近距离内射合集

A multistate trial against Meta settled last week, and the case included many of the same allegations against the company and its platforms that New Mexico made earlier this year when it became the first state to go trial against the tech giant.

New details show that of the total $942 million judgment, finalized earlier this month, a South Carolina law firm will pocket $68 million of the funds intended to address New Mexico鈥檚 youth mental health crisis.

But while vying to become the state鈥檚 top legal officer, Attorney General Ra煤l Torrez positioned himself as an institutional reformer who would end the attorney general鈥檚 heavy dependence on out-of-state, private law firms. While on the campaign trail in 2022, Torrez stated, 鈥淚t鈥檚 time for the size and scale of the agency to match what I think New Mexicans expect 鈥� we鈥檝e become fairly reliant on outside counsel to drive and determine which cases are brought on behalf of the state.鈥�

While this certainly is a worthy goal, it unfortunately has not been the reality. Torrez鈥檚 office faced scrutiny in 2023 for directing $148 million to three law firms out of the state鈥檚 $453 million opioid settlement with Walgreens 鈥� nearly 33%, and triple the amount of what other states paid their attorneys in comparable settlements. The state perplexingly pulled out of the nationwide $4.7 billion settlement in which the contingency-fee rate was only 12%.

The massive payout seemingly prompted an 11-page advisory opinion from the State Ethics Commission in November 2023, concluding that the state's limits on no-bid contracts applies not only to traditional fixed-fee contracts, but also to contingency-fee arrangements for outside legal counsel.

Torrez's office later touted a "new policy" setting strict limits on contingency-fee contracts, vowing to first rely on in-house attorneys before seeking pricey, outside counsel.

Now, nearly three years after the ethics commission provided sound guidance on limits to keep more funds in New Mexico, out-of-state law firms are still taking millions meant for New Mexicans. If control was maintained within the state鈥檚 Department of Justice, more resources would have stayed within the state and in communities.

Injecting the outside financial interests of out-of-state trial lawyers undermines the legal talent available not only within the attorney general鈥檚 office, but across the Land of Enchantment. If outside counsel was truly necessary, why opt for a law firm on the opposite end of the country with no vested interest in the success of New Mexico families?

New Mexicans 鈥� and especially those in the legal profession 鈥� should be asking why this litigation was handed over to trial lawyers from South Carolina and why they didn鈥檛 have the opportunity to represent their state in this litigation. If the attorney general is handing the reins over to private contingency-fee lawyers in another state, the public is entitled to ask who is really running the show and who is the true beneficiary of the litigation.

Instead of an attorney general who builds up the talent within his own office and state, and ensures that every dollar goes to programs in the state, New Mexicans instead will still see tens of millions of dollars go to a bunch of 鈥済ood ol鈥� boys鈥� in Charleston to fund their yachts.

Bailey Aragon is public affairs director for the American Tort Reform Association. A former New Mexico public policy official, she previously served in Gov. Susana Martinez鈥檚 administration and as policy director for the New Mexico Chamber of Commerce.