New Justice Department Cleanser! Cleans up mold and Milberg!

Or so the hype would lead you to believe. And there’s no question that the decision of Justice Department officials to indict the entire Milberg, Weiss law firm, one of the most successful of the predatory class-action law firms, fills the need for Schadenfreude. There’s little question that such law firms are fundamentally corrupt enterprises and that a lot of the litigation industry is more about enriching the sharks than it is about getting justice for its purported plaintiffs. I have been a member of at least a half dozen “classes” that have had lawyers purportedly acting on my behalf, and about all I’ve ever received from any of it are a few coupons, all of which have required me to purchase additional products or services from the companies which had supposedly harmed me in the first place. But the attorneys who pursued the cases received millions.

Even if you stipulate all of those things, it’s still highly problematic to pursue a criminal indictment against an entire organization. Ask the refugees of Arthur Andersen about that – a small number of accountants in that giant firm were involved in a matter that was prosecuted and, ultimately, ended up nowhere. But the indictment effectively destroyed Andersen and cost thousands of innocent people their jobs. You can call that many things, but justice is not one of them. Although I think the Milberg firm is fundamentally corrupt and dirty, the most likely victims of this action will be functionaries who type the complaints and answer the phones, not the pinstriped pirates who will use their firm’s “limited liability” partnership to shield their assets and careers.