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American Justice Partnership |
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Opinions/Editorials on the Case for Legal Reform |
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An Idiot's Guide to Class
Actions
by
Daniel J. Popeo
Chairman
Washington Legal Foundation
February 28, 2005 As
it appeared on the op-ed pages of the New York Times |
Wall Street and your stock holdings
are still at the top of the lawsuit industry’s hit list. Here’s a page from the
Securities Class Action Plaintiffs’ Lawyers’ playbook:
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Maintain large stable of gullible
potential plaintiffs who won’t interfere with your case. Remember, it’s best
not to have a real client.
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Create in-house consulting group
to conceive seminars on how to expand opportunities for plaintiff suits –
invite hedge funds, judges and regulators – great forum to exchange “ideas”.
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Have minions scour news reports
for bad news about any company – use inventory of plaintiffs and a recycled
complaint to file suit the next day. Accuse management of greed, lying,
fraud, insider trading and suppressing bad news. Don’t worry that you have
no evidence, you can manufacture that later. Generate plenty of stories in
the press.
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Donate to key politicians
directly, indirectly and through fronts and PACs to maintain access, stir up
unwarranted investigations, generate Congressional hearings, get leaked
corporate documents and secrets, circumvent discovery laws and prevent
rational legal reform.
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Seek to create general impression
with the public that most corporations and business people are out of
control, greedy and not to be trusted.
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Drive stock price down further by
press releases. Plant negative research reports, rumors and innuendo. The
bigger the drop, the more the short sellers make, and, speculative damages
get huge. Don’t worry that the drop in stock price harms investors, pension
funds and 401Ks – that only leads to more plaintiffs and higher losses to
support even higher damage claims.
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Cultivate relationships with
disgruntled employees to develop leaks, stolen documents and misinformation.
Feed negative rumors to the media to continue downward stock price spiral.
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Attempt to blackmail the target
company and coerce settlement. Structure it so no one challenges your claim
for over 30% in fees. Be sure to make it so complicated that no class member
can understand that you get the money, and they get virtually nothing.
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Cash in on asbestos, tobacco,
drugs and telecom. Make plans to move on to other target industries like
food, recreation, education and transportation.
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Get rich...really rich, while
destroying investor confidence in the market.
- Repeat all of the above
quickly...before people finally wake up and understand the suckers’ game
that plaintiffs’ lawyers, with some help from the short sellers, are
perpetrating on the public...and before the system can be reformed.
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Contributor: |
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Daniel J. Popeo
Chairman
Washington Legal Foundation
2009
Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036
202-588-0302 |
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Op-Ed
article submissions should be made to
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