FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 15, 1998

CONTACT: John Sullivan PHONE: (916) 443-4900

The Daily Journal legal newspaper has reported that gubernatorial candidate Gray Davis has received "at least $1.98 million this year" in trial lawyer campaign contributions, a figure borne out by independent research by the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC).

The Civil Justice Association of California figures, obtained through the Secretary of State's office, show Davis receiving nearly $2.5 million from trial lawyers. Of these trial lawyer contributions, $77,000 came from trial lawyer political action committees-and the vast majority came from individual attorneys and law firms.

Contribution reports show that during this period Attorney General Dan Lungren received $154,000 from trial lawyers-most of which was contributed by the "Republican Trial Lawyers Caucus," a subdivision of the statewide trial lawyers association.

John Sullivan, President of the Civil Justice Association of California, noted that filed reports on trial lawyer political action committees only tell a small part of the story.

"When contributions from individual lawyers and firms are added, it's easy to see that the trial lawyer industry is the single biggest narrow interest campaign contributor in the state," said Sullivan. "While political contributions are a legitimate part of our freedom to communicate and select our representatives in government, voters should know when a special interest is running a massive program to elect people they hope will increase their dominance of our civil justice system."