Attorney General Bill McCollum (Photo: Alex Quesada)

It's one in a series of tort-reform initiatives that will pit business interests against the trial bar at the 2010 session.

Topping McCollum's list of priorities is a bill that would limit the Attorney General's Office from entering into contracts with private attorneys to represent the state.

Senate Bill 712 is sponsored by state Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine. Thrasher, a former House speaker and newly ensconced chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, has been a longtime advocate of tort reform.

SB 712 and companion House Bill 437 by Rep. Eric Eisnaugle, R-Orlando, aim to curb what many lawmakers consider to be excesses by privatizing the state's legal work via contingency fees.

In the high-stakes fight against Big Tobacco, for example, Florida paid private litigators up to $120,000 an hour to sue cigarette companies.

Lack of Transparency

Though the Attorney General's Office has the authority to use outside counsel through contingency-fee agreements, critics argue that such arrangements lack control and transparency.

"Compensation comes out of the state's coffers without first going through an appropriations process and is subtracted from judgments awarded to the state for damages incurred by the people of Florida," says William Large, president of the Tallahassee-based Florida Justice Reform Institute.

"Allowing private attorneys to sue on behalf of the state's attorney general shifts the power into the hands of private attorneys, who are then given a pecuniary interest in the outcome of the legislation."

Noting that the state shelled out a whopping $3.4 billion in attorney fees in the battle against Big Tobacco, Large says checks and balances are required.

McCollum's reform package would:

• Require the attorney general to make a written determination that representation by a private attorney is both cost-effective and in the public interest.

• Mandate that private legal services engaged on a contingency basis be competitively procured, if feasible.

• Impose an aggregate contingency of 25 percent of any recovery up to $10 million; plus 20 percent of the next $5 million in recoveries; plus 15 percent of the next $5 million in recoveries; plus 10 percent of the next $5 million in recoveries; plus 5 percent of any portion of the recovery that exceeds $25 million.

• Set a $50 million cap on contingency fees.

•Order that payment of contingency fees be posted on the attorney general's website within 15 days and remain posted for at least 180 days.

McCollum, the leading Republican gubernatorial candidate, has not signed any contingency agreements during his term as attorney general, said spokeswoman Sandi Copes. His previous efforts at reform have been beaten back by trial lawyers in the Legislature, Copes said.

"Appetite" for Reform

Thrasher has also taken heat from the trial bar, which spent $1 million in an unsuccessful effort to derail his bid for Senate.