Bogus Report of So-called Bogus Study by Bogus Organization That Does Evidently Not Even Exist.
link
This report is clearly a fabrication:
Contact: Bill Schulz
202-944-2806 (Direct Dial)
240-678-9398 (Cell)
202-631-0929 (Chris Fleming)
Bogus National Chamber “Study”: Propaganda Attack Against Civil Justice System
Continues Effort to Eliminate Corporate Accountability for Wrongdoing and Negligence
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 (Washington, DC)—A bogus study released today by the national Chamber of Commerce claiming to rank so-called “anti-business” state legal systems is yet another baseless attack on the nation’s civil justice system in its campaign to eliminate corporate accountability for wrongdoing and negligence.
“This latest propaganda is a made-up survey primarily of corporate lawyers earning millions of dollars defending their CEOs from being held accountable,” said Jon Haber, chief executive officer of the American Association for Justice. “The Chamber will stop at nothing to destroy the civil justice system in America, which protects the rights of consumers, employees, and shareholders against corporate wrongdoing and negligence.”
As the largest lobby in the country and a front group for corporations seeking to evade accountability for wrongdoing and negligence, the national Chamber of Commerce has led the effort to eliminate access to justice for Americans.
The American Association for Justice today released “The Ten Worst States to Get Sick or Injured In” providing sobering examples of how the national Chamber’s efforts and those of big corporations seeking to evade accountability for wrongdoing and negligence puts corporate greed over public good. . . .
What "national Chamber of Commerce?" In the US, there is no "national Chamber of Commerce." We have a U.S. Chamber of Commerce, but this is a different name. Even though they use the wrong name, they must mean the US Chamber, who owns a registered trademark on National Chamber of Commerce®. This because The USCOC spends more money on lobbying than anyone else.
Veracity Problems
1. "Bogus study released today" uttered on April 25th. But the Report, if this is it, was released on April 16th, over a week ago.
2. "Bogus study" he says, but the study was done by The Harris Poll, which is the most highly regarded polling organization known to modern man! Calling a Harris Poll report "bogus" is defamatory and totally liable to cause liability for libel, Counsellor Haber. Govern your actions accordingly. If Harris signed it, it can't be bogus.
3. "Claiming to rank so-called 'anti-business' state legal systems": Looking through all the materials found on this report, there is nowhere where its producers or sponsors so-call anything "anti-business." Apparently, fabricated quotations are part of the plaintiff bar's stock in trade. The study's aim is "to explore how reasonable and balanced the tort liability system is perceived to be..."
4. "Front organization" is a most distorted and false characterization for a voluntary, legal, self-supported community-based advocacy group and for the U.S. Chamber particularly. A "front organization" is a deceit, a cover, and a hidden motive enterprise, which by definition is dishonest and crooked. None of those attributes are present here.
5. Quite the contrary, cursury research reveals that the class of pettyfogger represented by Attorney Haber regularly sets itself up behind front organizations:
USA Today`s editorial board thinks that special interest groups, including those which operate out of the various headquarters of state bar and trial lawyers associations, which give themselves deceptive names to shield their TRUE affiliations and intentions stink. I couldn`t agree more.
I suppose the American Medical Association, the state and county medical societies, the American College of Surgeons, the Politically Active Physicians Association, the Pennsylvania Physicians for the Protection of Specialty Care, the Alliance for Specialty Medicine, the Doctors for Medical Liability Reform and ALL the other physician specialty and related groups which advocate for medical liability reform on behalf of physicians and patients could take a lesson from ATLA, the state bar associations and trial lawyers associations on how to hide their identity and their agenda.....oh, wait.....doctors` groups don`t feel the NEED to hide their identity or their agenda. One wonders why those who oppose liability reform DO.....
Here`s a pretty reliable tip - if the group opposing medical liability reform has the words "consumer," "justice," "fairness," "citizens" or other high-sounding word or phrase in it, look CLOSELY at who created and who funds it. You may just discover, as I did quite easily with the "Utah Citizens Alliance For Safety and Accountability," that the organization is affiliated with a local lawyers` group to put a sympathetic face on purely financial incentives to oppose medical liability reform....
The "American Association for Justice" really is an Astroturf front organization for the American Association of Trail Lawyers and the Democrat Party.
The Legal Times
ATLA Conjures a New Reality
Emma Schwartz
Jon Haber`s effort to transform the image of the nation`s leading group of plaintiffs lawyers began, perhaps incongruously, in one of California`s golf and glitz capitals, Palm Springs. ((What`s incongruous about that?))
Haber, the incoming chief executive officer of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, was there last week to meet members, who are aching to fight back against years of Republican-led attacks on them as greedy, irresponsible threats to the nation`s economy and justice system.
ATLA members are hoping Haber can use his years as a Democratic political strategist and corporate public relations executive at PR giant Fleishman-Hillard to derail the GOP`s legal reform agenda.
"We want to get the truth of the message out to the American people, and Jon has the kind of talent that will help us do that," says Todd Smith, a trial lawyer and president of ATLA.
But after years of playing defense against the Republicans, the question may be whether ATLA has brought Haber into the game too late. To be sure, the organization has been a political powerhouse inside the Beltway, doling out millions in campaign contributions -- almost all of it to Democrats. And tort reform backers acknowledge that Haber is a smart political operative.
