Ethics

Not surprisingly, there is a bill pending in Texas to codify the kind of claims facility that BP and Kenneth Feinberg established for the Gulf oil spill.  The bill protects defendants who are responsikble for negligent acts that cause death, personal injury, or property damage to two or more people, or who produce defective products that kill or otherwise injure two or more people.

Lawyers for claimants are made to assist the administrator of the claims facility (here called a "voluntary compensaiton plan"), and have their compensation  stringently limited.  The administrator is permitted to negotiate directly with represented claimants, and cannot be held liable for a breach of good faith and fair dealing, or for violating the Deceptive Practices - Consumer Protection Act, or for a breach of any other common law or statutory duty.  There's more, of course.

The effect of these claims facilities, as we have seen in the BP matter, is to restrict access to legal services, to interfere with claimants' lawyer-client relationshps, to impair due process of law, and to exempt the claims administrator from ethical obligations.

I don't understand why people who are concerned with lawyers' ethics appear to be passive about this kind of outrage.