Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden has been an ally of trial lawyers throughout his tenure in the U.S. Senate, opposing every effort to curb lawsuits against businesses and doctors. The lawyers are returning the favor.
Five of Biden's 10 biggest lifetime campaign donors are members of law firms that specialize in bringing personal-injury cases, according to the firms' Web sites and the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics. That ratio held up during his recent, unsuccessful run for the presidency.
While trial lawyers traditionally back Democrats, Biden, 65, the party's nominee for vice president, has gotten more money from the leading firms than any of the 16 other Senate committee chairmen and more than any Senate Democratic leader.
``The plaintiffs' lawyers would have an ally and dear friend in the White House if the Obama-Biden ticket wins,'' said Steven Hantler, who heads the nonprofit arm of the American Justice Partnership, a business-funded advocacy group that seeks to limit lawsuits at the state level.
There are no trial-lawyer firms among the top 10 donors to Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, or Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee.
Biden -- a former trial lawyer himself and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee -- voted against attempts by the Republicans who controlled Congress from 1995 to 2007 to rein in lawsuits.
Holding Steady
Even when other Democrats broke ranks during that period, Biden was steadfast. He declined to join Obama in backing a 2005 law that shifted most class-action lawsuits from state to federal courts, or Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who cosponsored legislation to set up a trust fund in lieu of asbestos lawsuits.
David Wade, a spokesman for Biden, said the Delaware senator is sticking up for the average citizen.
``Joe Biden has always believed that when CEOs and big corporations put profits before people, raiding pensions, polluting air and water, or putting dangerous drugs on the market, working folks injured through no fault of their own should have the right to seek justice,'' he said.
Amaya Smith, a spokeswoman for the American Association for Justice, the trial lawyers' trade group, declined to comment. The association's political action committee has given 95 percent of its donations in the 2008 campaign to Democrats.
White House Opposition
Biden's presence on the national ticket has business groups expecting that their campaign to impose limits on lawsuits will run into opposition in an Obama White House.
McCain, an Arizona senator, calls for restricting lawsuits against doctors as part of his plan to overhaul health care.
To be sure, Biden, who's been in the Senate for 36 years, has split with his party and supported corporations on some key votes. He supported the North American Free Trade Agreement and was one of only 18 Democrats in 2005 who voted for a bankruptcy bill that was the top priority of credit-card companies including MBNA Corp.
MBNA, which was based in Biden's home state of Delaware before being bought by Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America Corp. in 2006, is Biden's biggest lifetime donor. The company's employees gave him $214,050.
Still, his advocacy for the lawyers has paid dividends.
Four of the five plaintiffs' law firms among his top donors have worked on behalf of victims of asbestos exposure -- SimmonsCooper LLC, whose employees and families contributed $196,050 from 1989-2008; Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos's firm, whose employees gave $156,250; Baron & Budd PC, whose employees donated $108,050; and Weitz & Luxenberg PC, whose employees gave $93,750.
Blocking Trust Fund
Biden voted in 2006 to block legislation setting up a $140 billion trust fund for victims of exposure to asbestos and curbing lawsuits that have bankrupted almost 80 companies. Leahy of Vermont cosponsored the measure, and 13 Democrats voted to bring it to the Senate floor. The supporters couldn't muster enough votes and the legislation died.
Biden ``thought it was dead wrong that if the trust fund ran out of money for the victims, they couldn't even get their rights back,'' said spokesman Wade.
He was on the losing side in February 2005 when the Senate approved legislation shifting most class-action suits to federal courts from state courts. Among the Democrats backing the measure were Charles Schumer of New York and Obama of Illinois. The bill passed, 72-26, and was signed into law.
Securities Suits
Ten years earlier, Biden voted no while 20 other Democrats, including Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, helped override President Bill Clinton's veto of legislation curbing class-action securities lawsuits.
Even with Biden's record, business groups favoring limits on lawsuits have mostly stayed out of the presidential race, in contrast to their effort four years ago against John Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee.
``John Edwards actually was a plaintiffs' lawyer,'' Hantler said. ``There was some understandable heartburn.''