Yet the war to influence public opinion has been waged more effectively by the GOP and its corporate allies. President George W. Bush has made tort reform a key plank of his political platform since his days as governor of Texas. And groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have spent tens of millions on public education campaigns aimed at convincing Joe Six-Pack that reforming the legal system matters.
Even as ATLA met, GOP senators -- joined by a few Democrats -- were back in Washington advancing a bill to limit class actions. That legislation is expected to be the first in a series of legal reform measures to hit Congress this session.
"Unfortunately, we`ve spent the last 10 years with our finger in the dike trying to hold back the tide," says Fred Baron, a former ATLA president and head of Dallas-based plaintiffs firm Baron & Budd. "We`ve been playing more of an insider game and not spending the time and energy and money on public opinion."
((Could it be, perhaps, the public`s opinion is based on facts and likely can`t be influenced by slick marketing?))
He added: "The bottom line to it is that we have to get more aggressive."
((Well, we`ve certainly been seeing evidence of that....fake studies, bogus "consumer" groups, etc....looks like SOMEONE has been working overtime....))
[Looks like the pot is calling the kettle "bogus!"]
For his part, Haber -- who was named to the post Jan. 31 and officially starts his duties Feb. 14 -- has yet to reveal how exactly he`ll fight ATLA`s battle. Grass-roots work is likely to be a key, as is outreach to members of Congress who may be wavering on lawsuit reform. But the war of words and the effort to reposition the debate has already started.
"People who use neutral-sounding words like tort reform, what they are really asking for is taking away people`s rights," Haber says.
((They`ve been using that term for years now - but 63% of the American public STILL favors a cap on pain and suffering. Those who oppose reform deliberately confuse economic, non-economic and punitive damages in the hope of convincing people that pain and suffering is the ONLY category of damages which can compensate them for legitimate injuries - when, in fact, everything that a patient could possibly need and which can be quantified can be covered by ECONOMIC damages. Mr. Haber can try - but I think the public has already made up its mind on this one....))
Yet he acknowledges that the Bush administration is coming to the battle with key advantages. "I think the president has enormous power to control debate. It`s hard for a minority party to stand up and make a point," Haber says. "The biggest challenge is telling the story."
CAMPAIGN VETERAN
This is the second time in the last 13 months that Haber has been brought in to help perform a political makeover. In January 2004, he was hired by Howard Dean`s sinking presidential campaign. His primary task was to shore up day-to-day management, and he helped Dean stay on message.
It was the kind of thing Haber had done before. He is a campaign veteran who has worked on presidential bids by Democrats Edward Kennedy, Walter Mondale, Richard Gephardt, and Bill Clinton.
Says Steve McMann, a Democratic strategist from the Dean campaign who has known Haber for 20 years: "When he would prepare a candidate for `Meet The Press` or shows like that, the first thing he`d ask was `What are we trying to get out of this? What do we want our headline to be?` "
Haber, of course, was too late to save Dean, and whatever advice he may have given the candidate about message was undone after Dean`s infamous scream that followed the Iowa Caucus.
He had better luck with some of his corporate clients during his seven years at Fleishman-Hillard. Haber was head of the firm`s D.C. public relations division and handled a portfolio of clients that included Yahoo Inc., AOL Time Warner, SBC Communications Inc., and National Public Radio.
Haber won`t reveal details about his work, citing client confidentiality. But Bill Black, a colleague of Haber`s from Fleishman, says Haber is "good at defining the motives and agenda of various combatants in any situation and drawing from that the best message. I think he`s able to do it having worked in so many different situations, each one being very political."
Indeed, even with a law degree from the University of San Francisco and a few years of general litigation practice under his belt, Haber has spent most of his career in Democratic politics and has deep ties to Capitol Hill.
From 1989 to 1992, he served as counsel and communications director on the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee chaired by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). Leahy is now ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee -- ground zero for tort reform legislation. He also served briefly as chief of staff to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), another Judiciary Committee member.
((Hopefully, Sen. Feinstein will reflect more on the positive impact medical liability reform has had on California than on party ties....))
Though he has liberal Democratic bona fides, Haber has corporate ties stemming from both his work at Fleishman and his two-year stint as special counsel to the Overseas Private Investment Corp. during the Clinton administration. That agency helps U.S. businesses invest abroad.
6. If this is the "bogus study" why not provide a ready link, a proper citation, a reference to the true title and the true creator and publisher? That's what you have to do for everything quoted or referenced in a submission to a COURT! Praps, Jon Haber is no longer practicing law precisely because he had a creative difference with that well-settled standard of advocacy. We know why. because the target of the deception might consult the true document and draw his own conclusions.
7. State rankings. Mr. Haber lists the 10 Worst states for plaintiffs, and the Harris Poll lists the ten worst states for defendants. [Summary]
Haber has the worst for his team alphebetically: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado. Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia.
Harris has the ten worst ranked for the opposing team: Arkansaw, Alaska, Texas, California, Illinois, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
What is wrong with this picture? AL, AK, IL, TX and WV. Five are best and the same five are worst!
FURTHER AFFIANT SAYETH NAUGHT.
