Over the past few years, Attorney Generals have filled many multimillion dollar cases against various charges. In the article The Avengers General, Alan Greenblatt explains why Attorney Generals have filed these cases, and why the Republicans Attorneys General Association (RAGA) objects to these lawsuits. .
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There are many reasons why some Attorney Generals, mainly Democrats, choose to pursue these lawsuits against large corporations. The main reason that Attorney Generals chose to pursue these lawsuits is for the money. They are making millions and billions of dollars from these lawsuits. Attorney Generals are also pressured into these lawsuits by the corporations. Once the case is settled, they have protection in the future from other cases. .
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In 1999, a group called Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), composed of Republican Attorney Generals, was formed to stop "government lawsuit abuse." Their main argument against these corporate cases is that the Attorneys General should be spending their time prosecuting criminal instead of trying to take money from these large corporations. Attorney General of Kansas and member of RAGA say "They are treating justice as a revenue service." Kline feels that when there is a clear wrongdoing, that these lawsuits are justified, but when Attorneys General prosecute a company for just an unfortunate policy result, that is just wrong. There have been many groups that joined in the effort to stop these aggressive Attorney Generals from being elected to office. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Law Enforcement Alliance of America ran television ads against these Democratic Attorney Generals. .
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One case that I found to be interesting was that of the Attorney General of New York, Dennis Vacco, against the tobacco industry in 1997 and lasting until 1998. Vacco wanted to file a claim that would recover over $10 billion from the tobacco industry to pay for tobacco related illnesses.