Showing posts with label biden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label biden. Show all posts
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
The Efficient Delaware Court System Attracts Business
Your editorial "Biden & Partners" (Oct. 1) states that "Mr. Biden has been helping the tort bar turn his home state of Delaware into a statewide Madison County." Wrong: Delaware is no Madison County; and neither Sen. Joe Biden nor his son Beau, the Delaware Attorney General, has done anything to harm Delaware's reputation for administering fair and prompt justice. Cases are filed in Delaware because plaintiffs have access to judges who are rated as the best state judges in the country and because the system works fairly for all parties. According to the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, "Delaware ranks first among all fifty states in the fairness of its litigation environment, a position it has held for seven years running." (See U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, 2008 U.S. Chamber of Commerce state liability systems ranking study). The increase in tort cases in Delaware is because Delaware is such an efficient place to litigate, not because the senator or his son has done anything improper.
After the filings of toxic tort cases increased in Delaware, the Delaware Superior Court appointed an impartial and independent committee to investigate the reasons for the filings, how the cases were handled, and whether the increase in toxic tort cases was overwhelming the Delaware courts. That committee released a comprehensive Report earlier this year (See Special Committee on Superior Court Toxic Tort Litigation, Delaware State Bar Association, report and recommendations (May 9, 2008)). The report found that there were no improprieties in connection with the filings or the handling of these toxic tort cases in Delaware. Based upon submissions and testimony from the lawyers and parties, both plaintiffs and defendants feel that they have been treated fairly and that the Delaware courts were handling the cases extremely efficiently. One defendant company wrote the Committee about the Delaware courts' handling of these cases: "[B]ut for this Court's capable management of this influx of cases, the Delaware Court system might have lost its number one ranking for 'Fairness in Litigation Climate for Business in the United States.' "
As Delaware's senior senator, Joe Biden has done much on behalf of the residents of Delaware, but he has had no role in directing cases to Delaware or determining how Delaware judges decide cases. Any inclination for litigants to properly file matters in Delaware is a testament to efficient courtrooms, highly competent counsel, and dedicated and fair judges.
Allen M. Terrell Jr.
President
Delaware State Bar Association
Wilmington, Del.
After the filings of toxic tort cases increased in Delaware, the Delaware Superior Court appointed an impartial and independent committee to investigate the reasons for the filings, how the cases were handled, and whether the increase in toxic tort cases was overwhelming the Delaware courts. That committee released a comprehensive Report earlier this year (See Special Committee on Superior Court Toxic Tort Litigation, Delaware State Bar Association, report and recommendations (May 9, 2008)). The report found that there were no improprieties in connection with the filings or the handling of these toxic tort cases in Delaware. Based upon submissions and testimony from the lawyers and parties, both plaintiffs and defendants feel that they have been treated fairly and that the Delaware courts were handling the cases extremely efficiently. One defendant company wrote the Committee about the Delaware courts' handling of these cases: "[B]ut for this Court's capable management of this influx of cases, the Delaware Court system might have lost its number one ranking for 'Fairness in Litigation Climate for Business in the United States.' "
As Delaware's senior senator, Joe Biden has done much on behalf of the residents of Delaware, but he has had no role in directing cases to Delaware or determining how Delaware judges decide cases. Any inclination for litigants to properly file matters in Delaware is a testament to efficient courtrooms, highly competent counsel, and dedicated and fair judges.
Allen M. Terrell Jr.
President
Delaware State Bar Association
Wilmington, Del.
Madison County law firm big Biden donor
WASHINGTON — Employees of four law firms specializing in asbestos suits were four of the top 10 donors to Joe Biden's failed presidential campaign, records show. Among them was SimmonsCooper, a Madison County firm that has a close relationship with members of Biden's family.
Campaign records and interviews reflect a long and mutually beneficial relationship between the Illinois law firm and vice presidential nominee Biden, who as a senator from Delaware has been a steadfast supporter of trial lawyers.
From 2007 to Sept. 2, top asbestos-law firm employees donated $171,000 to Biden's presidential campaign.
All told, Biden's Senate campaign funds have received $4.9 million from law firms since 2003, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group.
