Attorneys General: Corruption By Contingency Fee

Adam Liptak of The New York Times recently wrote about the increasing practice by state attorneys general of hiring trial lawyers to bring lawsuits on behalf of the state in exchange for a big share of whatever is recovered in such lawsuits.

As he noted, giving trial lawyers a share of the loot raises serious due process and separation-of-powers issues, and has been deemed illegal by some state courts.

It also results in corruption, noted former Alabama attorney general (and now federal judge) Bill Pryor, in a speech quoted by Liptak.

I earlier wrote about how this practice promotes corruption, violates the law, and makes the political cronies of state attorneys general fabulously wealthy, in the Issue Analysis, “The Nation’s Top Ten Worst State Attorneys General.”