From Charleston Daily Mail:

STATE Attorney General Darrell McGraw uses his office in part as a state-sanctioned tort law firm. In the name of consumer protection, his office files actions against companies.

Although some of the target companies have richly deserved the attention, this use of the attorney general’s power is troubling on a number of counts.

The plaintiffs in these class-action cases rarely see more than a token amount of the settlement money.

The people who profit most are the private-sector attorneys McGraw picks to pursue the cases. Some are campaign contributors, and some receive millions.

And, of course, McGraw himself benefits politically from this industry, obtaining money for his consumer protection operation, then handing out grants hither and thither, currying favor with the electorate.

Look at a recent case.

McGraw hired four law firms to pursue antitrust and consumer protection cases against Visa and Mastercard. Although the companies admitted no wrongdoing, they agreed to pay $11.6 million to fund brief sales tax holidays on energy-efficient appliances.

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