A group that pushed hard last year to limit what injured Ohioans can collect in civil lawsuits is waging a TV campaign targeting personal-injury attorneys.
On Sunday, Ohio Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse began a weeklong, statewide TV ad campaign aimed at attorneys who are spending millions on commercials in search of clients.
The new ad shows a grinning personal-injury attorney spinning a game-show wheel, vying for prizes like "Rake in Millions" or "Force Medicines Off the Market."
With glee, the attorney-actor says, "Ads that scare patients, I love to do
that."
OCALA has declared this week "Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week," said Jeff Longstreth, the organization's executive director. They're going after attorney ads that often run in the daytime, targeting the elderly and unemployed, he said.
"We think it is a scam," Longstreth said. "They run ads to get people to file class action suits. It's dangerous for lawyers to tell patients to stop taking drugs."
OCALA, which bills itself as a grass-roots, public education group, has
actively promoted civil justice reform. The group was a driving force behind legislation that limits jury awards.
But OCALA and similar groups in other states are bankrolled by major
corporate donors interested in protecting their liabilities, said Laurie
Beacham, spokeswoman for the Washington D.C.-based Center for Justice & Democracy.
Several other OCALA-type groups are also sponsoring ads in the "Sick of
Lawsuits" campaign, she said.
"It is part of a larger agenda to mislead the public into thinking we have an explosion of frivolous lawsuits," said Beacham. "That's just not true."
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