On two occasions, Biden voted against legislation that would have severely cut into the profits of firms handling asbestos cases. The bill was intended to offer relief for companies facing an avalanche of asbestos-related suits, like the ones filed by SimmonsCooper.
Biden and other opponents said the measure would have stripped victims of their right to sue, a principle Biden has embraced throughout his Senate career, said David Wade, a Biden campaign spokesman. Asbestos is the catalyst for a potentially deadly lung disease called mesothelioma.
Americans are "tired of big powerful corporate interests writing the rules and sticking it to the little guy," Wade said in an e-mail responding to questions from the Post-Dispatch. "In Joe Biden, they've got a champion with a 35-year Senate record defending victims' rights to have their day in court and hold big interests accountable."
LONG RELATIONSHIP
No firm's members in recent years have contributed more to Biden's efforts than those of SimmonsCooper LLC, which has branches in East Alton, Chicago and El Segundo, Calif.
Since 2001, SimmonsCooper employees have contributed $196,050 to Biden's Senate and presidential campaigns.
The relationship between Biden's family and SimmonsCooper runs deeper than campaign donations. In 2005, as the Madison County Record originally reported, SimmonsCooper partnered on some of its asbestos cases with a Delaware firm that Biden's son Beau had just joined.
The Los Angeles Times reported recently that in 2006, Biden's brother James and youngest son, Hunter, secured a pledge for a $2 million investment from SimmonsCooper for a hedge fund company the Bidens wanted to purchase.
The Bidens collected half the investment from SimmonsCooper but later returned the money when the deal fell through, according to Nicholas Gravante Jr., a lawyer representing Hunter and James Biden.
Wade said Beau and Hunter Biden's relationship with SimmonsCooper has nothing to do with the senator.
"Hunter Biden met Jeff Cooper (SimmonsCooper's former managing partner) several years ago, and they became good friends and socialized together long before they went into business," Wade said. "Sen. Biden's opposition to the asbestos bill was well-established long before his son represented mesothelioma victims."
SimmonsCooper declined to comment for this story.
But Cooper told the Times last month that SimmonsCooper teamed up with the Delaware firm — Bifferato, Gentilotti & Biden — partly because of his friendship with Beau Biden and partly because it was "one of the best firms in the state." Said Cooper, "It was only natural that we worked with my friend Beau Biden and his firm."
SimmonsCooper partner Michael Angelides told the Times that the firm supports a lot of Democrats and described Biden as "a real champion for consumer rights issues."
ASBESTOS BILL
A former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden twice helped block legislation that would have established a trust fund, bankrolled by insurers and companies with asbestos claims against them, to provide financial support for asbestos victims. In exchange for paying into the fund, the companies would have been shielded from asbestos lawsuits.
In 2004, Biden argued that the trust fund could not guarantee compensation for all victims, and he successfully attached an amendment allowing victims to return to court if the fund ran out of money.
The bill's Republican supporters argued that the trust fund would help ensure that the people who were actually sick received support, instead of allowing trial lawyers to intimidate businesses into settlements.
"While the personal injury lawyers are busy making themselves into millionaires, they are depriving the truly sick of available resources," Sen. Orrin Hatch said in a Senate speech in 2004.
Under the weight of Biden's amendment, the bill collapsed.
"He consistently opposed the asbestos bill because it was unfair," Wade said. "He thought it was dead wrong that if the trust fund ran out of money for the victims, they couldn't even get their rights back."
The Senate took up a similar asbestos measure two years later, with a heftier trust fund — $140 billion — for asbestos victims.
At the time, an independent study showed there had already been more than 700,000 lawsuits filed alleging asbestos-related illnesses, including mesothelioma. The litigation costs and insurance claims associated with asbestos claims had amounted to more than $70 billion, bankrupting almost 80 companies, according to the Office of Legislative Policy Analysis.
But Biden continued to express concern that victims would get shut out.
"The real problem is that there are a lot of people out there suffering from the effects of asbestos," Biden said during Senate floor speech in 2006. "There are not a lot of companies out there with the money to pay all of these claims. There is the concern that some of the very companies we have to go to, to recover from, may very well declare bankruptcy."
