Publication Date

1996

Journal

Washington and Lee Law Review

Abstract

Contingency fee abuses are attracting increased public attention. Particular interest is focused on the enormous contingency fees generated by mass tort litigation; in some cases, lawyers are collecting multi-million dollar fees essentially for performing paralegal work. In addition, the relationship between the availability of enormous contingency fees and the amassing of thousands of claims of injury in order to dramatically shift the litigation dynamic in favor of plaintiffs is becoming increasingly apparent. For example, the possibility that major ongoing massive litigations, such as those involving silicone breast implants and the as yet nascent litigation involving the contraceptive Norplant, have much less to do with injury and much more to do with contingency fees is being increasingly broached in the press, even in newspapers that usually have opposed most tort reform efforts.

Volume

53

Issue

4

First Page

1339

Last Page

1380

Publisher

Washington and Lee University School of Law

Disciplines

Law | Legal Profession | Medical Jurisprudence | Torts

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