Another example of shady influences at work is in Sen. Scott Surovell's op-ed where he calls for legislation allowing class action lawsuits. His op-ed neglects to mention that he is a trial lawyer specializing in such lawsuits or that the Virginia Trial Lawyers Assn. gave his campaign $12,000. https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/campaign-finance/115805/scott-surovell.
It is hard to imagine something more corrupt than a class action lawsuit where lawyers sue allegedly on people's behalf without first obtaining their consent. Class action "plaintiffs" might not even know they were part of such lawsuits until after the verdict. These lawsuits can generate huge legal fees, while netting individual "members of the class" de minimis "winnings" which would qualify for small claims court.
Virginia enjoys one of the country's best business climates in part because it is one of the few states which still do not allow class action lawsuits.
Even though Sen. Surovell doesn't represent Alexandria, his legislative advocacy has impacted us. He was one of the few Democrats who played a leading role in imposing the legislature's unfunded mandate that we remediate all four of Old Town's combined sewer outfalls on a draconian short time-frame, despite the combined sewer overflows having been long-established, flippantly insisting that Alexandria “has the financial capacity to fix these problems, but it's dragging its feet,” as if a half-billion dollar project were not unprecedented www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/potomac-river-sewage-puts-alexandria-in-crosshairs/2017/01/12/08365bac-d8f3-11e6-9f9f-5cdb4b7f8dd7_story.html. For many years to come, we will be paying through our sewer bills for what he did to us.
Dino Drudi
Alexandria