"The story the plaintiff lawyers are trying to tell is wrong."
The plaintiffs lawyers said they would prove that it did.
There is no easy way to document the increase in the number of plaintiff lawyers.
The plaintiffs lawyers working for the states say tobacco companies are exactly the last people who should share in any death benefit.
But, he added, the plaintiff lawyers had been asking for far more than the firm would agree to pay.
The doctors worried that their performance scores would fall into the hands of plaintiff lawyers.
Some of the new plaintiff lawyers have struck out on their own from big, established firms.
At the same time, other plaintiffs lawyers who worked for the state also began promoting the idea with Justice Department officials.
Opposing them are plaintiff lawyers and representatives of labor unions.
But plaintiff lawyers and labor leaders have protested the proposals for change, saying benefits to injured workers should rise, not fall.