Letters to the Editor
Mar 5, 2012
In response to Emily Green’s well done summary of the debate over Assembly Bill 1208 (“Courts bill would shift power but to whom?” – Feb 21st), the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) must emphasize a few points about this legislation.
Aug 11, 2010
In its plan to make offshore oil drilling safer Congress should delete the lawyer-driven scheme to eliminate the damage liability cap it established in 1990. Destroying the cap would inspire lawsuits that would direct millions of dollars away from people whose livelihood was disrupted by the Deepwater Horizon spill. Instead, the money would go into the pockets of plaintiffs’ lawyers. The cost risks of future drilling would increase because with no liability limit, smaller independent oil producers may find that insurance to cover accidents is unaffordable.
Mar 25, 2010
Out here in California we see fraud-convicted Mississippi asbestos lawyers (“Asbestos Turnabout,” Review & Outlook, March 18) William Guy and Thomas Brock simply guilty of bad timing and picking the wrong state to double-dip for damages.
Jan 11, 2010
Jeffrey Lowe’s column, “Tort Reform ‘Savings’ Ring Hallow” (Dec. 30, 2009) on tort reform and the federal health care proposal was remarkable — for what it left out.
Sep 16, 2009
The Sacramento Bee
Re “Insurance bill sent to governor” (Capitol & California, Sept. 11): The Bee’s coverage of the Legislature’s approval of a health care insurance rescission bill failed to describe the “litigation-sparking” amendments that undercut the bill’s reasonable goals - and the fact that they were stuck in by a major behind-the-scenes player in the legislation: the personal injury lawyers.
Jun 4, 2009
San Francisco Chronicle
The attack by personal injury lawyers on Proposition 64’s legal reform (“Consumers win with high court’s Prop. 64 decision,” Open Forum, June 1) doesn’t tell readers why the 2004 initiative was necessary.
Jun 3, 2009
California Lawyer
“Coverage in Tatters” [February] was a detailed review of litigation over health care contract rescissions, but its brief look at the proposed legislation (AB 1945) to reduce the need for such litigation did not fairly describe events surrounding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s veto of the bill.
Apr 30, 2009
San Francisco Chronicle
In his rambling criticism of a bill (AB 298 - Tran) to balance class action law, Richard Holober should have revealed the money he’s received from personal injury and other plaintiffs lawyers opposing the measure. Last year they gave him more than $80,000 and spent another $113,000 trying unsuccessfully to get him into the Legislature.
Apr 20, 2009
The Sacramento Bee
In today’s economy, the jobs-fleeing-the-state debate should be shelved.
Jan 15, 2009
The Sacramento Bee
As an organization long concerned with exploitive litigation of the kind going on under the national Americans with Disabilities Act combined with the state’s Unruh Act, the Civil Justice Association of California supported Senators Ellen Corbett’s and Tom Harman’s bill, Senate Bill 1608, as a valid step toward curing the problem. The Sacramento Bee’s January 6 article reported on the hundreds of lawsuits filed by attorney Scott Norris Johnson. The Carmichael lawyer is the kind of repeat plaintiff that the bill’s bi-partisan supporters had in mind when crafting legislation aimed at reducing predatory lawsuits against hundreds of California businesses while increasing access for disabled people.
Dec 1, 2008
The Daily Journal legal newspaper
The fourth anniversary of Proposition 64’s enactment by California voters is a little early to be casting a revisionist theory over its origin and intent.
Oct 6, 2008
Your complaint of the Governor’s veto of AB 1945 (De La Torre) would be understandable if the bill sent to him had been a workable requirement of state review before an insurer could deny or rescind an individual customer’s health care coverage. The bill started that way. But the review process was corrupted when the plaintiffs’ lawyer lobby inserted hostile amendments to drive reviews into the courts.
Aug 29, 2008
Los Angeles Times
Aug 23, 2008
The Bakersfield Californian
Your recent editorial about Assemblywoman Nicole Parra (“Ouch: Parra shown the door,”) asked, “Where was her political courage for the past six years?” Consider the following...
Feb 22, 2008
San Francisco Daily Journal
Feb 14, 2008
Even more remarkable than Bill Lerach’s failure, in a spate of post-guilty plea op-eds, to owe up to his responsibility for plaintiff kickback felonies (“Lerach Gets Two” editorial, Feb. 12 ) is the attempt to convert those opinion pieces to sentence-reduction currency. Under a “Lerach’s Continuing Value to His Community” heading in his 50-plus page leniency sentencing memorandum, is an assertion that his “recently authored opinion pieces published in the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, San Diego Union-Tribune and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Sun Telegraph” are evidence of his continued “fighting to protect ordinary people….”
Aug 7, 2007
The Sacramento Budget
Feb 9, 2007
John H. Sullivan
