Are you surprised? I guess I should not be, but there is still a little of me that thought some legislators would get it. Clearly, they do not. As the trial lawyers swooped down on Sacramento for their annual right of passage, I truly thought there might be a glimmer of hope for legal reform, but not this year and, quite frankly, probably not for a while to come.

Interestingly, the Consumer Attorneys of California had scheduled its Lobby Day on May 4, the same day that the Assembly Judiciary Committee was meeting in Sacramento. This is an important policy committee that deals with all legislation related to legal reform. Two key legal reform measures were taken up in that committee yesterday. One was AB 2588 by Assemblymember Audra Strickland related to class action reform and the other was AB 2740 by Assemblymember Roger Niello related to product liability reform and caps on punitive damages. Both of these reforms were part of the Governor's legal reform package in an attempt to brings jobs and economic recovery back to California.

Predictibly, both of these measures were killed in committee along a party line vote 3-7, with republicans for and democrats against. To see who is on the Assembly Judiciary Committee you can go here. The committee is chaired by Assemblyman Mike Feuer out of Los Angeles, who is a trial lawyer. I think you can put the pieces of the puzzle together without a lot of direction.

So the Governor's legal reform package is dead. Fittingly, it died on Trial Lawyer Lobby Day. When our education system is ranked 48th in the nation, we made it a top priority to fix it. But when our legal climate is ranked 46th in the nation what do we do? Nothing.

California certainly wasn't going to cut off a revenue stream to a bunch of wealthy trial lawyers and ruin their lobby day. On a totally separate subject, I have not seen that many french cuffed shirts in one room in my life. Business is struggling, manufacturing is dying and 13% of our state does not have jobs. And I bet that that number is a lot higher. Yet, the powers-that-be in Sacramento continue to tax you, regulate you and let the trial lawyers litigate you. No reform. Period.

Just remember May 4th. And when these legislators come walking back into their districts and say they are for small business, check their voting records on bills like AB 2588 and AB 2740. Remember their voting records when you go to vote.