This op-ed was authored by ATRA’s President Tiger Joyce and was originally published by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul is aiming to reduce car insurance premiums in her state — now averaging more than $4,000 — by targeting staged accident fraud, tightening the serious injury threshold, and reforming liability rules. Trial lawyers hate it.
But it reflects a bipartisan truth: we all pay the price for frivolous lawsuits. The average Arkansas family now pays $2,637 annually in a “tort tax” due to excessive litigation — a more than 43% increase since 2022.
So if a Democratic governor in one of the bluest states in the country can take on the trial bar to lower costs for working families, why would deep-red Arkansas’s Republican attorney general enable it?
Tim Griffin — Arkansas’s 57th attorney general, former congressman, decorated Army JAG officer, self-described “bold conservative” — built his career on a familiar Republican platform: Free markets, tort reform, and protecting consumers from government overreach. But since taking office in 2023, Griffin’s embrace of litigation looks less like consumer protection and more like well-funded political theater.
Here’s how it works: An AG retains a private plaintiffs’ firm on a contingency-fee basis — often after that firm proposes the lawsuit to the AG — to pursue litigation against a perceived, deep-pocketed corporation. The firm does the legal legwork, and if the case settles, they take a percentage of the recovery. In some cases, those fee arrangements can be 25-33% of the total settlement.
State AGs take on these cases under the guise of consumer protection, but more often, they’re lining law firms’ pockets in exchange for political support. The AG gets the headlines, and the firm gets a check that can dwarf the annual budget of the government office that hired it. Attorney General Griffin himself has received nearly $250,000 from attorneys and law firms in individual political contributions since November 2022.
This isn’t unique to Arkansas. Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton’s “suing spree” recently landed his state on the Judicial Hellholes® Watch List as he’s allowed law firms to collect exorbitant fees from litigation.
Consider the Meta case, where Paxton let two outside firms rake in $143 million from a $1.4 billion settlement. One Keller Postman lawyer billed more than $3,700 an hour, charging taxpayers $24,570 for a single day’s work. Meanwhile, global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright stands to earn up to $371 million from Google’s $1.38 billion settlement with Texas.
That’s not cost effective; that’s jackpot justice for politically connected lawyers and friends of state AGs — a dangerous precedent if left unchecked.
Thankfully, some Republican AGs are pushing back on firms’ solicitations, and with good reason. Montana’s Austin Knudsen cut Motley Rice, noting the firm’s involvement was “not in the best interests of Montana,” while in Kansas, Kris Kobach fired Morgan & Morgan.
Oklahoma’s Gentner Drummond dumped Whitten Burrage after it collected $34 million in fees from Oklahoma’s opioid litigation, telling the law firm that while it “succeeded in enriching [themselves] far beyond what [they] deserve, those efforts have fallen far short of delivering the results that Oklahomans are entitled to receive.” The litigation originally was pursued by his Republican predecessor Mike Hunter.
Time and again, it’s clear that private contingency-fee lawyers aren’t pursuing sound policy — they’re seeking a sizable check.
Arkansas AG Griffin understands this dynamic, but only when it suits him. In December 2023, he sued the Arkansas Board of Corrections for hiring an outside attorney without proper procurement approval. But, he’s unfortunately failed to apply that same standard in his own office. He’s pursued multiple lawsuits through the contingency fee model, filing in jurisdictions with reputations for favorable verdicts rather than the venues most convenient to Arkansas consumers.
That kind of forum shopping is exactly what tort reform advocates — Griffin’s natural ideological allies — have spent decades fighting. He’s up for re-election but with no opponent on either side of aisle, Arkansas should prepare for more costly litigation from the attorney general’s office.
Some of the cases he’s brought forward involve conduct already addressed by federal agencies and regulators. So why pursue additional litigation? Perhaps to generate settlement dollars and campaign trail headlines that sustain a political career, all while enriching well connected and politically supportive law firms?
Gov. Hochul’s proposal shows what it looks like when an elected official prioritizes consumer costs over political theater and trial lawyer antics. She is proposing structural reforms and taking on the trial bar directly, while Griffin is proactively supporting it.
Arkansas families deserve a simple answer: whose interests is the AG serving?
Tim Griffin promised to “slay dragons” on behalf of Arkansans. But the dragons that keep trial lawyers paid — and working families’ costs climbing — seem to be doing just fine.
Read the full piece by Tiger Joyce in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette here.
