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“Legal reform now!”
is our clarion call to action. The nation is listening. The
people agree with our message. So we must be relentless in
letting people hear it.
State by state we
must take it to the trial lawyers.
In just three months,
the 2006 elections will be upon us. State legislatures and state
courts will be gearing up for some fierce brass knuckle election
year battles.
The AJP is going to
be in the middle of those fights, and with your help, we will
continue to shape a new and better direction for civil justice
issues in the states and in our country.
This year has been
tremendous for the legal reform movement. Our allies across the
nation – from business leaders to lawmakers to advocacy
organizations – have made the issue of legal reform a
front-and-center, act-now proposition.
Building on successes
in Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Alabama, Florida and Louisiana, the
FFCJ was a catalyst for historic reforms in Georgia and South
Carolina. Reformers in Missouri also overwhelmed the anti-reform
crowd with a hard fought victory.
Now we must keep the
momentum going in 2006. Major legislative battlegrounds loom –
in California, Florida, Oklahoma and Illinois, to name just a
few.
Tough political
campaigns with reform at stake are shaping up in Oklahoma,
Colorado, Wisconsin, New Mexico, Georgia, Florida, Alabama,
Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and several other states.
We must be ready and
united in our resolve to do whatever it takes to win these
fights – or cede victory to the billion dollar trial bar medusa.
The trial lawyer
industry has the money, the tenacity and the commitment to
engage in every venue in America. They will spend whatever it
takes and say whatever they must to win.
These people are
pros. They have budgeted millions to hire the best lobbyists and
the best media consultants. They will stop at nothing to attack
and stop America’s hard won legal reform gains.
The trial lawyers are
fighting for their livelihood to sue and become
multi-millionaires, so their assault on the forces of legal
reform and the vast majority of Americans who support it will be
powerful…but it will not prevail, not if the allies of legal
reform link arms, pool our financial and human resources,
coordinate our tactics and strategy and take the fight to them.
The battle plan is as
aggressive as it is simple.
First, the AJP and
dozens of our state and national partners will work together to
assist good candidates in their campaigns for public office. In
state legislatures, in campaigns for Attorney General,
gubernatorial elections and in battles for seats on state
supreme courts, the FFCJ will be working hard with our partners
for reform and reform candidates.
History has
demonstrated – in Michigan, Alabama, Texas, Mississippi – where
solid reform candidates run good, well funded, focused campaigns
and have strong, committed support behind them, they win. They
win because right is on our side, and the people of this country
agree with our message.
Second, we will not
yield ground on our difficult legislative victories in the
states. Our allies in the state capitols have worked too hard
and overcome too much to fix their broken legal systems so we
must not allow the trial bar to put legal reform back on life
support.
That’s why we will
provide timely and accurate information to support pro-reform
lawmakers who step forward with courage to enact meaningful and
lasting legal reform legislation.
The AJP is ready for
2006. We will not shirk from the legions of trial lawyers
looming on the horizon. Rather, we will rise up and attack them
with vigor.
We are ready to work
with our partners. We are ready to fight by your side.
What’s at stake will
require our best efforts. It will require our utmost
cooperation.
The trial bar knows
that if we work together, if we stay on message, if we plan
smart and campaign hard, they can’t beat us.
So, let’s commit
ourselves to a strong partnership, with a unity in purpose and a
steeled resolve to settle for nothing less than total victory.
We cannot, indeed, we
must not let the trial lawyers prevail. Because if they win,
America and Americans lose.
Let’s make 2006 the
year for legal reform. America is depending on us.
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