One of the many proposals in our government right now that we don't know about is a bailout for trial lawyers. In some states it is legal for trial lawyers to provide loans for their clients in a person injury case. Under the law now if at the end of litigation the loan is not repaid, or the case doesn't win so the attorney cannot collect, the attorney is allowed to deduct the amount of the loan from taxes. The new proposed plan would allow them to deduct at the time of the loan being made.
Loans of this type started a long time ago when personal injury cases sought a more modest amount. I believe the general intention to start was to cover the costs of the clients current medical bills and the fees of the court case. Then if the client won the case at a the required the attorney would get the loan back plus a "modest" fee. This of course leads the attorney to try and seek more and more in damages and not the client.
Most states don't even allow these loans to be made in a personal injury cases, much less would they allow these cases to be basically government funded by our taxes. Some litigation in injury cases now can be millions of dollars for each case. Perhaps if our business and corporations paid more in taxes each year instead of finding ways out of it we could start to pay off this national debt that we keep accruing.
I think lawyers are the lase people who need a tax break. Lawyers are only supposed to make these loans in cases where they are sure they will win. This keeps them from filing shady lawsuits and limits the loans to legitimate cases who are likely to win in court. If a lawyer has nothing to lose in making these loans they will be tempted to file a suit for every crazy person who comes into the office.
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