Snapping Up Cash

In Forbes, Daniel Lyons probes the increasing flow of money from plaintiffs' lawyers to advocacy groups for victims of sexual abuse by priests. [Free registration required] Snap (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), got between $30,000 and $50,000 of its $140,000 budget last year from donations from two lawyers. Some other groups have done even better:

The 3,000-member Linkup lists as its largest donor an Oregon plaintiff lawyer who has 50 clergy cases pending and last year made a $100,000 joint donation with a client who received a settlement from a religious order. The lawyer, Michael S. Morey, says the client put up two-thirds of the $100,000. Another Linkup donor is Joseph Klest, a lawyer who has handled more than 50 Catholic clergy cases in Illinois and who gave $2,615 to Linkup last year, according to Linkup's IRS filing.

Linkup's president, Susan Archibald, says she hopes to get a donation from William McMurry, a plaintiff lawyer in a recent $25.7 million settlement from Louisville's Catholic archdiocese. McMurry says he has made no promises.

Margate N.J.-based attorney Stephen C. Rubino, showing some of that fine ethical sense that makes Margatians the finest bunch of folks this country has to offer, does not show up in the rogues gallery here.

Unethical as these contributions may be, they're still less objectionable than using the bucks my aunt has been throwing into the collection basket all these years to pay hush money while re-assigning abusive priests. And while it's clear there are many greedy victims and "victims" looking to cash in at this point, this whole affair has (so far) been remarkably free of civil misconduct and prosecutorial abuse. Still, as these cases unfold, a good bullshit detector is a must.

Comments

[Phil]

An on-topic post joe. Congratulations.

[Anonymous]

On topic perhaps, but missing the point.

As someone on the McDonald's thread called it, it's Predatory Lawyering.

As far as I know, the IJ generally helps the victims of predatory lawyering, or more aptly "predatory legislating", the victims of governmental abuse.

The corrupt part isn't the self-interest, it's the phoniness of the "helping the victims" veneer.

[joe]

So it's bad, because it's bad. Because it's bad, which is bad.

Mm-kay?

[raj]

"Unethical as these contributions may be..."

Um, the basis for your belief that the contributions "may be" unethical being...what?

[raj]

"And while it's clear there are many greedy victims and "victims" looking to cash in at this point, this whole affair has (so far) been remarkably free of civil misconduct and prosecutorial abuse."

Moreover, from what has come out, it appears that the "whole affair" has been a result of more than a bit of prosecutorial neglect. And prosecutorial conspiracy with the hierarchy of the church. Apparently, more than a few prosecutors were more than willing to allow the church to deal with the crimes.

[Lefty]

Those sleazy trial lawyers giving money to charity. Bastards.

[joe]

And if the lawyers had spent the money on speed boats, Tim would be lauding them. Uh huh.

[dhex]

well, it is kinda scummy. but at the same time, it's screwing the catholic church for something i think people in the church heirarchy should be doing time for (aiding and abetting child molestation) so it guess it sort of works out in this instance.

[R.C. Dean]

Lets be clear that the motives of the trial lawyers here are not altogether pure. Those victims groups are, essentially, recruitment grounds for future plaintiffs. This is not to say that the trial lawyers aren't genuinely concerned blah blah, but they are getting something out of it pretty directly themselves.

This is not a new pattern. Many of the "consumer" groups (including Ralph Nader) are largely funded by trial lawyers, and as a result these groups are a very important part of the machine for generating product liability and other lawsuits to line trial lawyer pockets.

[joe]

True, RC, but I don't see H&R posts attacking the "not altogether pure" motives of landowners who donate to the Insitute for Justice or business owners who donate to Cato.

For that matter, when did libertarians start considering the presence of self-interest to be corrupting?

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