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May 15, 2007 SACRAMENTO -
The Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC) lauded Attorney General Jerry Brown for challenging a Connecticut lawyer who has made millions
of dollars pursing questionable legal actions against
California businesses under the state's Proposition 65
warning law.
In a six-page letter to
Clifford A. Chanler of Hirst & Chanler in New Canaan,
CT, Brown said that Chanler and his clients'
tactics do not "appear to be in the public interest" and
that his fees "may not be legally justifiable."
Brown's letter states that
Attorney General office records show Chanler's firm and
three clients collecting more than $15 million in
settlements from hundreds of smaller defendants, $9.2
million of it going to the firm in attorney fees. These
totals appear to be only related to actions brought over
lead in glassware and ceramics.
"We hope Attorney General
Brown's letter is the first surge in a long-needed flush
of the polluted legal backwater hosting Proposition 65's
so-called 'private enforcers,'" said CJAC President John
H. Sullivan. "Once again, a well-intended law used
responsibly by public prosecutors goes off track when
un-elected private lawyers move in to make themselves
money. These are the same kinds of private lawyer
shakedowns that voters stopped in a different legal area
when they passed Proposition 64 in 2004."
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