WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Trial lawyers are abuzz with the prospect of “reaping billions” through favorable legislative and regulatory changes under a Democratic Congress and a Biden presidency, a prominent business defense lawyer says.
“A jubilee is the celebration of a special event,” wrote Victor Schwartz, Co-Chair of Shook Hardy & Bacon’s Public Policy Group, in a recent opinion piece. “For trial lawyers representing plaintiffs, the 2021 political scene in Washington, D.C., is about as special as it gets.”
For years, Republicans in Congress, in control of one or both houses, have blocked litigation expanding legislative and regulatory changes sought by the trial bar. Now, “there are far fewer checks against unsound proposals targeting businesses and other entities,” with the Democrats, who receive the vast majority of trial lawyer political money, in control.
What’s more, President Joe Biden, unlike his Democratic predecessors Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, “has consistently supported trial lawyers’ interests during his many years in public office.”
Prospective changes include a ban on the use of pre-dispute arbitration agreements, which often resolve disputes more quickly and at lower costs for consumers with lawyers typically collecting less in legal fees.
“The organized trial bar has also lobbied to create new ways to sue an ever-expanding group of businesses and other entities — everyone from social media companies to makers of generic drugs,” Schwartz wrote.
With the Democrats holding the slimmest of majorities in the Senate, the trial lawyers might seek a limited repeal of the filibuster, a procedural tactic used to block votes. Schwartz says that “they might carve out ‘consumer’ or ‘health and safety’ initiatives from filibuster rules to tuck their legislative agenda under such umbrella exceptions.”
On the executive side, Schwartz warns that trial lawyers are likely to win appointments to key positions in the new administration where they will pursue regulatory changes that expand liability and litigation.
“It is incumbent on the media to monitor trial lawyers’ influence on the development of federal laws in their jubilant 2021 and beyond and to place sunlight on any unsound proposals that are not in the public’s best interest,” he wrote.