Judicial analysts agree that only far-reaching legal reform can ensure that America’s legal system focuses on rewarding injured parties rather than entrepreneurial lawyers.

• Critics say litigation lawyers look for business opportunities -- i.e., someone’s deep pockets -- to sue, then search for people willing to say they have been injured.

• For instance, lawyers lined up at the courthouse doors even before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ordered fen-phen diet drugs off the market.

• Before the FDA’s action, attorney Paul Rheingold began running ads in magazines and newspapers and hitting the usual TV talk shows looking for potential litigants.

Breast implant litigation is another case cited by critics. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute recently published scores of medical studies that found no relationship between breast cancer and implants.Studies by the Mayo Clinic and Harvard University found similar results. Medical professionals say the deluge of lawsuits that is needlessly terrorizing women with implants and has destroyed the silicone breast implant industry is unwarranted.

Doug Bandow (Cato Institute) “Lawyers on the Loose,” Washington Times, November 18, 1997.