Word: torts
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...course, the Democrat who made that crack in the first paragraph will snort at the idea of George W. Bush - scion of old WASPs, Galahad of tort reform, living fat on Texas oil money and "presiding" now and then over lethal injections - as a hero of the anti-elitist masses. But that will be the Democrat's mistake...
Trial lawyers insist that the role they play is a vital one. The ability to sue for injuries is a basic American right, they say, one that supporters of tort reform are scheming to take away. "[Tort reform] is no more than a code to close the courthouse down to poor and middle-class people," says Jamail. "You don't see these corporations being tentative or bashful about running to the courthouse against each other or against individuals who don't pay their bills...
Critics offer a solution: tort reform. They have been pushing for years for restrictions that would make it harder for trial lawyers to collect large punitive-damage awards, which often far exceed the actual damages. Forty-five states have enacted civil-justice-reforms laws that limit such awards; and the Republican-backed Litigation Fairness Act, which is pending in the Senate, would make lawsuits filed by the government subject to the same procedures and laws that apply to injured persons...
Supporters of tort reform complain that trial lawyers are fighting it by contributing millions of dollars to the campaign coffers of sympathetic elected officials and judges. Last year trial lawyers gave $2.7 million in soft money to the national Democratic Party. Angelos personally gave $400,000. In fact, most of this trial-lawyer money went to Democratic candidates for Congress--the group that has been most instrumental in holding the line against national tort reform...
...most issues, Bush and Gore seem to be trying to meet in the political center, yet they disagree sharply over the role of plaintiffs' lawyers. Bush pushed a sweeping tort-reform package through in Texas in 1995, including caps on punitive damages. Gore has opposed tort reform and has lately presented himself as a populist enemy of "big drug companies...