May 28, 2008
West Virginia residents recently found a mailing from a group called Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse in their mailboxes, prompting a brisk response from the state's attorney general, Darrell McGraw, who says the mailing "crossed the line."
McGraw takes issue with the mailing's assertion that he represented three plaintiffs in a lawsuit and is keeping the money for his own use. McGraw says the lawsuit was brought on behalf of all the citizens of West Virginia who have been affected by the addictive and abusive effects of OxyContin.
The settlement proceeds were distributed according to the Court order, and a majority of the money has been used to fund day report centers across the State. Every dollar spent on a day report center saves the county in which it is located $7 in regional jail costs, McGraw says.
And just who, or what, is Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse?
CALA, according to incorporation papers filed with the West Virginia Secretary of State's office, is a non-profit business group organized for a common business purpose. Registered as a 501(c)(6) corporation under the Internal Revenue Code, CALA is not required by law to reveal its funders.
"If consistent with the experience in other states, CALA's main source of funding is in fact business interests which the Attorney General's office is required to regulate," McGraw's office said in the Consumer Alert. "CALA's misrepresentation of what it is should call into question its true motives and purpose."
CALA has local chapters in a number of states. According to SourceWatch, an online project of the Center for Media and Democracy, the CALA chapters are "grassroots" groups created by industries and businesses to give the appearance of a groundswell of public desire to alter the legal system to make it harder to bring lawsuits for injuries and illnesses caused by hazardous products.
SourceWatch contends that Philip Morris has been a primary backer of the group.
