Erick Erickson points us to a report that the American Trial Lawyers Association is planning a name change.

Their new monicker? The American Association for Justice. (More here.)

Erick calls their move an effort to put lipstick on a pig. I think that’s being generous.

ATLA’s members aren’t interested in justice. They’re interested in big fees. And private jets. And expensive champagne. And they are big reason our society has become absurdly litigious.

Perhaps they ought to go for a more accurate name: The American Association of Greedy Windbags.

Jim: Marshall, you’re being too vague and subtle. Let it out. Let us know what you really think.

In a slightly more serious note, I would observe that the organization’s dropping the term “Trial Lawyer” represents a rhetorical victory for their opponents. My guess is, their polling and focus groups indicated that the term is now so indelably connected to images of ambulance-chasers, shysters, weasels, etc.; and that only by changing their name to a label so innocuous it verges on self-parody (”American Association for Justice”? Well, who’s against justice? Why not go all the way and call yourselves ”Americans for a Better America”?) can the group get its message across without their target audiences tuning them out.