John Edwards, Trial Lawyers, and Cerebral Palsy Cases:

An interesting post at Blog 702 on the controversy over whether John Edwards made much of his wealth from bogus malpractice cases involving the representation of children with cerebral palsy. It’s obviously foolish to have such complex issues of medical causation being determined before a nonexpert jury in an adversarial process to begin with, and I can’t really begrudge Edwards, or any other attorney, who play their appointed roles in the system. It’s convenient for civil justice reformers to use wealthy trial lawyers as their public enemy, a good robber barronish foil. And certainly I object when trial lawyers manipulate the political process to their benefit, as they did in many ways during the tobacco litigation. But when they are merely doing their jobs within the system as it exists*, I refuse to demonize them; repeat after me, civil justice reformers: blame the system, not the participants in it.
*For example, current ethical rules for attorneys not only allow but require plaintiffs’ attorneys to utilize out of the mainstream expert testimony that is almost certainly wrong, but that is admissible, helpful to the plaintiff’s case, and potentially persuasive to the jury.
UPDATE: I agree with Wally Olson that trial lawyers should not be obligated under ethics rules to pursue claims based on admissible evidence that the attorney knows to be “junk science.” But law professors who specialize in this area have told me that this is indeed the rule in most jurisdictions. I’m pleased to learn from Wally that Arizona has changed the attorney’s duty to act “zealously” for his client–the source of this mischief–to a duty to act “honorably.”
Also, a reader writes:

If being a plaintiff’s lawyer (or defense attorney) consistently required persons to engage in behavior which, though permitted or perhaps even mandated by professional ethics rules, was in their view morally wrong, they should do something else. Indeed, if a person remains in that profession, as Edwards did, it seems to me perfectly fair to assume that he has come to the considered decision that “the system as it exists” is, on the whole, right and proper and, as to discrete elements thereof, to assume that he approves of them if he has not disavowed them and/or is not acting to change them. In such a case, I see no unfairness in begrudging Edwards (or anyone else) if you think they’re doing (and profiting from) bad and destructive (albeit currently legal) things, or in demonizing them if you think they’re doing really bad and destructive (though currently legal) things, or in praising, exalting or heroicizing them if you think the system as it is is just dandy and they’re doing wonderful and productive things.