Lawsuits Way Down in Alabama – Big Business Taking Over

One of our judges keeps asking why no one is filing lawsuits. Of course, we are still filing lawsuits, just not near as many. The Alabama Supreme Court has virtually done away with fraud and bad faith against insurance companies in Alabama. Punitive damages have been capped. Every time a legislator sneezes, another tort reform bill is introduced offering immunity to his special interest group.

It is plain to see from the statistics that we are at a point when the pendulum has swung way too far against those injured and defrauded. In 2000, 11,644 tort lawsuits were filed in Alabama. In 2002, it was a little over 12,000. In just ten years though, the number has fallen drastically. In 2009, the number had fallen to 8,543 according to a Civil Justice Survey of State Courts.

It most likely is far less than that now, judging from the Covington County docket. And the politicians continue to take away the rights of the working class to bring suit against Corporate America, or worse yet, Corporate China. Just this year, our legislature voted to take away some of your rights to sue for injuries caused by defective products, many of which are manufactured in China, India, in other overseas countries that pay allow workers to be paid slave wages.

It is happening on the Federal level also. The U.S. Supreme Court in the past couple years struck down limits on corporate contributions to politicians. And we wonder why they take away our rights in the name of big business?

We must wake up to the corporate greed that is taking over our government.

My Space is not always your space. And Facebook may just be where the enemy downloads your picture.

We advise clients to be very careful what is posted to social internet sites. More and more, the enemy is stalking the sites in divorces and lawsuits. You would be surprised what can be used against you in court.

When you are linked through Facebook, even pictures other people post of you can be found and magically appear in evidence.

Social media sites can be fun, entertaining, and can keep friends in touch. But be careful about that tweet, picture, or rant being taken out of context. You never know whose hands it might end up in.

The insurance giants on tv want you to believe that they are on your side in a wreck or a disaster. Yet any time there is a natural disaster, hundreds or thousands of people must seek justice in a courtroom because they cannot obtain from their own insurance company.

Make no mistake, big insurance, just like big banks, is out for one thing and that is the big bucks.

Did you know that in Alabama, we cannot even mention auto insurance in a trial involving a car wreck? That’s right. Even though the insurance company is almost always who has to pay if the injured Plaintiff receives a verdict, the Plaintiff nor his lawyer can tell the jury the defendant has insurance.

Laird, Baker & Blackstock has its roots in Opp in 1987, when Wesley Laird took over the law practice of Loggins & Loggins. Tim Loggins was going into corporate work and Eugenia Loggins was taking office as Covington County’s District Attorney. They left a successful private practice representing clients for many years in trouble with the law, injured, seeking divorce and custody, or needing a real estate lawyer.

Laird expanded the practice into the area of bankruptcy, having just finished a clerkship with a Bankruptcy Trustee, Walter Crownover of Tuscaloosa.

David Baker joined Laird in 1993 as an Associate and soon became a partner. About three years later, Thomas A. “Andy” Blackstock joined the firm and later became a partner as well.

The combined experience of the three partners is sixty years in the areas of trucking litigation, auto wrecks, personal injury, wrongful death, real estate, wills and probate, divorce and custody, criminal law, and bankruptcy. With each partner heavily concentrating in specific areas, it allows more efficient concentration on particular cases.

The common denominator is care. “Andalusia attorney Sid Fuller told me years ago that he always believed if a lawyer cares for his clients, the rest will take care of itself,” said Laird. “He was right. If you care about people, about clients, then you will do everything you can to help that person.”

Whatever your legal need, the lawyers at Laird, Baker and Blackstock care and are ready to help.

Chuck Boyd's Story

Laird, Baker & Blackstock
When Experience Matters

Laird, Baker & Blackstock