PERSONAL INJURY LAWYERS THUMB NOSES AT CALIFORNIANS

WITH FROMMER BILL
Bill attempts to reverse Proposition 64 vote

SAN DIEGO – San Diego County Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA), today issued a strong warning for politicians inclined to put the special interests of personal injury lawyers ahead of the best interests of Californians, saying they should respect the wishes of their constituents and reject Assembly Bill 528 by Dario Frommer (D – Los Angeles).

AB 528 would allow any person claiming “a beneficial interest” to file a lawsuit and authorizes lawsuits merely over a “threatened” violation, even without a client or any evidence of injury.  In so doing, it reinstates a flagrant flaw in the legal system that voters fixed last year when they passed Proposition 64.

"This bill creates the same kind of vague eligibility to sue that led to decades of shakedown lawsuits that existed before Proposition 64,” Andy Kotner, President of San Diego CALA,  said.  “This new bill invites the same kind of state-sanctioned extortion against an even longer list of victims."

Proposition 64 was approved by the voters last November 59 percent to 41 percent.  The measure passed in 70 of the 80 Assembly Districts, including Assemblyman Frommer’s, where it passed 56.4 percent to 43.6 percent.  In fact, Proposition 64 passed with over 60% of the vote in 37 Assembly Districts.

Locally, Proposition 64 passed by more than 16% in Assemblyman Juan Vargas’s district and by 15% in Assemblywoman Lori Saldana’s district.

“It shows how powerful personal injury lawyers are when they can thumb their noses at the voters and pressure legislators to carry their water again and again,” said Kotner.  “It’s amazing that AB 528 was even introduced, much less passed by the Assembly Judiciary Committee.  It makes you wonder, who do our Legislators represent, the voters of their district or the special interests that line their pockets?”

Kotner says the bill is especially unnecessary, given California Environmental Protection Agency’s recently unveiled aggressive new enforcement strategy. Under current rules and policies, state and regional water quality control boards brought more than 16,000 enforcement actions over the past four years for Water Code violations. Last year the Air Resources Board brought 3,000 enforcement actions.

“What makes this bill even more unnecessary is that its sponsors have never demonstrated that environmental and health laws now in place aren’t working,” said Kotner.

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Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) is a non-profit, public education, grassroots watchdog organization comprised of small business owners and consumers dedicated to the reform of our civil justice system.