Anyone seen this? Driving to work in the mornings I have noticed a few new billboards popping up on 66th Street. The billboards depict a
sloppy guy in a bad suit with the words “Sick of Lawsuits” scrawled across the top and the following web url. I didn’t pay much attention to them the first couple of times but its not too hard to discern that they are taking a jab at plaintiff’s attorneys. Plaintiff’s attorneys are naturally the ones who bring the lawsuits on behalf of their clients and the sloppy balding guy on the billboards are some sort of feeble attempt at parody. As a Plaintiff’s attorney, who files lawsuits, I naturally took offense with the nearly comical depiction of the attorney on the billboard. Here we wear nice suit and and we have hair lol. All jokes aside it rattled me enough that I decided to investigate. Who is paying for this message? If you go the website under the “about” section it states, “Sick of Lawsuits is a nonpartisan, grassroots campaign of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. We have more than 125,000 supporters across the country including doctors, health care professionals, small business owners, attorneys and people from every walk of life. We believe our courts should be used for justice, not greed.” There are lots of buzz words in there but the most important part is “Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.” A quick google search reveals this organization’s claim to being “grassroots,” “bipartisan,” and altruistic is anything but. Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse or (CALA) is an organization that began in Texas in 1991. This company for the past nearly 25 years has been a secret campaign funded by big industry with the sole purpose of influencing public opinion to ultimately change laws “that give sick and injured consumers the ability to hold their offenders responsible for the injuries they cause.” That is a direct quote from a Massachusetts Bar Association article that was published in 2000. This organization, who disguises itself under numerous aliases (Lawsuit Abuse Watch, People for a FAIR Legal System, etc.) has historically been funded by cigarette maker Philip Morris, insurance companies, chemical companies and manufacturers of other dangerous products. “The more you know” right? When you see stuff like this that purports to be from “concerned citizens” know that there is likely a more sinister agenda behind the scenes. There are many concerned citizens out there regarding a multitude of issues but most cannot afford to buy billboard space to express their concerns.
http://www.sickoflawsuits.org/