The article points out several instances in which extremely well known plaintiffs attorneys have been targeted by federal prosecutors for charges related entirely to their work as trial attorneys. One of the most disturbing instances is a case against Mississippi attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs:
On Aug. 21, special prosecutors charged prominent Mississippi trial attorney Richard "Dickie" F. Scruggs with criminal contempt in a Hurricane Katrina insurance dispute. E.A. Renfroe & Co. v. Moran, No. 2:06-cv-01752-WMA (N.D. Ala.).There is no doubt that plaintiffs trial lawyers have long been a target - of Conservatives. Since the first Bush Administration, conservatives have advanced crackpot economic theories that speculate that fear of lawsuits and payout of damages actually harm the economy. ATLA (now the American Association for Justice) has worked hard to counter this ideological threat (although they were very late to the game in my opinion). But the Conservatives' Republican stooges in statehouses and in Congress have done their bidding in enacting tort reform legislation to shield corporations from the perceived "threat" of trial lawyers and the current Bush Administration's ideologues have stripped government of much of its regulatory function, in the process preempting state and federal lawsuits.
But to sic federal prosecutors on the hated Plaintiffs' Bar? Would the federal government actually do that? In days past - when other people were president and ideologues other than Alberto Gonzales had been attorney general - the question may have seemed wild-eyed and extremist.
These days? Not so much.
