Dear TLR Supporter:

Prominent class-action attorney Melvyn Weiss was sentenced to 30 months in a federal prison on Monday for his role in concealing illegal kickbacks to plaintiffs.  The story was prominently covered in the Wall Street Journal [1], the New York Times [2] and the Associated Press [3], but it was only reported in a few Texas newspapers. Weiss will follow his former partner, Bill Lerach [4], who went to prison last month on similar charges.  Two other members of the firm have been indicted for perjury, bribery and fraud.

These most recent scandals by big players in the lawsuit industry, including Richard “Dickie” Scruggs [5] and four members of his firm who have been indicted for bribing a judge over the distribution of lawyers’ fees in a Hurricane Katrina insurance lawsuit, are part of a wave of high-profile lawsuit abuse that is grabbing national headlines. TLR profiled several of these abuses in a special edition of “The Advocate” [6] released in March, but unfortunately, these stories have gotten very little attention in the Texas media.

According to the Manhattan Institute, the lawsuit industry rakes in $40 billion dollars annually, more than Coca Cola, Intel or Microsoft. But the scandals that are sending big time plaintiff lawyers to jail are not bringing an outcry from the press or the public. Texas Rep. Lamar Smith’s (R-San Antonio) call for Congressional hearings have been ignored in dramatic contrast to the Enron and MCI Worldcom scandals which were appropriately covered in the media in Texas and nationally and every day for months.

TLR needs your help to bring these destructive lawsuit abuses to the public attention in your community. We encourage you to:

Write your local paper and ask that these important lawsuit abuse issues to be covered (and send a copy of the letter to us)

Send information on the lawsuit abuse scandals to your local talk-radio station and call them to express your concern

Forward this e-mail to your friends, family and business associates.

 

Raising public awareness about these scandals will help all our work toward a civil justice system that is fair, honest and efficient.

Signed,
Sherry Sylvester
TLR Communications