The Rule of Lawyers: How the New Litigation Elite Threatens America's Rule of Law [Hardcover]

Walter K. Olson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312280858 | ISBN-13: 978-0312280857 | Publication Date: January 21, 2003 | Edition: 1st

Big-ticket litigation is a way of life in this country. But something new is afoot--something typified by the $246 billion tobacco settlement, and by courtroom assaults that have followed against industries ranging from HMOs to gunmakers, from lead paint manufacturers to "factory farms." Each massive class-action suit seeks to invent new law, to ban or tax or regulate something that elected lawmakers had chosen to leave alone. And each time the new process works as intended, the new litigation elite reaps billions in fees--which they invest in fresh rounds of suits, as well as political contributions.

The Rule of Lawyers asks: Who picks these lawyers, and who can fire them? Who protects the public's interest when settlements are negotiated behind closed doors? Where are our elected lawmakers in all this? The answers may determine whether we slip from the rule of law to the rule of lawyers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Olson, a veteran legal commentator (The Litigation Explosion) and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, profiles a sector of the American legal system that he contends is out of control, inflicting serious damage on the nation's economy. The target of Olson's polemic is the use of class actions by a coterie of private lawyers who extract enormous verdicts and settlements from lawsuits against producers of tobacco, asbestos, automobiles, pharmaceuticals and the like. According to Olson, trial lawyers subvert democracy by using courtroom procedures to obtain reforms, such as regulating guns, which the American left has not been able to achieve in the federal or state legislatures. The lawyers distort public opinion, buy influence with judges through campaign contributions, introduce junk science into evidence and manipulate juries through unworthy courtroom theatrics. The class-action lawyers, Olson contends, garner stupendous fees for themselves, often produce minuscule payments to their clients and drive entire segments of business into bankruptcy. Olson contends that the class-action bar is bolstered behind the scenes by left-leaning organizations such as those affiliated with Ralph Nader. This is a partisan indictment, powerful enough in its recital of horror stories about misuse of the law, but so one-sided that it will appeal largely to those already convinced of the rectitude of big business.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Olson examines class action and mass tort law on behalf of consumers and how such laws have become a platform for a new legal elite. He reviews the early asbestos, silicone breast implant, and tobacco cases, showing how the law has expanded to accommodate this legal elite at the expense of the public. Good public relations and the capacity to confuse the public contribute more to jury verdicts than justice, according to Olson, who cites examples of the bashing of the auto industry by the popular television programs 60 Minutes, 20/20, and ABC's Dateline. Olson is especially concerned that as private attorneys accept contingency fees to litigate on behalf of states, they have become too cozy with states' attorney generals, particularly in tobacco lawsuits. This effective privatization of the public interest has created a group of lawyers who have become exceptionally wealthy and major donors to political officials. This book will appeal to readers interested in the intersection of the law, current events, and politics. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Truman Talley Books; 1st edition (January 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312280858
• ISBN-13: 978-0312280857
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,850,711 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars good read, June 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Rule of Lawyers: How the New Litigation Elite Threatens America's Rule of Law (Hardcover)

I have worked for the plaintiffs' class action bar since I got out of law school a few years ago. I like to visit Mr. Olson's website overlawyered.com, where the firm that I work for is routinely slagged. Anyway, I finally got around to reading The Rule of Lawyers, and I thought it was pretty good. I certainly can't question the main premise, that the Master Settlement Agreement with the tobacco industry a few years ago generated massive cash for the plaintiffs' class action bar that has been plowed back into new class actions aimed at (1) enriching counsel for the proposed class(es) and (2) promoting some kind of social agenda. As Mr. Olson discusses in his book, class litigation is mostly a kind of cozy shell game where a specialized group of lawyers on both sides broker settlements with each other, at the cost of insurers and their customers, although recently the verdicts are getting to be the size of the GNPs of some countries (like the Philip Morris case in Illinois), and I think it's probably not a good idea for trial lawyers to have that kind of power.

Mr. Olson obviously has legal training and mostly gets the law right. I think the main flaw in his premise is just that it's not really reasonable or fair to expect the plaintiffs' bar to be better than the society they operate in. Sure they are crazed with greed and self-aggrandizing fantasies, but so are a lot of people. My point is, they are really a symptom of the society more than anything else. The real solution is to try to encourage the public to develop a better understanding of what the law is supposed to do. I don't think ad hoc legislative interventions like the Class Action Fairness Act are the answer. I worked for a district court and I can tell you that reports about overcrowded federal dockets are very true. Unless people like Mr. Olson want to shell out extra taxes to appoint new federal judges and support staff, the likely result of the CAFA is just going to be to bring the work of the federal courts to a total halt (and I'm not exaggerating, it's well-documented how enactment of the Reconstruction Era civil rights statutes drowned the federal courts in lawsuits for decades). Actually, this is the reason that the Federal Judicial Conference and Chief Justice Rehnquist support the outright abolition of diversity jurisdiction--it's too much of a burden on the limited resources of the federal courts.

Anyway, to conclude, I thought the book was pretty good. The class action device probably does have a role to play in our law (hey, it's been around for centuries), but currently things have gotten very much out of hand (that's trite, but it's late). I tend to think that federalizing class actions is not the answer. The resolution of the problem of the entrepreneurial plaintiffs' bar probably can't come until there is some serious effort made to try to interest the public in our democratic institutions.

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars America needs to read this book, January 18, 2003

By 

Michael Booker (Arnold, MO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rule of Lawyers: How the New Litigation Elite Threatens America's Rule of Law (Hardcover)

There's an old Latin maxim that asks, "Who watches the watchmen?"

I just finished _The Rule of Lawyers_ and Olson should be thanked for piecing together more than a mere series of judicial outrages. Olson shows how trial lawyers have syphoned billions of dollars into their own pockets while manipulating legislatures and judges in order to shield themselves from accountability. This is nothing short of an assault on the Constitution. Every American who cares about the future of the country (please forgive the purple prose, but I'm serious here) needs to read this book.

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Hidden Gem, April 12, 2003

By 

Ralph Block (Westlake Village, California USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Rule of Lawyers: How the New Litigation Elite Threatens America's Rule of Law (Hardcover)

As a former (and now retired) business lawyer in California, I have observed the antics (and, yes, the anti-social tendencies) of the class action trial lawyers over the years with a great deal of embarrassment and chagrin, and have wondered how and when they would be reined in. That day is still a ways off, unfortunately, for the reasons Mr. Olson relates in his book.

Mr. Olson "tells it like it is," citing a mountain of well-researched facts and anecdotes, and he builds his case with the reader relentlessly. The author demolishes the myths that the trial lawyers' bar would have us believe, and explains why the system is out of control. Concludes he, "Year upon year we do nothing to govern our elite litigators, and the result at length is that they have decided to govern us." The ultimate victims are the taxpayers and the integrity of the legislative and judicial system.

This book should be required reading of every legislator and judge, both federal and state, as well as by every well-informed American, whether of conservative, liberal, moderate or agnostic bent. I rarely write book reviews for posting on www.Amazon.com, but this book was extraordinarily good.