AG swims with sharks so they don’t eat us

The brouhaha being kicked up by Democrats and The Roanoke Times over Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s office’s marginal participation in a mineral rights case reminds me of the line about why a school of sharks declined to devour a lawyer who had fallen into their midst: professional courtesy.

An attorney general often has to make unpopular choices as to which sharks he must swim with to defend the people’s interests. In this case, in order to preserve a minerals law protecting the property rights of Virginia landowners, the AG’s office properly pursued a common cause with energy company lawyers in defense of the statute.

In so doing, he rightly sided against the lowest life form of all, class-action plaintiff attorneys renowned for devouring their own clients’ best interests in pursuit of multi­-million dollar paydays.

Not to mention that Cuccinelli’s office fully disclosed this cooperation in court filings.

You never know whose interests class-action attorneys are really serving, although it’s almost always their own.

But I can be sure of whose side Cuccinelli is on: mine and my fellow Virginians’.

J.B. MIXON
ROANOKE

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