He added, "The victims are not in this bill."
The bill fell one vote shy of the 60 it needed to end a filibuster, and it has not been resurrected.
Ed Murnane is president of the Illinois Civil Justice League, a business advocacy group that lobbies for tort reform and supported the Senate legislation.
"It's unfortunate that this legislation was not passed," he said in an interview this week. "I assume there will be other attempts to do it, but there's a lot of politics involved."
Murnane said things have improved in Madison County, where SimmonsCooper is filing fewer asbestos cases.
"Hopefully the election is not going to result in the door opening once again, the door that appeared to be closing."
'TERRIBLE INJUSTICE'
Michael Thornton, a partner at Boston-based Thornton and Naumes LLP, whose firm practices asbestos litigation and raised money for Biden's presidential bid, said the asbestos legislation constituted a "terrible injustice."
"Sen. Biden has been a trial-lawyer advocate for many terms in the Senate," Thornton said. "We represent victims, we think it's in the best interest of our clients, if they have an opportunity, to go to court. Sen. Biden agrees."
Before the asbestos bill was derailed, SimmonsCooper started trying some of its asbestos litigation in Delaware, with the help of the firm where Biden's son practiced.
"SimmonsCooper didn't hire Beau," Wade said. "He litigated the cases in Delaware, he handled the documents, managed the court proceedings, did the work, and was compensated as co-counsel."
SimmonsCooper continues to rely on the firm as its local counsel, although Beau Biden has left the partnership. He is now Delaware's attorney general and the captain of a National Guard unit awaiting deployment to Iraq.
In addition to SimmonsCooper, Biden's presidential bid received campaign donations from employees at other law firms that specialize in asbestos litigations, including the Law Offices of Peter Angelos, New York's Weitz & Luxenberg and Thornton and Naumes LLP.
Campaign records and interviews reflect a long and mutually beneficial relationship between the Illinois law firm and vice presidential nominee Biden, who as a senator from Delaware has been a steadfast supporter of trial lawyers.
From 2007 to Sept. 2, top asbestos-law firm employees donated $171,000 to Biden's presidential campaign.
All told, Biden's Senate campaign funds have received $4.9 million from law firms since 2003, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group.
On two occasions, Biden voted against legislation that would have severely cut into the profits of firms handling asbestos cases. The bill was intended to offer relief for companies facing an avalanche of asbestos-related suits, like the ones filed by SimmonsCooper.
Biden and other opponents said the measure would have stripped victims of their right to sue, a principle Biden has embraced throughout his Senate career, said David Wade, a Biden campaign spokesman. Asbestos is the catalyst for a potentially deadly lung disease called mesothelioma.
Americans are "tired of big powerful corporate interests writing the rules and sticking it to the little guy," Wade said in an e-mail responding to questions from the Post-Dispatch. "In Joe Biden, they've got a champion with a 35-year Senate record defending victims' rights to have their day in court and hold big interests accountable."
LONG RELATIONSHIP
No firm's members in recent years have contributed more to Biden's efforts than those of SimmonsCooper LLC, which has branches in East Alton, Chicago and El Segundo, Calif.
Since 2001, SimmonsCooper employees have contributed $196,050 to Biden's Senate and presidential campaigns.
The relationship between Biden's family and SimmonsCooper runs deeper than campaign donations. In 2005, as the Madison County Record originally reported, SimmonsCooper partnered on some of its asbestos cases with a Delaware firm that Biden's son Beau had just joined.
The Los Angeles Times reported recently that in 2006, Biden's brother James and youngest son, Hunter, secured a pledge for a $2 million investment from SimmonsCooper for a hedge fund company the Bidens wanted to purchase.
The Bidens collected half the investment from SimmonsCooper but later returned the money when the deal fell through, according to Nicholas Gravante Jr., a lawyer representing Hunter and James Biden.
Wade said Beau and Hunter Biden's relationship with SimmonsCooper has nothing to do with the senator.
