Lawyers feeling the love in Tallahassee again

“Lawyers are back!"

Gov. Charlie Crist made that declaration in West Palm Beach last year soon after taking office. The memory lingers because of what happened in Tallahassee over the past few weeks.

In West Palm Beach, the ex-attorney general had spotted a fellow lawyer in a crowd. Crist wanted it known that the legal profession would not be shunned as it had been during the Jeb Bush years.

"Fortunately, I'm not a lawyer," Bush liked to say, as he battled the trial bar on issues such as capping jury awards in medical malpractice cases.

Not only are lawyers back, but trial lawyers are back in force. It's enough to make Jeb wonder how quickly times have changed. (story here)

Comments

Enter the business communities excuses again. What's bothering you AIF, Chamber, Retail? How did the big bad trial lawyers play unfairly again?

Business groups were totally taken for a ride by Pruitt and Atwater. That's what they get for being so in the pocket of one party. They screwed themselves.

[Cynical Ideallist]

Yeah, the trial bar screws with the business community and makes a ton of money off the lawsuits. Their clients get 2/3 of the judgment AFTER expenses.

I am reminded of the trail lawyer who flies first class, stays at the Ritz-Carlton, eats at The Palm, then wonders why people hate him.

Then, on the other end, you've got a business owner who thinks his job is to make every penny possible off the consumer.

Neither of them are out there helping widows and orphans, which the Bible directs us to do.

As usual,, when it comes to media reports, the truth is somewhere in the middle...

The media lurches from one side to the other "reporting" the news (actually they report the conflict because they know that's what sells papers), but they never delve into the deeper issues of business regulation or Bar control of lawyers.

All of you people only serve to make me even more cynical...

[terminator]

I can't believe the trial bar lets Charlie Crist call himself a lawyer!
And this from the guy who failed the bar 3x and his only real experience as a lawyer was representing minor league baseball in St. Pete.
Anyone know where Chuck is today? Probably shacked up with his "alleged girlfriend" Carol Rome up in the Hamptons.
He really wanted to go to Crawford Texas in order to maximize his photo-op opportunities but Karl Rove told Chuck and the Maestro they weren't on the guest list.
Poor Chuck, just think of all the cameras he missed!

Wake up folks!

The Florida Legislature abolished joint and several liability already.

What some in the business universe want is total immunity from their own mis-actions.

Posted by: terminator | May 10, 2008 at 11:07 AM:

Terminator,

As Gov. Crist has already made perfectly clear by avoiding a phot0-op with the incumbent president, he "don't need no stinkin' incumbent president" to help him along.

As a legislator, attorney general and governor, legal questions are dealt with daily - hourly more accurately stated. That places Florida in a better place than under Jeb Bush or the country under George W. Bush.

Of course Lawyers are back in style! Look at the bill, "Home Court Advantage" - If you live in a mandatory homeowners association (as most new developments are), and if the Association decides that you have done something or not done something in accordance to their understaning then their lawyer sends you a notice to change or do whatever AND pay his fees OR go to mediation.

If you decide to go to mediation, the Association chooses the mediator and you have to pay 1/2 the cost up front. If you don't settle you have to go before an arbitrator.

However, the Association gets to choose the arbitrator AND you have to pay 1/2 the cost of the arbitration. If you lose you have to fix the problem, pay ALL of the Assocation's attorneys fees and ALL of the cost of mediation and ALL of the cost of the arbitration OR you can go to circuit court.

If, at the very beginning you decide this system doesn't seem very fair with the Association getting to choose the mediator and or arbitrator so that you decide to go directly to court you can do that, but if YOU win - you won't be awarded your attorney's fees and if YOU lose you'll pay all of the Association's attorney's fees.

Yep - full employment for attorney's and the shaft for homeowners!!!!!

[Jason Straight]

Thank god someone believes in the Constitution and victims access to court..No joint and several,no protection for Nursing home abuse,Immunity for Prison Malpractice ER Killings and construction site workers caps on med mal so no one can afford a lawyer..I think if the public knew how their rights have been sold to big business they would be angry..They only learn about it when they lose a loved one and the attorney gives them the news..I smell a Dem landslide!

Jason - I get most of what you're saying, but joint and several was crap pure and simple

[zenator]

The trial lawyers do not deserve the credit/blame for the insurance legislation. The insurance carriers, particularly Allstate, are the authors of their own misfortune.

The republicans have sold out their base - the middle class. All they are interested in is feathering their own nests, even at the expense of their base. Their actions and inactions have turned the former middle class into the working poor. It won't be too much longer until the only jobs available will be those at the big boxes - whose workforce are paid so little that the remaining taxpayers have to subsidize them through Medicaid and other public assistance programs.

Kick these bums out next November!

4:10 - hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahhahaha...

Idiot.

Hey Times; what's the word on CW's health problems... or are they keeping quiet to hold the seat for a special election?

[Tired of Hypocracy]

The trial bar was probably more successful than in at least a decade. They stopped the doctors dead in their tracks on sovereign immunity not to mention CSX. They made the docs look as impotent as they are.

Yea Jeb, maybe if you were a lawyer you'd realize how utterly ridiculous it would be for the state to give CSX no fault liability.

Fortunately, you're not our Governor anymore.

6:15...it is far better for a person who is partially at fault to pay an injured person's damages...than the innocent injured person....what in fact is now taking place is that seriously injured people are not getting their medical bills paid for...which is then absorebed by the health care providers...and ultimately passed on to the taxpayers....