November 3, 2008

Trial lawyers and their allies believe they may have a shot at going on the offensive with their most sweeping legislative agenda in many a year, reports the WSJ. Lester Brickman warns of the "most significant enlargement of tort liability since the 1960s." Key action items are the same ones the lobby has been banging the drums on for the past year: rolling back pre-emption and replacing arbitration with litigation. "The trial lawyers used the last Congress to learn where the soft spots were," says Victor Schwartz. And CAFA or no CAFA, "pro-plaintiff groups see an ally in Sen. Obama, a former law professor, who has offered support for tighter consumer-safety regulations and co-sponsored a bill in August to roll back mandatory arbitration for military-service members and their employers. The bill remains in committee."