Balancing Out The Democratic Ticket: A Wealthy Attorney Picks Another Wealthy Attorney
By Rachel Alexander (07/13/04)
The Kerry campaign is trying its best to spin the selection of wealthy trial lawyer John Edwards for VP by portraying Edwards as the son of a textile mill worker, a regular guy who can relate to the South and middle America.
This is not the whole truth, and it is not surprising considering the source: two lawyers well-versed in skewing arguments. In actuality, Edwards’ father became a supervisor at the mill and later formed his own consulting business. Edwards’ mother managed and owned a furniture refinishing antique shop and later worked for the U.S. Postal Service, so Edwards grew up with the benefit of dual incomes. Senate financial disclosure documents estimate Edwards’ current wealth at between $12 million and $60 million – built from his share of the multimillion-dollar awards he won for his clients, which for trial lawyers is usually a 33% share. He lives in a $3.8 million dollar house located in a posh area of Georgetown, and owns two additional houses each worth over a million dollars. His wife is also an attorney.
When John Kerry was asked on Larry King in an interview last week whether or not Edwards’ trial lawyer background negatively affects the ticket, Kerry responded no, asserting that it was an asset. There is a disconnect here, because many Americans feel that trial lawyers are a big part of what is wrong with society.
Many trial lawyers today encourage people to sue simply because they don’t like the results – not because they were actually injured or wronged, and regardless of whether it was caused by their own error. As a result, doctors are terrified to perform risky surgery on patients, such as essential emergency operating room surgery, knowing full too well that if Mr. Joe Patient decides afterwards that if he does not like the outcome he may sue, and a sympathetic jury that does not understand medical procedures may feel sorry for him. Across the U.S. today, critically injured patients are rushed to hospital emergency rooms, only to be told that no doctor dares operate on them for fear of medical malpractice lawsuits, and so the patients wait hours, only to be seen by a resident with little experience who performs the risky surgical procedures.
This problem has been exacerbated by the Democrats’ socialization of medical care. Federal law now mandates the maximum fees doctors may charge for medical procedures, and so doctors are no longer willing to risk performing extremely difficult surgeries plus 30 days of follow-up care for a few hundred dollars, especially when their work may might result in a million doctor verdict against them, putting them out of business. Horror stories are beginning to crop up of patients who need emergency surgery but fail to obtain it within critical time, resulting in death or more serious injury. Malpractice insurance for doctors currently costs doctors around fifty to hundred thousand dollars per year, and as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars in some practice areas such as obstetrics. Even if a doctor who has been sued is exonerated by the courts, many insurance companies still raise their rates or drop their coverage based on complaints only. Bright college students who are aware of these problems in the medical profession are opting for other careers instead.
Many of Edwards’ huge verdicts have come from jurors who are easily persuaded by “junk science” experts. Sadly, many so-called “experts” will say anything if paid the right amount. Edwards won these types of verdicts by accusing doctors of causing cerebral palsy while assisting with births, even though a recently sponsored study by gynecologists that found that most cases of cerebral palsy are caused by factors outside of doctors’ control. Doctors in obstetrics have been the hardest hit by trial lawyers’ medical malpractice lawsuits, forcing many of them to quit delivering babies altogether. In many hospitals, it is common for the staff to tell women not to give birth at night since there are no doctors available, not even on call.
The American Tort Reform Association calls Edwards “a wealthy personal injury lawyer masquerading as a man of the regular people.” Edwards is not just any old trial lawyer, he is one of the most successful attorneys to sue doctors ever. From 1990–2001, his wins constituted more than one quarter of the total $448 million in verdicts for medical malpractice awards in North Carolina, according to a North Carolina insurance company.
Not surprisingly, tort lawyers are closely identified with the Democratic Party. Last year the Association of Trial Lawyers contributed more money to the Democratic Party than did any other PAC. Since 1990 trial lawyers have contributed more money to federal campaigns than any other special interest group, and almost all of this went to Democratic candidates. With Edwards in power, the trial lawyers will become even wealthier and more powerful, as our medical profession shrinks. There will no possibility for meaningful tort reform.
So why is everyone so excited about Edwards? He doesn’t balance out the ticket, since he is one of the most liberal members of the Senate along with Kerry. The National Journal’s 2003 congressional vote ratings listed Kerry as the most liberal Senator in the Senate, with Edwards close behind as the fourth most liberal Senator. Edwards doesn’t stand out for his intelligence, either. When asked how Edwards performed in high school, a former classmate from high school, Darrell Powers, stated, “He did ok. He was a long way from being valedictorian.” So what does he add to the ticket? Apparently youth, good looks, the Association of Trial Lawyers, and the dubious distinction of making the Democratic ticket the most liberal one since 1972, when George McGovern and Thomas Eagleton/Sargent Shriver lost every state except Massachusetts and D.C.
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