Plaintiff and consumer groups, encouraged by the prospects of a Democratic president and expanded Democratic majority in Congress, are preparing a big push for legislation that would roll back limitations on personal-injury and class-action lawsuits, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The plaintiffs bar’s legislative wish-list includes limiting companies’ use of federal regulations as a shield from litigation under state law, and laws to end mandatory arbitration in consumer contracts, opening potential new avenues for civil lawsuits, according to the story.
The initiatives reflect a new aggressiveness by the plaintiffs’ bar after years on the defensive.The legal industry’s fund raising for Democratic candidates and political action committees is on pace to exceed the $137 million raised in 2004, the WSJ reports, as pro-plaintiff groups see a rare political opportunity.
“We’ve been back on our end of the field for too long,” Ed Mierzwinksi of U.S. PIRG, a consumer-advocacy group, told the WSJ. “Now we do have a chance to throw deep.”