Windfall Fees In Injury Cases Under Assault
|
|
On Sept. 21, 1989, a soft-drink delivery truck slammed into a school bus in Alton, Tex., killing 21 children and injuring dozens of others. Insurers for the bottling company and the bus manufacturer settled the claims of the victims’ families quickly, for an estimated $122 million. Notwithstanding that early resolution of a case that was never really in doubt, the families’ lawyers received at least a third of the settlement in contingency fees. By the calculation of Prof. Lester Brickman of Benjamin Cardozo Law School, that sum was equal to at least $25,000 an hour to each plaintiff lawyer involved in the case, in exchange for what amounted to nothing more than routine legal services. Such windfalls — part of the $13 billion to $15 billion paid annually to American lawyers contingent on their winning a favorable verdict or, more frequently, a settlement — have long been tolerated as the price of assuring access to court by those who cannot afford lawyers’ hourly fees. But perhaps not much longer, given a new attack by a large group of legal scholars ranging along the philosophical spectrum from Erwin N. Griswold to Robert H. Bork. ‘Simple, Ingenious’ Innovation More : query.nytimes.com |