Who Really Has the Money? (Think Runaway CEO Salaries, Not Runaway Juries)
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By James C. Lewis, HSCLA Attorney
It seems that with every passing year, we hear more and more complaints from the big corporations in the United States about the fact that lawyers representing injured victims are costing them huge sums of money by suing them and taking them to court. These corporate spokesmen frequently blame the trial lawyers in this country (who represent injured victims) for the high cost of doing business, but is this really just corporate propaganda? What a great sham: blame the trial lawyers, while the CEO's convince consumers to give them the keys to the local courthouse!
In a recent article which appeared in Trial magazine, a publication of the American Association for Justice, formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the following corporate incomes were described:
1. In 2005, the typical CEO of a Standard & Poors 500 company took home $11.8 million dollars.
2. Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, received compensation totaling more than $9.9 million in 2004, when he was leading what was once the world's most powerful corporate entity in the direction of bankruptcy.
3. Lee Raymond, the head of Exxon, was paid $48.9 million in 2005 while his counterpoint at Occidental Petroleum, Ray Irani, pocked $64.3 million.
Remember that the next time you fill up at the gas pump and wonder why prices are so high.
4. Edwin Crawford, the head of Care Mark Rx, the nation's largest prescription management and pharmaceuticals business, was paid $17.3 million in 2005. Have you ever wondered why your health insurance premiums are so high?
5. William McGuire, CEO of United Health Group, Inc., was paid $37.7 million is 2005. I wonder if he's complaining about the high cost of health care?
As these enormous salaries demonstrate, it is not the trial lawyers who represent innocent victims of corporate carelessness who are raising the cost of doing business in this country. Rather, it certainly seems that a large portion of the cost of doing business finds its way into the pockets of that group of people at the top of corporate ladders, who are not only getting ridiculous tax breaks from the current administration, but are getting every regulatory "break" available--even if it means consumer safety suffers.
