EKB News

Some state trial lawyers aren't laughing at a cartoon published in the Kentucky Bar Association magazine. It shows a down-and-out lawyer sitting on a sidewalk next to a sign that says "Will Sue for Food." A woman walking by tells her companion: "It's just the effects of tort reform, I suppose." The reference is to a business-backed effort to limit the number of lawsuits and the amounts awarded, but trial lawyers don't see the humor. The cartoonist, Jim Herrick, an assistant attorney general, said his creation was meant to sympathize with such attorneys. Advocates say that a bar association magazine shouldn't publish lawyer jokes, the cartoon isn't funny and it depicts them as parasites willing to sue over anything. They also say the cartoon fails to present their view that tort reform reduces the rights of injured people by limiting compensation for their injuries. Kentucky Bar Association President Bob Ewald conceded that, given the reaction, it was a mistake to run the cartoon in the magazine of an organization that all Kentucky lawyers must join and support with their bar dues.