Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The new administration has stopped the practice of settling law suits brought against the EPA out of court. It was the corrupt process whereby an "environmental group" would sue the EPA, claiming the EPA was not enforcing a regulation. The law allowing this made the EPA not only pay the damages demanded, but also the legal fees of the plaintiff. This was costing the taxpayers 10s of millions of dollars annually over the past 20+ yrs and supporting large legal staffs employed by these groups. Huge profits for them.
When reading the article sited, scroll down to the comment by"WWS." It eloquently illustrates the process.
So you're saying that because all industries follow corrupt processes and pass the expense on to the public, then nobody should ever try to correct the situation.
In regards the EPA, they were purposely hiding the expense from the taxpayers as a secondary corrupt practice.
Laws are written by lawyers, for lawyers, giving them the basis for lawsuits and thereby guaranteeing their own incomes. That's why The Association of Trial Lawyers exists, a strong lobbying group, predominately supporting Democrat congressmen.
This is yet another portion of The Swamp to be drained.
The swamp monster wishes to ignore epa entirely. That is actually how this administration is handling it. Let the corps who have a laundry list of fines continue to produce because hiring and keeping the $ in America is more important . It's all about the numbers to induce the public to believe that our economy is improving.
Most corps who have been fined rarely pay up. They just agree to change how they operate. Being one step ahead of the epa to borrow more time. Rinse and repeat.
A lot of the lawsuits are justified and it costs more to go through court fighting it than it does to settle when odds are the plaintiff will win those. The frivolous suits may be won by the government but again, it's going to cost us more than just settling. The only win here is the lawyers. They'll be making more as legal fights get lengthier.
You missed the point: they're not suing corps. They're suing the EPA, and the EPA is bound by stupid law to pay the opposition's legal fees. Therefore, a whole legal corp has been developed and maintained merely to support itself and the "environmental organization" by suing, the result of the suit itself being immaterial.
You missed the point: they're not suing corps. They're suing the EPA, and the EPA is bound by stupid law to pay the opposition's legal fees. Therefore, a whole legal corp has been developed and maintained merely to support itself and the "environmental organization" by suing, the result of the suit itself being immaterial.
This is just not true. Courts have the authority to order the loser in some legal cases to pay opponent's legal fees, but that is true of all lawsuits. It's not unique to suits against the government. Absent a court order you won't likely see the EPA paying for an opponents lawsuit.
You missed the point: they're not suing corps. They're suing the EPA, and the EPA is bound by stupid law to pay the opposition's legal fees. Therefore, a whole legal corp has been developed and maintained merely to support itself and the "environmental organization" by suing, the result of the suit itself being immaterial.
This is true. Groups of lawyers who have no work discover this and go find a client and get them to sue - not just the EPA, it happens in most public agencies.
People settle because they have limited resources to get a job done, so they cannot have those resources (people) tied up in court hearings and depositions and endlessly searching for documents. So they just pay something.
In the private sector many insurance companies and businesses have learned it is not cost effective to settle, the more you roll over, the more litigation piles up. Build a reputation for rolling over and unemployed lawyers will be lining up at your door waiting to sue.
I had a client who did a lot of road work in Southern California. When someone brought a cracked windshield claim, they just paid it. not worth fighting over $500. eventually, we discovered Caltrans was referring every cracked windshield claim in Southern California to them no matter where it occurred. It was an easy way for them to handle these claims, because the company always paid. Finally, they decided to start fighting it. First step was to write to Calrtans and threaten legal action if they continued the process of automatically referring every cracked windshield claim to this company. Then we started fighting it. Yes, we spent over $8,000 getting a $500 case thrown out of court where our client had not even done any work on the road where the windshield occurred. However, we started getting more efficient at getting rid of the claims over time. ultimately we denied any claim without had solid proof that our work was somehow at fault (almost never). Then the complainants started going back to Caltrans looking for relief and screaming about being referred to a company that was not even working in the area. Over time the claims died out to almost nothing.
Another industry that uses the same approach is contractor license bond sureties. They make no money on premiums. The bonds are $7,500 (may be more now). They will spend $25,000 fighting any claim with even a wiff of a defense, because they cannot afford to get sued all the time (most will quietly settle clearly valid claims). As a result, it is rare that anyone bothers suing on a license bond.
For a time the construction defect bar thrived off of this (residential housing). They would spend millions in pre-trial litigation, and then settle. Virtually all of the claim were frivolous or at least massively inflated.
After the first few years, the settlements got smaller and smaller or insurance companies started to fight. When they settled or won, the only people who got significant money in most cases were the lawyers and expert witnesses. Eventually the huge construction defect litigation industry slowed and shrank. Many plaintiffs lawyers got out with hundreds of millions. Many others went searching for other work (thousands).
Not to worry though, the unemployed plaintiffs lawyers will always find some BS inflated claim somewhere and the defense lawyers can go throughout he standard steps and then settle the case (most of them would be petrified with fear if they actually had to go to trial. For a time the target was investment brokers. Clients disappointed by the recession were always happy to try to blame their brokers.
Not sure where it is now. It pretty much fell off the radar screen on my practice area (plus I went in house, where our focus is on avoiding and resolving problems, not litigation. Although there are some areas where I am touting the long term advantages of putting up a fight. Yes you can settle these 10 BS claims cheaper than fighting them, but, you will have 40 claims next year if you do so. Spend a lot now, to save a lot more later.
The government is finally waking up to this fact I think.
The plaintiff's lawyers will claim they are doing good for society. Forcing the EPA and other organizations to follow their own rules. However they almost never really change much of anything. Generally they are not really trying to, just trying to make some money for the lawyers and their clients. As long as the moeny is flowing, there is no reason to hesitate and make certain the claim is valid and meaningful.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
