Record Shows Trial Lawyers ‘Own Bill Clinton,’ Quayle Says

Vice President Dan Quayle Thursday seized on Gov. Bill Clinton’s opposition to legal reform legislation in his home state of Arkansas as proof that the Democratic nominee “is totally in the pocket of the trial lawyers.”

Quayle, who has been campaigning hard on his call for legal reform, pointed to a pro-Clinton fund-raising letter that was mailed July 10 by David H. Williams, president of the 900-member Arkansas Trial Lawyers Assn.

The letter said a bill with a tort reform section was headed through the Arkansas Legislature in 1987. “We immediately got on the horn to the governor about this and the tort reform part of the legislative package was pulled,” he wrote.

Two years later, Williams wrote, legislation designed to provide legal immunity to “good Samaritan” doctors who treated the poor at no charge had “whistled” through the Legislature to Clinton’s desk. “Again, we got on the horn to the governor. . . . The governor agreed wholeheartedly and vetoed the bill,” the letter said.

Clinton is “totally in the pocket of the trial lawyers,” said Quayle, noting that Arkansas is one of four states that have not passed legal reform laws in recent years. “Why? Trial lawyers finance his campaign. He simply has no interest and no capability to reform the legal system. . . . The trial lawyers own Bill Clinton.”

He made his remarks to a group of reporters he had summoned to his Washington office.

Quayle also accused Clinton of trying to take both sides of the issue. He cited a June speech before the National Assn. of Manufacturers in which Clinton said, “I don’t know what should be done yet” about product liability.

Campaigning in San Antonio on Thursday, Clinton responded that it was Bush and Quayle who were controlled by special interest groups. He cited the President’s Council on Competitiveness, which is chaired by Quayle and has been accused by critics of eliminating government environmental rules at the behest of business.

“If ever an Administration was in the pocket of special interests, it’s Bush and Quayle,” Clinton told the Associated Press.

George Stephanopoulos, Clinton’s communications director, said Clinton had opposed the “good Samaritan” legislation because “it would have created two classes of medical care.” And Clinton opposed the tort reform legislation because “he became convinced it would have caused undue harm to consumers,” Stephanopoulos said.

Stephanopoulos said in a statement that the Administration’s legal reforms would cap the ability of juries to award punitive damages “even when that’s the only way to bring a powerful offender to justice, or to keep a dangerous product off the market. They want to make victims pay the legal fees of big manufacturers if, for some reason, they sue and lose.”

He said this view was “trickle-down justice” that was backed by insurance companies, pharmaceutical concerns and big business, but opposed by consumer groups, the elderly and workers.

Clinton said he favors alternative dispute resolution and national guidelines on malpractice suits to reduce the burden of litigation.

Both campaigns are receiving large contributions from lawyers.