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New Web Salvos in Tort War
They are the Hatfields and McCoys of the legal profession: the plaintiff and defense lawyers who practice in the area of tort law. Two new Web sites drive home their divide, one with soberly dramatic videos, the other with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
The sober one stands on the defense side. Called I Am Lawsuit Abuse.org and produced by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, it features real-life "victims" of lawsuit abuse telling their stories in professionally produced YouTube-style videos. Among them are last year's poster children of lawsuit excess, Jin and Soo Chung, the owners of the Washington, D.C., dry cleaners sued for $54 million by now-infamous D.C. Administrative Law Judge Roy Pearson. Of course, the system worked, in that Pearson lost, but he has appealed and the experience left the Chungs nostalgic for their native Korea, where they had never even been to a police station, let alone a courthouse.
Over on the other side of the aisle, staff members of the Center for Justice and Democracy launched a blog, The Pop Tort. Its perspective is summed up well in the front-page picture of a smiling, anthropomorphic piece of toast popping out of snarling toaster and proclaiming, "If loving civil justice is wrong, I don't want to be right!" Like the organization from which it comes, The Pop Tort follows the news with an eye towards busting big-business myths about civil justice, laced with generous helpings of sarcasm and irony.
Neither site will bring the Hatfields any closer to the McCoys, but both are worth watching, whichever side you come down on.
Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi on February 15, 2008 at 11:32 AM | Permalink
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