From Our President

This issue of the Tennessee Trial Lawyer Magazine will find all of us well into 2007 and certainly well into the 2007 Session of the Tennessee General Assembly.  My local Representative and Senator are my friends, and I sometimes kid them about the famous Mark Twain quote: "No man's life, liberty or property are  safe while the legislature is in session."  Certainly the rights of the citizens of Tennessee and injured victims are not safe from attack in the Tennessee General Assembly based on the proclamation by newly elected Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the Senate Ron Ramsey who pledged tort reform as one of his major legislative agendas.  My experience is that anytime a politician uses the term "reform" as a part of an agenda, you need to take a closer look at what they are really trying to achieve.  Most often, the reform is worse than the alleged problem it seeks to solve.  

"Tort reform," is a pretext and really means denying or limiting access to the courts for countless Tennesseans who cannot afford a lawyer.  Moreover, it is a subtle attack on the jury system itself.  The wealthy and corporate America will always have access to the courts, but those who propose "tort reform" want to deprive the rest of society of the same rights.  This misguided effort should remind us of our rich heritage in representing and defending the less fortunate.  American jurisprudence and the civil justice system have been the envy of nations from inception.  Consider the observation of Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835 in Democracy in America:

"In America there are no nobles or literary men, and the people are apt to distrust the wealthy; lawyers consequently form the highest political class and the most cultivated portion of society.

If I were asked where I place the American aristocracy, I should reply without hesitation that it is not among the rich, who are united by no common tie, but that it occupies the judicial bench and the bar."

Trial lawyers in the Volunteer State can be particularly proud of our heritage that extends back to one of the earliest trial lawyers in Tennessee.  It is fitting that our annual convention this summer will be in Nashville near the Hermitage, the home of Old Hickory.  In vetoing the Bank Bill on July 10, 1832, President Andrew Jackson delivered a message, which rings true today:

"It is to be regretted that the rich and the powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.  Everyman is entitled to equal protection by law, but when the laws undertake to add artificial distinctions ... exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humbler members of society who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government." 

This so called tort reform creates artificial distinctions and exclusive privileges, and makes the rich richer and the potent more powerful, a fact attested to by the vast sums of money from big business, the insurance industry and organized medicine fueling the reform efforts.  Although the fight currently is over medical malpractice reform, rest assured that if they are successful in dismantling the civil justice system in medical negligence cases, general tort reform will be next.  The obligation we have to represent the people includes the obligation of taking on those in the legislature who would seek to destroy the civil justice system on the pretext of "tort reform."

In our last issue, I spent considerable time discussing and explaining our legislative programs upon which we rely to foster and protect the rights of the citizens of Tennessee to open access to the courts.  While I will not reiterate those comments, I do again urge all of our members to step up to the plate, get engaged, and be involved in our legislative efforts.  We have many friends and supporters in the General Assembly, but they need our help and support to stand up against those who seek to destroy the rights of people.
 
Our newest TTLA Membership Directory was published shortly before I wrote this article.  If you have not taken the opportunity to spend a few minutes reviewing the membership list by county, please take the time to do so.  As I looked through the directory to see how our membership was comprised across the State, I was reminded of a trip that my family and I took to New York City back in 1986 for the Annual ATLA Convention.  At that time we learned that there were over fourteen million people in the greater Manhattan area, and we were told that during a typical weekday there would be approximately two million people out eating lunch in the City.  When I left, I was convinced that we had a population problem in this Country. 

The next summer, however, I was fortunate enough to take my family on a driving trip across the Northwest and out into Yellowstone and the Rocky Mountains.  As we drove across the plains of South Dakota from Sioux Falls to Rapid City, I was amazed at the sparse population of the area.  We would drive for miles and miles and see no signs of life.  My opinion changed.  I was now convinced it was not a population problem, but rather a distribution problem.

As I reviewed the most recent TTLA Membership Directory by county, I came to the same conclusion.  That is, we have a distribution problem in our membership base.  While I realize that some of our smaller counties have virtually no resident lawyers in the county, I was appalled at the number of counties in the State where we have either no members or very few members.  This was especially disturbing in those counties with significant numbers of lawyers.  In other areas of the State, however, we have counties with 75 to 90 percent of the lawyers who are members of TTLA.  This disparity in the distribution of our membership base is unacceptable.  

Not only will our membership base improve by working on areas of the State that are under-represented, but that will also assist in our legislative efforts.  If we have no membership or very little membership in a given county, how can we expect to have a constituentency in that county with a message for the Representative or Senator who represents that area? Before my tenure as your President ends in June, I hope to be able to put together a compilation of data that matches each county with lawyers in the county who are not members of TTLA.  This should enable our membership committee to focus on these under-represented areas as prime targets for recruitment of new members. 

At our January Board meeting, your Board of Governors voted to bring before the annual meeting in June a proposal to amend the by-laws of the organization and change the name of the organization from the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association to the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association.  As many of you know, a similar proposal was made last year, but the issue was tabled at the annual meeting.  This proposed change is one that I believe will serve our association well.  Much thought and consideration have gone into this proposal, and while there may be some of you who differ, I believe that making the change is the right thing to do. 

We will proudly remain trial lawyers, but Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association more appropriately defines our mission and goal.  This new name is not about who we are, but what we do.  If you want to participate in the decision making process on the name change, you need to make plans to be at our annual meeting on Friday, June 15, at the conclusion of our annual convention in Nashville. 

Ronnie Berke has put together an outstanding CLE Program for the summer convention, and it is one that you will not want to miss.  In addition to our CLE Program and the annual meeting, we have great social events planned, including times to visit and socialize with members of the judiciary.  Ronnie Berke and the TTLA staff are to be commended for planning and organizing such a fabulous annual convention.  I personally invite you and your family to set aside June 12-15 and come to the Music City Sheraton in Nashville for an exciting time.

End Notes
¹This quote was included in the June 1996 issue of the Tennessee Trial Lawyer

c/president's letter - 2 stg (for magazine)