The US Chamber of Commerce has been on an aggressive "truth" campaign about lawsuit lending. The US Chamber and its Institute for Legal Reform have been on an aggressive "truth" campaign on the Internet, through its many online websites, and in the fake newspapers that the US Chamber of Commerce owns. They have also had their paid advocates testify recently in Alabama, Indiana, Tennessee and several other states (expect more soon in Louisiana, Illinois and South Carolina) about Lawsuit Lending "Truths". In fact, the US Chamber of Commerce owns every variation it can of the URL lawsuitlendingtruth. I hope to help the US Chamber of Commerce and its Institute for Legal Reform (its Tort Reform arm) with its lawsuit lending truth mission.
For background, lawsuit lending serves citizens who are suddenly unable to work, usually those involved in an automobile accident. It affords access to funding to pay for essential daily expenses such as rent, transportation, utilities or food while their legal claims are being settled. Agreements are non-recourse, meaning that unless there is a settlement, the consumer has no obligation for repayment. Lawsuit lending bridges the financial gap from the time an accident occurs until a consumer has a chance to rightfully and fairly settle their injury claim. The product gives consumers staying power despite having limited bargaining power against large insurance interests.
So if it is not obvious from that description, what are the truths about what makes the U.S. Chamber, State Farm, Allstate and Chevron hate lawsuit lending?
Lawsuit lending truth #1: State Farm, Chevron and Allstate sit on the board of the US Chamber of Commerce, and on its tort reform affiliate the Institute for Legal Reform. In fact, State Farm CEO Edward B. Rust, Jr. has been serving as the Chairman of the US Chamber of Commerce.
Lawsuit lending truth #2: Legal Funding, aka lawsuit lending, helps consumers survive financially when in litigation over injuries that big insurance companies such as State Farm and Allstate are legally responsible for under their automobile liability policies.
Lawsuit lending truth #3: State Farm has at least 14.5 million reasons to hate Lawsuit Lending. Just ask Joe Radcliff of Indiana for the truth. State Farm tried to ruin his life and throw him in jail. Legal Funding aka lawsuit lending helped him restore his good name and not get crushed by State Farm's bad facts and financial might. Without legal funding, Joe Radcliff would not have obtained his $14.5 million verdict against State Farm for its wrongdoing. Now that is a truth as to why State Farm hates lawsuit lending.
Feel free to see more details on my prior diary: http://bit.ly/...
Lawsuit lending truth #4: Chevron has 18 billion reasons to hate lawsuit lending. You could count that as the 18 billion gallons of water from the Amazon River that the oil industry polluted. Or the $18 billion verdict against Chevron for that same ecological disaster. 30,000 indigent Ecuadorian villagers that became plaintiffs against the financially powerful defendent know the truth. Legal funding, aka lawsuit lending assisted them in their legal fight against Chevron. Not enough for the case to take less than 20 years to resolve, or to see a dime to date or for Ecuadorians to receive any financial assistance for related cancer treatments. But lawsuit lending kept their case alive. Now that is a truth as to why Chevron hates lawsuit lending. Not sure of the link? Ask Tennessee super-lobbyist Lee Barfield for the connection. The respectable Mr. Barfield both publicly advocated the US Chamber of Commerce's position to ban consumer legal funding at several Tennessee General Assembly hearings, and served as counsel to Chevron on its case against the Ecuadorians. (see http://nashvillepost.com/... for more on the connection)
Lawsuit lending truth #5: Allstate has 12,500 reasons to hate lawsuit lending. The truth is in the 12,500 documents generated by consultant McKinsey & Co. that they were forced to make public by the courts. Allstate was found in contempt of court, was willing to pay $3.2 million in court fines to not reveal these documents, and was willing to be kicked out of writing policies in the State of Florida to not reveal these documents. When they finally had to reveal them, what did they show? That Allstate hired McKinsey & Co. to develop a system to make a profit center out of their claims process, and created a triage claims process system that systematically offers lowball "rapid settlements" to consumers in need of cash now, and turns those Allstate good hands into boxing gloves to punch consumers in the face if they insist listening to their attorney's advice to hold out for a fair settlement. (more on this truth at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...)
Lawsuit lending truth #6: State Farm, Chevron and Allstate have no credibility when it comes to being advocates for consumer protection. When the US Chamber of Commerce has been ground down by state legislatures on the true intentions for the anti-lawsuit lending bills they have pushed, the paid lobbyists for the US Chamber of Commerce have repeatedly admitted that they are looking to protect businesses, not consumers. Take for instance current pending legislation in Illinois. In fact the US Chamber of Commerce's local surrogate, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, describes the legislation as "pro business", not as "pro consumer". How is a bill that limits the profits of an industry pro business? Oh, pro certain big businesses at the expense of certain small businesses and consumers? Isn't that more like picking winners and losers, which is supposedly an abhorrent concept to the Republicans willing to sponsor these bills? Comforting is the truth that most consumer advocate groups know by instinct that when the US Chamber of Commerce supports something related to the consumer, the best course of action is to take the opposite position.
I hope that the US Chamber of Commerce will appreciate my efforts here to assist them with their truth campaign, and that this clarifies in a little more detail their position against lawsuit lending.