Second Update: The Lawyers' Big Money in California

Plaintiffs' Lawyer Contributions Pass $5 Million Mark Money Flowing at $200,000 a Week!

The Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) reported today that California trial lawyers have contributed a whopping $5 million to incumbents and candidates in statewide and legislative races leading up to tomorrow's election!

"The wealthy personal injury lawyer lobby has been pouring money in at a tune of about $200,000 a week since the start of October," said John H. Sullivan, CJAC president. Their goal is to have enough legislators indebted to them in the months ahead that they can wheel and deal for new laws to pump up their income. It's an old story with new dollars," he said.

The bulk of the total -- more than $3.6 million -- went directly to candidates and parties from individual lawyers and law firms. This is money that doesn't show up when researchers look only at political action committees to identify plaintiffs' lawyer money. However, late contributions of at least $138,000 have been dumped into campaigns by trial lawyer PACs. For example, the "Consumer Attorneys of California" gave $50,000 on November 2 to the Assembly Democratic Leadership fund.

In the 1997-1998 election cycle, trial lawyers ended up giving $10.3 million to statewide and legislative officeholders and candidates – two of every three dollars directly from lawyers and firms. Final numbers for the current cycle won't be known for months.

Reports filed at the Secretary of State's office show that legislators and candidates for legislative office received the bulk of the total ($3.9 million) over the 1999-2000 election cycle. Statewide office holders received the remaining $1.1 million. (As incumbents who are not on the November ballot, these recipients have not been required to file contribution reports since June 30.)

Sullivan said that political contributions are a legitimate part of our freedom to communicate and select government representatives. However, the public should know when a powerful few are running a massive program to elect representatives to promote their narrow agenda.

Contributions by recipient and prior year contributions can be found by visiting www.cjac.org and selecting the "research" button.