Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

AG candidates and their lawsuits: Dustin McDaniel

First in a series. In 1998, two boys, Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, stole guns from a locked cabinet and engaged in a school shooting at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, that killed five people. The boys were eventually convicted of capital murder. 2006 Democratic nominee for Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, representing the families […]

First in a series.

In 1998, two boys, Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden, stole guns from a locked cabinet and engaged in a school shooting at Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, that killed five people. The boys were eventually convicted of capital murder. 2006 Democratic nominee for Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, representing the families of the victims, sued the gun manufacturers. (Kenneth Heard, “Public defenders agency to pay for Jonesboro shooters civil case”, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, July 27, 1999). A judge threw out the suit, but the defendants had to spend money to defend themselves, part of a trial attorney campaign against gun manufacturers. (Kenneth Heard, “Gun maker, grandfather dropped from school shooting suit”, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 10, 2000). The suit was further controversial because a judge ordered taxpayers to pick up the cost of defending the civil lawsuit against the two shooters.

(Know of other trial lawyers, Republican or Democrat, with appalling suits running for office this November? E-mail me.)

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2 Comments

  • Why don’t US courts order the loosing party in civil cases to carry ALL cost of the trial, including the lawyer fees of the opposing party?
    That’s quite normal in many other countries, and could quickly put an end to frivolous lawsuits like this.

  • Hey, if it works, why not sue every car manufacturer forall the people killed in crashes? They have deep pockets, don’t they? What the hell happened to “PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY”?