David Kopstein of Prince George’s County and his vice chair, Jim MacAl- ister of Baltimore City. The third core area I want MTLA to
address during my term is to further the public’s understanding of and con- fidence in the rule of law. This is going to be a formidable challenge given the reality that our opponents – big in- surance companies, the drug and oil industries, and other large corporations – have spent billions of dollars over the past decades to wage an unprecedented attack on justice. Their plan is simple. They want to eliminate the only thing left holding them accountable – the civil justice system, often the last resort for many Americans. Last year we began a public awareness
and outreach program, whereby MTLA members act as volunteer speakers before schools and civic associations to explain the civil justice system and respond to falsehoods of those who seek
to deny our clients access to justice in the courts. David Wildberger of Baltimore County and Karl Protil of Montgomery County will lead our Public Awareness and Outreach efforts during my term. Although this program is a good
beginning, in my opinion we need to do more if we, in time, are going to reframe the public debate so the public gains an accurate understanding of and confidence in the rule of law. That is why during my term MTLA will engage in a campaign to place accurate descrip- tions of the civil justice system into the media and respond quickly and publicly to unfair attacks on lawyers, judges and juries. We are not sitting back quietly any longer as our courts and its officers are maligned via the media. Our first effort on this front appeared in the July 21, 2008 issue of the Daily Record, in which your MTLA debunked a junk science report from the Pacific Research Institute containing the group’s so-called
state tort index and rankings. Clearly, the goal of our communica-
tions campaign is to tell the public the true story about who we are and what we are fighting for. However, taking the message of civil justice to the public in this day and age requires the same level of research and marketing skills our opponents have employed against us for years. Polling and considered research shows that the messenger matters. Very simply, if “trial lawyers” advocate a position that benefits our clients and the civil justice system, the message is rejected by three out of four people. On the other hand, if the identical message is presented by an organization that is per- ceived to be pro-consumer, that message is almost universally accepted. Regret- tably, messages from “trial lawyers” are seen as self-serving and part of a “special interest” agenda. Even though our mis- sion is about getting justice and holding wrongdoers accountable – the message has gotten lost in the messenger. And there lies the dilemma. Although
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I am proud to be known as a trial lawyer, and will always call myself a trial lawyer, our organization’s current name – the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association – is all about us. It describes who we are, not what we do. In contrast, the name the “Maryland Association for Justice” is about what we do and what we do is fight for justice – for our clients and all Marylanders each and every day. The American Association for Jus-
tice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America), and nearly half of the state trial lawyer organizations in America have recognized this problem, and have done something about it. They have changed their name to reflect the importance of what we stand for. They have changed their name to one that permits us to represent the interests of our clients most effectively. So, the question before us is, do we
keep a name that makes us feel good about ourselves, but acts like noise drowning out our message? The answer is unfortunate, but simple. When you
Summer 2008
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