Troy King and the Interminable Trial Lawyers

So, I've done some research, and it turns out that Troy King seems to have some pretty cozy relationships with trial lawyers. I guess he needs it, since he always seems to need representation against some new ethical charge. It makes me feel disgusted that, as a taxpayer in the middle of an economic crisis, we're all paying over $100,000 for Troy King's legal defense bills. However, the problem is actually worse.

Many of you have probably followed Alabama's Medicare fraud case. In short, a whole lot of different pharmaceutical companies defrauded the Alabama Medicare system. Like some other states, Alabama elected to sue many of these companies. As the state's representative, Troy King was in charge. Well, Troy King latched onto a growing trend--he hired private trial lawyers to take over the case. These private lawyers then represent the state in the case, in return for a share of winnings. Seems simple, right?

Well, it gets more complex when you look at the big picture of this blog, with reference to Troy King's standing as a conservative. Troy King awarded the contracts to Hand Arendall a firm from Mobile, which then worked with Jere Beasley, a trial lawyer from Montgomery. Here's the issue--trial lawyers like Jere Beasley are liberals. Beasley himself chairs Artur Davis' campaign. Now, some Troy King supporters would just say that this is an example of an AG willing to reach across party lines to get the job done.

However, several facts call that argument into question. First, Troy King in 2006 received a whole lot of Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions. These PACs are hard to follow, which is exactly how the special interests want them. However, King received a substantial amount of money from PACs heavily financed by a combination of gambling interests and trial lawyers. Here's one example. King received some $32,500 from PACs run by lobbyist Rudy Davidson leading up to the election. Those PACs received $193,625 from the Trial Trust PAC for Alabama Trial Lawyers, and another $75,000 came from Beasley Allen itself. This is just one example, and the records are obscured for a reason. Jere Beasley told the Birmingham News that: "They [candidates] think the stigma of a trial lawyer will hurt them." Thus, they give through a murky process meant to confuse voters on the actual source of contributions. It is effectively an end-run around the law, something conservative legislators have attempted to correct, though they have faced obstacles in the legislature. Second, in other states like Georgia and West Virginia, similar programs have led to public corruption. These are no-bid contracts, and they can be awarded by the AG to his political cronies, creating a hot scene for potential corruption.

Finally, conservative judicial scholars have steadfastly REJECTED the validity of this process of hiring private attorneys for state work. The leading conservative judicial group the Federalist Society published a criticism of the process last year. In that piece, conservative judge and Alabama's previous AG Bill Pryor said that these contracts to private firms "create the potential for outrageous windfalls or even outright corruption for political supporters of the officials who negotiated the contracts." Andrew Spiropoulos, the author of the piece, a law school professor from Oklahoma identifies some key problems: (a) Self-interest, as self-interested trial lawyers will be looking out for themselves and gaining the biggest settlement from a corporation, not doing justice, which is the function of the AG office; (b) Separation of powers, since the AG can hire private firms even if the legislature disagrees with a decision to sue an entity; and (c) Extensive cost, since even though initial costs may be low, attorneys take huge checks which would go to the states when the attorneys prevail. If you believe the Beasley Allen press release, they stand to pocket over $17 million already, and the cases haven't even concluded. That doesn't even include expenses, which means the ultimate fee will be far higher. That's money that could be in our state's general fund which is instead enriching trial lawyers.

Thus, it seems Troy King doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to hiring these lawyers. It isn't sound policy for the office, and it's certainly not conservative, having been critiqued both by a past Alabama conservative AG and another leading conservative legal scholar in a leading conservative legal publication. Troy King's ethics are definitely questionable, in terms of his campaign financing, but they are also more speculative. The impact of this decision is not. It takes powerful liberal trial lawyers and gives them an even greater hand over state business. This is certainly not doing justice.