In this 48-minute program, Andrew Napolitano,
Senior Judicial Analyst of the FOX News Channel, moderates a
lively debate between Dick Scruggs and Steve Hantler,
formerly with Chrysler LLC, about the pros and cons of legal reform and the
activities of the trial bar. Sponsored by the Manhattan
Institute and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, this debate pits
the mastermind of the precedent-setting tobacco litigation
against the business community’s most respected legal reform
advocate.
Steven B. Hantler
formerly
directed Chrysler LLC’s Class Action Group, Consumer
Litigation Group, litigation communications, and legal reform
activities. He serves as Chairman of the Foundation for Fair Civil Justice, which is campaigning across the U.S. for legal
reform at the state level. He serves on the boards of the
Michigan Chamber and the American Tort Reform Association and is
the legal reform adviser to the Council of State Chambers. He
chairs the board of the State Government Leadership Foundation
and is a Senior Fellow of the Pacific Research Institute. His
articles have been published by The Wall Street Journal,
CEO Magazine, Inside Litigation, Litigation
Management Magazine, Chief Legal Executive Magazine
and The San Francisco Examiner.
Dick Scruggs
is a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot who made headlines in the
1990s because of his lead role in developing the litigation
against the tobacco industry, a battle that was made famous by
the hit movie, The Insider, starring Russell Crowe. He was
named Mississippi Citizen of the Year in 1997 and is well-known
for his gift of $25 million to Ole Miss. Earlier in his career,
he won some $300 million in pay-outs for asbestos plaintiffs,
earning $25 million in fees in the process. He has recently
filed nearly 50 lawsuits against more than 350 nonprofit
hospitals alleging that they are violating their IRS tax
exemption by failing to provide appropriately-priced services to
poor customers.
Hon. Andrew P. Napolitano
joined FOX News Channel in January 1998, and currently serves as
a senior judicial analyst. He appears daily on
The
Big Story with John Gibson, co-hosts
FOX
and Friends once a week and is a regular on
The
O’Reilly Factor. Judge Napolitano is the youngest
life-tenured Superior Court judge in the history of the State of
New Jersey. While on the bench from 1987-95, he tried more than
150 jury trials. He returned to private law practice in 1995,
the same year he began his career in broadcasting. He is the
author of Constitutional Chaos, What Happens
When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws, published in 2004
by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
