Dear Editor,

All truths are easy to understand once you discover them; the point is to discover them. Galileo Galilei said that, and it is pertinent to this day. In the coming weeks, voters will be bombarded with different versions of &8220;truth&8221; concerning candidates for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Who to believe?

Alabama Votes against Lawsuit Abuse begs that voters consider the source of television and radio spots and brochures for liberal chief justice candidate Sue Bell Cobb. She is being sponsored by members of the tainted and discredited trial lawyer group. When voters consider that, and know the past history of the group, the truth begins to out.

Trial lawyer actions could define the word &8220;sleazy&8221; in 1994 they cost the state millions in court expenses and created a national scandal when they used illegal absentee ballots to try to steal a Supreme Court election.

In 1996, they sponsored the infamous &8220;skunk ad&8221; a watchdog group called it the &8220;sleaziest ad in the history of American politics.&8221; In 1998, a trial lawyer used a prostitute to lie about a candidate. In 2004, they funded a sleazy campaign for Tom Parker against Justice Jean Brown. It continues every election year.

Each election cycle trial lawyers bounce millions through PACs to disguise their attempts to buy back the Supreme Court. And it was year 2000 before business matched trial lawyers spending in the Supreme Court race.

One of the worst offenders is slick Montgomery trial lawyer Jere Beasley and his firm of Beastie Boys. Through the years, they have run literally millions of dollars through PAC transfers to hide their own ungodly influence in the Supreme Court race.

If there beasts another heart so hypocritical Beasley&8217;s I have yet to learn of it. Each month, he puts out a self promotional, ego stroking, advertising publication laughingly called a &8220;consumer report.&8221;

So far, Beasley and his boys have put about 496,000 in the Cobb campaign. The money has been bounced through 22 PAC&8217;s and that is not nearly Beasley&8217;s biggest act of hypocrisy, although it is a dilly. Here&8217;s his worst: The Beasley from once took $34 million in an Anniston case and left the so-called &8220;clients&8221; less than $8,000 each. That is the trial lawyer notion of justice.

The Alabama Supreme Court was one of the worst offenders in that time, overseeing a civil court system Forbes Magazine dubbed &8220;tort hell.&8221; It was cited as one of the three worst civil justice systems in the nation by the American Tort Reform Association. By 1996 the U.S. Supreme Court had only six occasions considered whether to strike down a punitive damages award as constitutionally excessive. Three of those cases came from Alabama.

Trial lawyers are counting on electing Cobb, the Democratic candidate for Supreme Court chief justice, she is a trial lawyer darling and her mission, at their behest, would be to return the Alabama Supreme Court to the status of a judicial hellhole.

On each occasion that she has provided testimony before a legislative committee on tort reform, she has totally taken sides with the trial lawyers against it. Every time. It has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that tort reform spurs business growth and that lawsuit abuse kills business and robs jobs.

Alabama&8217;s wealthy personal injury trial lawyers are presently pouring money into the Cobb campaign coffers, and they will ultimately put in millions on their dirty dollars. They will of course use PAC to PAC transfers to try to hide this fact from voters and the media until the election is over.

It is AVALA&8217;s studied and considered opinion that a vote for Sue Bell Cobb is a vote for a return to trial lawyer sway in our Supreme Court. And that is the truth.

Skip Tucker

Alabama Voters Against Lawsuit Abus