Dear Editor,

Alabama Voters Against Lawsuit Abuse believes Alabamians with good jobs owe Alabama’s Supreme Court for overturning lower court awards in recent pharmaceutical lawsuits.

Attorney Gen. Troy King mistakenly hired trial lawyer Jere Beasley to prosecute the suits, then they put enormous political pressure on the righteous court in hopes it’d knuckle under. It didn’t.

Beasley/King claimed 79 pharmaceutical firms defrauded Alabama by overcharging for Medicaid drugs. Two of five lower courts found the argument fundamentally flawed. The Supreme Court agreed.

Supremes said nobody made Alabama buy; that Alabama could do research before buying anything. It’s the law of the marketplace. The court found no fraud because there’s no fraud to find.

But Beasley and others get $15 million of our dollars because some firms found it cheaper to settle.

The Washington (DC) Examiner said the Alabama case has “major national implications” because some states use similar lawsuits to bleed pharmaceutical and other companies.

It’s the kind of “kickback” justice seen from Terry Butts and the trial-lawyer controlled Alabama Supreme Court of the eighties that tarnished our civil justice reputation, scaring away jobs.

Things are better. Industry’s coming in. Most people largely credit tort reform and a conservative Supreme Court. It deserves credit again for clipping trial bar shakedown schemes.

Skip Tucker

Director

Alabama Voters Against Lawsuit Abuse

Montgomery