A cynical amendment to the Senate health care bill sponsored by Senator John Ensign (R-NV) that would have effectively slammed the courthouse doors on countless numbers of injured patients was soundly defeated by a strong bi-partisan vote of 32-66.
The amendment would have imposed national wage caps on fees for attorneys' representing injured patients—that is, the percentage attorneys may earn if their client prevails.
Capping these fees is a major agenda item of the so-called “tort reform” movement. The goal is to keep injured patients from getting decent legal assistance, which is why big “tort reformers” like Ensign are behind it. Here are some important things to know about it:• This fee arrangement is tantamount to an injured party’s “key to the courthouse door”. Under a contingency fee system, a lawyer takes a case without expecting any money up front—which is good, as injured patients may be in pain, unable to work, or lack funds to pay next month’s mortgage or rent, let alone an hourly attorney’s fee.
• Despite much rhetoric to the contrary, the vast majority of contingency fees are a fair 1/3 of the award or judgment, not 40 percent or 50 percent, as often asserted.
• Conservatives actually LIKE contingency fees because they screen out frivolous lawsuits. Fees are paid only if the attorney wins. If the case is lost, the attorney is paid nothing. That is a huge risk! They may spend tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars up front on the case, only to finally lose that case and receive nothing. Can you imagine if you had to work with that kind of financial peril over your head?
• These proposals never suggest capping fees for defense attorneys, who bill for every minute that they work, and they’re paid every dollar that they charge, whether they win or lose. Nothing like a little hypocrisy!
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