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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Civil Plaintiffs’ Attorneys Pour Money into Political Process

Personal injury lawyers and other plaintiffs’ attorneys spent more than $4.1 million on incumbents and candidates in California during a two-year period studied by the Civil Justice Association of California. Of that amount, more than $2.1 million came in direct contributions from individual lawyers and their law firms, the group said, adding that more than $720,000 came through political action committees that are entirely financed by plaintiffs’ lawyers. The association, a tort-reform advocacy group, made the study from its bi-annual survey of contributions to political campaigns for the two-year period from January 1, 2007, through December 31, 2008. However, part of the association’s total $4.1 million figure comes from a somewhat subjective inclusion of $1.2 million, which the association characterizes as being “spent by plaintiffs’ lawyer-controlled independent expenditure committees.” While there were no statewide races during this session, according to the organization $361,500 went toward elections due to be held in 2010. Thom Senzee

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