Jerry Brown under Investigation!!

Call for AG reform growing
BY SCOTT SABATINI / LegalNewsline.com

First came the class-action lawsuit, followed by state attorneys general AG using the power of their office in connection with private plaintiff lawyers to pursue such lawsuits.

Millions of dollars from ensuring settlements poured into state coffers.The legal system is now involved as well with challenges in West Virginia, *California* and Rhode Island reaching the state's highest court.

Problems with activist or populist attorneys general are, thankfully, confined to several states and do not plague the nation as a whole," ATRA Spokesman Darren McKinney said this week. "Those states with attorneys general who have occasionally put their political interests and the interests of their trial lawyer supporters above the public interest include, among others, West Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama, Connecticut, Rhode Island and **California."

Legislative reform has mostly failed over the years and Attorney General Darrell McGraw continues to appoint special assistant attorneys general and hire outside counsel -- most of whom are consistent contributors to his campaigns -- with little public oversight.

Class-action suits take cases with similar complaints and combines them into a single case. But the ATRA asserts, "class actions are now considered a means of defendant extortion. Today, *some class actions are meritless cases in which thousands, or millions, of plaintiffs are granted class status."

**A second hot-button issue currently under the spotlight of reform is the cozy relationships between private attorneys and their state attorneys general.**

***Large campaign donors in states such as West Virginia and California have later been hired as outside counsel in multi-million dollar class action lawsuits. ***