Article on ATLA Name Change to American Association for Justice
The ABA Journal has published an evenhanded article on the ATlA name change: ATLA Trades ‘Lawyers’ for ‘Justice’. Chris Mather, ATLA’s communication director said:
"Some of the most powerful corporations have spent millions of dollars to dismantle the civil justice system," she says. "The Fight for Justice Campaign is exactly what it says it is."
David Ball was quoted as saying:
"Their decision to do this did not take into account the single biggest problem that trial lawyers already face, which is how the jurors who already don’t trust them are going to respond," says David Ball, a jury and trial consultant in Durham, N.C. According to Ball, approximately 30 percent of individuals in most jury pools distrust lawyers. They’ve been misled, he says, by tort reform groups.
I was quoted as saying the following:
David Swanner, a Myrtle Beach, S.C., plaintiffs lawyer, is also in favor of ATLA’s new name. "But I’m very proud of being a trial lawyer and being called a trial lawyer," he says. "I wouldn’t change that at all."
That was the only quote from a lengthy interview. But, if I could have picked the one quote, that would have been the one. It’s a good article and worth reading the whole thing.
I could not agree more. I'm sure a lot of smart people spent more time looking at this issue that I did. But I can't understand how a trial lawyer's group ducking from being trial lawyers could ever be a good thing.
There is no talk of us in Maryland following suit and changing the name of our TLA. I doubt many states will follow suit which makes me wonder who was pushing for it.
During the worst days of the bogus emails and tort reform battles in which the truth was so badly distorted, I was never ashamed to call myself a trial lawyer. And I was always proud of ATLA until now. This is self-righteous crap, which essentially concedes that the other side has won the battle for the hearts and minds of the public. Our forefathers must be spinning in their graves. We're not worthy of what they built.
