FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 2008
Contact: Jeffrey Mazzella
703.535.5836
Specifically, the ads highlight a $10 million settlement that McGraw secured intended to help workers and the elderly. But McGraw is "instead divvying it up between his trial lawyer friends and a fund only controlled by McGraw." The ads ask the citizens of West Virginia to call the attorney general to "tell him to return the people's money."
The television ad can be viewed and the radio ad heard below:
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♫ To listen to the radio ad, click here. |
"Our public education effort in West Virginia builds on CFIF's ongoing efforts to educate the public about important constitutional, legal and related public policy issues," said CFIF President Jeffrey Mazzella. "Specifically, the ads touch on the proper roles for the three branches of state government, as well as the individual agencies, bodies, departments and offices that make them up.
"When an executive branch official is raising, allocating, and spending funds, we lose the separation of powers that is an essential safeguard of individual liberty," Mazzella added.
In addition, the specific issue discussed in CFIF's ads is just one example of a growing trend by state attorneys general who are renting out the enforcement powers of their offices to for profit trial lawyers on a contingency fee basis. While CFIF understands that the use of outside counsel may be necessary for state attorneys general in limited circumstances, the organization supports adequate reforms to prevent abuse.
CFIF is a constitutional advocacy organization with more than 250,000 supporters and activists nationwide. Since 1998, the organization has been active with its efforts to educate the public on a wide range constitutional and public policy issues at the federal, state and local levels.
For more information about CFIF, visit its website at www.cfif.org.