Al Smith - February 19, 2008
Montana Trial Lawyers Association
Yes, Hunt is a Trial Lawyer
Yes, Hunt Is A Trial Lawyer
Al Smith, Montana Trial Lawyers Association
February 19, 2008
Last week’s announcement by Jim Hunt that he was running for Congress brought immediate attacks from the Montana GOP. Hunt’s chief negative according to the Montana GOP? He’s a trial lawyer. A label that has become, consciously, a smear word in the GOP lexicon. The trial lawyer bashing was no surprise, given the decades long campaign by corporations and their GOP lap dogs to paint trial lawyers as evil doers on par with communists.
The Commonweal Institute, a nonpartisan think tank incorporated in Washington, DC, released a report prior to the 2004 election revealing the workings of the so-called "tort reform" movement. The report, "The Attack on Trial Lawyers & Tort Law" reveals the political and economic motivations of the "tort reform" movement. For more than three decades, business interests have invested billions of dollars to sell the public a distorted view of our legal system. Influencing public opinion has been a key strategic aim of the business-driven campaign for so-called "tort reform," which is designed to limit corporate responsibility and accountability, prevent civil lawsuits against corporations, and restrict citizens' ability to pursue recourse in the courts. In addition to these corporate backers of tort reform, however, there are also right-wing think tanks and other organizations, including the Montana GOP, that have played a major role in promoting "tort reform."
The GOP has also been dutifully and actively spouting the corporate “tort reform” disinformation campaign as part of its campaign against the American consumer. GOP consultants such as pollster Frank Luntz, have been pushing tort reform since the early 1990s. "It's almost impossible to go too far when it comes to demonizing lawyers," Luntz wrote in a memorandum to Republicans running for re-election. "Make the lawyer your villain by contrasting him with the little guy,' the innocent hard-working American who he takes to the cleaners."
That the Montana GOP would attack Hunt as a trial lawyer was to be expected. The effort to diminish or immunize corporations from having to be legally accountable and responsible for the harms they cause Montanans, “tort reform” as they call it, is enshrined in the platform of the Montana GOP.
Representative Rehberg has dutifully towed the GOP line during his time in Congress. He has consistently voted to limit corporate responsibility and accountability, prevent civil lawsuits against corporations, and restrict citizens' ability to pursue recourse in the courts. The one exception, to Rehberg’s credit, is his support of the people of Libby - the only time I am aware of when he actually put the rights and needs of Montanans ahead of corporate interests seeking to avoid accountability and responsibility.
But the Montana GOP and their spin masters like Frank Luntz have it backwards when it comes to Jim Hunt - he doesn’t clean out the little guys. He fights for Montana citizens who have been harmed by others, whether they are individuals, corporations or governmental entities.
In one case Hunt is known for he represented three boys whose mother was slain by their stepfather. Their mother was the victim of repeated domestic violence. The sheriff’s office was well acquainted with the abuse, having made numerous visits to the residence. Knowing the abuser had a gun that the woman and others had been threatened with, even having emptied it of shells on occasion, the sheriff did not arrest the abuser or take the gun. The sheriff also failed to give the woman notice of her rights and options available to her as a victim of domestic abuse. After years of inflicting abuse, brandishing of the gun and threatening to harm himself and others, the abuser killed the boys’ mother. Fighting against a system that protects governmental entities from accountability and responsibility, Hunt sued the sheriff and county, and he was able to achieve some justice for these boys’ loss of their mother. The decision also sent a message to all Montana counties that failure to protect future victims of domestic violence could have consequences.
Recently, Hunt took on Allstate insurance. Allstate insured a Hardin warehouse, including property in rooms the owner leased in the building. A fire in the building destroyed personal items and business merchandise of one of the building’s tenants. Allstate refused to honor the owner’s request that the company pay for the tenant’s items destroyed by the fire. Hunt represented the tenant and secured a decision from the Montana Supreme Court requiring Allstate to honor its policy.
Perhaps the easiest way to contrast Hunt, the trial lawyer, with Rehberg, the corporate poster boy, is to look at the Patient Bill of Rights. Hunt has supported a patient’s right to hold an HMO legally accountable for the harm they cause when they wrongfully deny or withhold necessary and covered medical care - a position supported by the American Medical Association, among other healthcare providers. Simply, Hunt supports the proposition that patients and their physicians should make treatment decisions, not insurance industry bean counters more interested in profits than proper care.
Rehberg has consistently supported the insurance industry. Rehberg has characterized the patients’ right to hold HMOs legally accountable as just a benefit to trial lawyers, which is simply untrue. Trial lawyers can collect attorney fees for cases where HMOs wrongfully deny or delay care under current law. Legal accountability of HMOs is not about attorney fees, it is about justice for the patients and their families who have been harmed.
It is simple - Hunt, a trial lawyer who advocates for people injured by corporations - Rehberg, a corporate good old boy who advocates to protect corporations from injured people.
This is Al Smith, a proud Trial Lawyer.
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