"Hunter Biden met Jeff Cooper (SimmonsCooper's former managing partner) several years ago, and they became good friends and socialized together long before they went into business," Wade said. "Sen. Biden's opposition to the asbestos bill was well-established long before his son represented mesothelioma victims."
SimmonsCooper declined to comment for this story.
But Cooper told the Times last month that SimmonsCooper teamed up with the Delaware firm — Bifferato, Gentilotti & Biden — partly because of his friendship with Beau Biden and partly because it was "one of the best firms in the state." Said Cooper, "It was only natural that we worked with my friend Beau Biden and his firm."
SimmonsCooper partner Michael Angelides told the Times that the firm supports a lot of Democrats and described Biden as "a real champion for consumer rights issues."
ASBESTOS BILL
A former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden twice helped block legislation that would have established a trust fund, bankrolled by insurers and companies with asbestos claims against them, to provide financial support for asbestos victims. In exchange for paying into the fund, the companies would have been shielded from asbestos lawsuits.
In 2004, Biden argued that the trust fund could not guarantee compensation for all victims, and he successfully attached an amendment allowing victims to return to court if the fund ran out of money.
The bill's Republican supporters argued that the trust fund would help ensure that the people who were actually sick received support, instead of allowing trial lawyers to intimidate businesses into settlements.
"While the personal injury lawyers are busy making themselves into millionaires, they are depriving the truly sick of available resources," Sen. Orrin Hatch said in a Senate speech in 2004.
Under the weight of Biden's amendment, the bill collapsed.
"He consistently opposed the asbestos bill because it was unfair," Wade said. "He thought it was dead wrong that if the trust fund ran out of money for the victims, they couldn't even get their rights back."
The Senate took up a similar asbestos measure two years later, with a heftier trust fund — $140 billion — for asbestos victims.
At the time, an independent study showed there had already been more than 700,000 lawsuits filed alleging asbestos-related illnesses, including mesothelioma. The litigation costs and insurance claims associated with asbestos claims had amounted to more than $70 billion, bankrupting almost 80 companies, according to the Office of Legislative Policy Analysis.
But Biden continued to express concern that victims would get shut out.
"The real problem is that there are a lot of people out there suffering from the effects of asbestos," Biden said during Senate floor speech in 2006. "There are not a lot of companies out there with the money to pay all of these claims. There is the concern that some of the very companies we have to go to, to recover from, may very well declare bankruptcy."
He added, "The victims are not in this bill."
The bill fell one vote shy of the 60 it needed to end a filibuster, and it has not been resurrected.
Ed Murnane is president of the Illinois Civil Justice League, a business advocacy group that lobbies for tort reform and supported the Senate legislation.
"It's unfortunate that this legislation was not passed," he said in an interview this week. "I assume there will be other attempts to do it, but there's a lot of politics involved."
Murnane said things have improved in Madison County, where SimmonsCooper is filing fewer asbestos cases.
"Hopefully the election is not going to result in the door opening once again, the door that appeared to be closing."
'TERRIBLE INJUSTICE'
Michael Thornton, a partner at Boston-based Thornton and Naumes LLP, whose firm practices asbestos litigation and raised money for Biden's presidential bid, said the asbestos legislation constituted a "terrible injustice."
"Sen. Biden has been a trial-lawyer advocate for many terms in the Senate," Thornton said. "We represent victims, we think it's in the best interest of our clients, if they have an opportunity, to go to court. Sen. Biden agrees."
Before the asbestos bill was derailed, SimmonsCooper started trying some of its asbestos litigation in Delaware, with the help of the firm where Biden's son practiced.
"SimmonsCooper didn't hire Beau," Wade said. "He litigated the cases in Delaware, he handled the documents, managed the court proceedings, did the work, and was compensated as co-counsel."
SimmonsCooper continues to rely on the firm as its local counsel, although Beau Biden has left the partnership. He is now Delaware's attorney general and the captain of a National Guard unit awaiting deployment to Iraq.
In addition to SimmonsCooper, Biden's presidential bid received campaign donations from employees at other law firms that specialize in asbestos litigations, including the Law Offices of Peter Angelos, New York's Weitz & Luxenberg and Thornton and Naumes LLP.
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