGEST donors to the Democrat party? Obviously, you want to stay milking this "cash cow" for as long as you can.
If someone languishes in jail for 30 years (as recently occurred) only to be "found innocent" later does this mean the layer who defended the person was "negligent" and should be sued? The logic you and your ilk apply to suing doctors, business owners, AKA anyone with deep pocket insurance behind them (ever notice how you guys never sue "poor people"?) is flawed and makes little to no sense. Why is there little to no suing of lawyers for negligence? Are you all that much smarter and that much better and that much "less negligent" than the hard working, caring doctors out there?
If you believe someone is negligent, why not take their license and keep them from harming others? If you truly care about "the harmed victim" why not make sure the "evil horrible doctor or negligent business" doesn't do this to anyone else? The answer is obvious-NO MONEY in it for you. You follow the money-plain and simple.
The definition of frivolity is in the eye of the beholder-this is an obvious truism. Can you honestly tell anyone sir that it is not a frivolous case for a lawyer to sue a dry cleaner for 10 million$ because they "ruined " a pair of pants? Who on earth but a lawyer would think this ok??? Ever hear of common sense?
As for doctors being sued-check your data-ALMOST ALL Drs. will get sued at some point in their career-so don't act smug by pointing out that one who serves as an "activist" and Board member of MDCALA has been sued.
Bottom line is if you and your ilk cared so much for the "common man" as you so often claim to, why would you not take cases that were legitimate malpractice cases but in which there was no money to be made? Better yet, why not work FOR FREE? Why not take an hourly salary and let the "injured victim" keep most of what they "earned"?. No, you guys would rather walk off with 60% of the "largesse"-check your facts on that. Why on earth should you get more than the "injured victim"?
No, you would rather ride that gravy train all the way home and get rich off this poor sucker's "suffering".
I do agree that people should check their facts. Yours and those pushed by the trial attorney lobby are flawed, wrong or in many cases simply made up. You can check the testimony the Trial Lawyer Association (or whatever it is renamed now) gives every year before the MD state Gov't and the Federal gov't. The "facts" are wrong, the statistics are misleading and used incorrectly and the conclusions are self serving, illogical and simply put...wrong.
Posted by: Derek | December 23, 2009 12:16 AM
Derek, look how mad you are! OK, you want facts? The DC pants suit was not filed by a lawyer representing a client. It was filed by a nutjob administrative law judge who was representing himself. It was not filed against a deep pocket- the dry cleaners were of very modest means. The lawyer who defended them was a member of the DC Trial Lawyers Association. Oh, yeah. The Plaintiff lost, which was what should have happened.
And in terms of MDCALA- the entire organization is a lie. There is nothing grass-roots about it. It is a calculated, planned campaign directed by self-interested parties. That's why every single member of their board is somebody with an axe to grind.
And finally, the people who give testimony in Annapolis from the Maryland Association for Justice are honest people that I know and respect, which is why I serve on theor board. I dare you to obtain a transcript of testimony and show me a lie told by any member of MAJ at a legislative hearing.
Oh. Just so you know, I'll start working for free the same day the doctors do. Allegations of false altruism go both ways.
Posted by: John Bratt | December 23, 2009 9:22 AM