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Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA)


Self Description

December 2002: "In 1946, a group of plaintiffs' attorneys involved in workers' compensation litigation founded the National Association of Claimants' Compensation Attorneys (NACCA). Their devotion to securing strong representation for victims of industrial accidents soon attracted admiralty, railroad, and personal injury lawyers. It wasn't long before the group included attorneys engaged in almost all facets of trial advocacy.

Reflecting its growth and expanded commitments, NACCA, in 1972, emerged as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA). In 1977, ATLA's headquarters moved from Boston to Washington, DC. Today, ATLA is a broad-based, international coalition of attorneys, law professors, paralegals, and law students.

As the world's largest trial bar, ATLA promotes justice and fairness for injured persons, safeguards victims' rights--particularly the right to trial by jury--and strengthens the civil justice system through education and disclosure of information critical to public health and safety. With more than 56,000 members worldwide, and a network of U.S. and Canadian affiliates involved in diverse areas of trial advocacy, ATLA provides lawyers with the information and professional assistance needed to serve clients successfully and protect the democratic values inherent in the civil justice system." http://www.atla.org/info/guide.aspx

Third-Party Descriptions

January 2002: Instead, the president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, Leo Boyle, called almost immediately for a moratorium on liability litigation dealing with Sept. 11, and lobbied aggressively instead for a government-sponsored fund to compensate the victims. More than 3,000 attorneys have volunteered their services since to help the victims' families surrender their right to sue -- and to enrich lawyers -- in return for access to money from the government fund.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17055-2002Jan8.html

February 2006: The trust fund bill created unlikely coalitions, both within the Senate and among the many interest groups with a stake in the outcome. Yesterday's vote to block the fund was brought by fiscal conservatives, who feared that it would eventually run out of money, leaving the federal government to pay claims. They were joined by most Democrats, including Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and Paul S. Sarbanes of Maryland, who believed the fund gave short shrift to certain types of victims and who faced intense lobbying from one of the Democratic Party's wealthiest and most influential political allies, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/14/AR2006021400798.html

November 2005: But the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and some of its Democratic allies in Congress are working to scuttle or drastically transform the effort, asserting that anti-lawsuit language in the bill would so broadly indemnify pharmaceutical companies against suits that consumers' rights would be denied.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/16/AR2005111602238.html

July 2005: But Carlton Carl, spokesman for the American Trial Lawyers Association, called the states' medical criteria bills 'the equivalent of legislators playing doctor and also the equivalent of saying someone who had an operation and got HIV through a blood transfer isn't sick and hasn't been injured.'

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1121936718873

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Status/Name Change to American Association for Justice (AAJ) Organization Mar 11, 2008
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Leo Boyle Esq. Person Aug 30, 2006
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Kenneth M. Suggs Esq. Person Sep 28, 2005

Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Jun 22, 2008 To the Trenches: The Tort War Is Raging On

QUOTE: Some of the best-known plaintiff-side lawyers in the country — Richard F. Scruggs, Melvyn I. Weiss and William S. Lerach — have all pleaded guilty to charges that they tried to manipulate the justice system. The very phrase “trial lawyer” has become associated with unadulterated greed; the Association of Trial Lawyers of America now calls itself the American Association for Justice.

 New York Times
Feb 15, 2006 Senate Foes Block Proposed Trust Fund For Asbestos Victims: Vote Short Against Budgetary Challenge

QUOTE: ...the Senate derailed legislation to create a trust fund for asbestos victims, a victory for Democrats and their trial-lawyer allies who waged a relentless campaign to defeat a bill that took five years to negotiate.

 Washington Post
Jan 19, 2006 FDA Tries to Limit Drug Suits in State Courts: Agency's 'Federal Preemption' Policy Included in Labeling Guidelines for Medications

QUOTE: People who believe they were injured by drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration should not be allowed to sue drug companies in state courts, the agency said...

 Washington Post
Nov 17, 2005 Vaccine Funding Tied to Liability: Trial Lawyers Say Move Would Hurt Consumers

QUOTE: Legislation that would pour billions of dollars into the production of vaccines against avian flu and other pandemic diseases is threatened by the trial lawyers' lobby, which objects to proposed limits onlawsuits against drug manufacturers.

 Washington Post
Sep 27, 2005 Agencies' Rules Quietly Enable Tort Reform

QUOTE: Embedded in proposed federal regulations are provisions that would preempt lawsuits the Bush administration says conflict with federal standards... "The fact that manufacturers and drug companies want unconstitutional protection is nothing new," Suggs said. "The fact that this administration is complicit with it is a new development and a scary one."

 Washington Post
Jul 22, 2005 Hit With a Surge in Asbestos Claims, States Confront the 'Unsick' (Law.com via Yahoo! Finance)

QUOTE: The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the latest state legislature to address what some consider the "invasion of the unsick" -- a dramatic spike in asbestos claims filed by workers alleging exposure to the product without showing any impairment.

 Law.com
Jul 17, 2005 Robin Hoods or Legal Hoods?

QUOTE: Though Mr. Lerach and Mr. Weiss are not named in the indictment either, both are clearly embroiled in a wide-ranging investigation, the outcome of which is likely to influence how all plaintiffs' lawyers practice, as well as the potential civil penalties for corporate wrongdoing. As a result, the inquiry has reignited heated debates about the tort system, debates that have come to a head in recent years.

 New York Times
Feb 05, 2003 MDs demand tort reform at large Statehouse rally

QUOTE: Doctors gathered on the Statehouse steps in Trenton to protest soaring malpractice premiums on the second day of an unprecedented physician work stoppage that will continue "indefinitely," according to Robert S. Rigolosi, president of the Medical Society of New Jersey.

 NJ.com (New Jersey)
Dec 08, 2002 Just Money

QUOTE: What is our government's responsibility for its citizens -- and what are the limits of that responsibility? Is it the government's role to compensate victims in the first place? And if so, exactly how? Are we a country like Israel that accepts the inevitability of such deaths and treats compensation matter-of-factly, as a way to address a surviving family's basic needs? Or is money for us a metaphor, meant to signal our regret?

 New York Times
Jan 09, 2002 Legal Eagles, Beating Back the Vultures: the Lawyers of 9-11 Put Public Good Above Personal Gain -- So Far

QUOTE: More than a few of us predicted that a tidal wave of ambulance-chasing lawsuits after the terrorist attacks last Sept. 11 would make the famous litigation feeding frenzy in Bhopal, India, in 1984 look like a Sunday school picnic. That hasn't happened. Yet.

 Washington Post