March 28, 2024

Trial Lawyers

Sore Point

Trial attorney Mike Eidson plans a national counterattack against detractors.

Cynthia Barnett | 10/1/2006

Mike Eidson, a veteran south florida product-liability attorney, wishes that when Floridians thought about trial lawyers, they'd think about guys like his friend Gary Pajcic of Jacksonville.

Jacksonville leaders were stunned in August when Pajcic died suddenly at age 58 of a rare form of viral encephalitis. More than 1,000 mourners crammed Jacksonville's Episcopal High School to remember Pajcic's community service, philanthropy and political and courtroom savvy. The former FSU quarterback gave away millions of dollars to charities, including academic scholarships for kids from his boyhood blue-collar neighborhood. He chaired the 1995 campaign of Nat Glover, who became Jacksonville's first elected black sheriff. He was also one of the first lawyers to sue Ford and Firestone over defective tires three weeks before the companies issued a nationwide recall. Last year, he won a $10.2- million verdict against Ford for defective roof and seat belt systems in Explorers.

"Gary Pajcic loved Jacksonville and played an integral part in the life of that community, from helping elect the first black sheriff to getting the Jaguars to come," says Eidson, a partner at Colson Hicks Eidson of Coral Gables. "This is what trial lawyers do in our communities -- we are sick of the front organizations that say we hurt our communities and businesses."

Expect to hear more of the same from Eidson over the coming year as he takes over the nation's most powerful organization of plaintiffs lawyers. Eidson, 59, is co-lead counsel for the multidistrict federal litigation against Firestone/Ford over defective tires. This summer, he was named president of the 56,000-lawyer Association of Trial Lawyers of America during its annual meeting, when members also voted to change the organization's name to the American Association for Justice. The name change was one of Eidson's agenda items for the year, and it is key to two others: To "reframe the public debate on the civil justice system so that all Americans understand that the system is their last line of defense against corporate misconduct and negligence" and "highlight the contributions that attorneys make to the public good."

The tort reform group U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform called the name change "an astounding admission of the unpopularity of trial lawyers in this country." Eidson says the statement is typical of vague attacks against trial lawyers; he plans a national, concerted effort to fight back. Watch for a rapidresponse PR campaign to deal with any negative stories about trial lawyers, as well as sponsored research and studies refuting claims such as the one that burgeoning tort litigation drives up insurance premiums. None of Florida's laws aimed at tort reform, Eidson maintains, has resulted in lower insurance rates for Florida businesses. "I don't think the changes have helped anyone but big insurance companies," he says.

Eidson also wants to appeal to business owners: AAJ members, he says, "are very pro-business, employing more than a million people who come to work every day, do a good job and do the right thing. We represent businesses, too. But we've been demonized as anti-business in this state and in this country by wrongdoers that don't want to be held accountable.

"It is not pro-business for corporations to evade responsibility for their actions," he says. "We're good for the marketplace because we level the playing field."

Tags: Politics & Law, Around Florida, Government/Politics & Law

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