The American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) is a left-of-center professional organization for trial attorneys. Founded in 1958, ABOTA exists to support the use of trial by jury in civil cases and has frequently opposed attempts to establish arbitration or easier mechanisms for dispute resolutions. ¹

Despite claiming to be nonpartisan, ABOTA frequently weighs in on political issues and advocates for left-of-center positions. ABOTA promotes the idea of implicit racial bias and has claimed that there are “racial injustices and systemic problems with policing and the legal system.” In June 2020, ABOTA praised demonstrations that erupted across the country in the wake of the death of George Floyd, calling the demonstrations “peaceful resistance.” ² ABOTA has also supported left-of-center immigration policy, claiming that deportations at the border “violate longstanding constitutional rights to due process.” ³

As of April 2021, Richard H. Middleton, Jr. is president-elect of ABOTA. Middleton is a longtime Democratic donor, giving to the American Association for Justice (AAJ) PAC, Obama for America, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).

History

ABOTA was founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1958 to promote the use of civil trials by jury rather than arbitration in civil cases. Throughout the 1950s, ABOTA claims that “the civil jury system was under attack by the governor of California,” who sought to establish a commission system that could quickly hear and settle employment law cases. ABOTA called the move to establish commissions “the potential death knell for the civil jury trial system” and brought together plaintiff and defense attorney to combat the administrative changes. ⁴

Under the direction of founding president Mark. P Robinson, a Los Angeles attorney, ABOTA quickly became a more comprehensive organization, expanding outside California and establishing certification criteria for members in order to identify trial professionals in the 1960s. ⁵ Today, ABOTA selects members for admission to the organization and reports 7,600 members across 96 chapters in all 50 states. ABOTA has also claimed that “those who want to dismantle the civil jury system” still exist today and purports to fight for the rights of citizens to trial by jury against those forces. ⁶

Political Advocacy

Outside of left-of-center political advocacy work, ABOTA is most known for its annual awards. Each year, ABOTA presents awards to chapters and individual members who work to support ABOTA’s mission statement. ⁷ ABOTA also hosts annual meetings and retreats for its members. ⁸

Save Our Juries

ABOTA’s primary campaign is Save Our Juries, an ABOTA initiative that began in 2014 to advocate against changes to the civil jury system. ⁹ Save Our Juries is a public advocacy and education program, with ABOTA representatives making public statements in support of left-of-center policy changes to ensure the use of widespread jury trials. ¹⁰

In 2015, ABOTA promoted an article written by then-Federal Judge Mark W. Bennett advocating for a so-called “juror bill of rights,” a series of left-of-center policy recommendations aimed at making jury duty more appealing. The recommendations have been deemed “radical” by even left-of-center publication The Atlantic. ^{11 12} The article proposed sweeping legal changes to courtroom protocol, including placing strict time limits on trials, prohibiting sidebar conferences between judges and attorneys, and establishing fixed times for attorneys to present evidence and call witnesses. ¹³

The article goes on to argue in support of regulations that mandate the distribution of clear jury instructions at the start of the civil trial, rather than at the end, and that require judges to consider presentations of the same evidence in varied formats to suit the “learning styles” of different jurors. The proposal also calls for jurors to receive comfortable seats, “stretch breaks,” and “plentiful snacks” for jurors funded by taxpayers in order to decrease jury absenteeism. ¹⁴

Despite claiming to be nonpartisan, ABOTA has endorsed a number of left-of-center initiatives to support changes to courtroom policy for civil trials. In 2014, ABOTA advocated for the national adoption of a so-called “civility pledge,” which would force attorneys to swear not only to uphold the U.S. Constitution, but also to behave courteously. ¹⁵ California adopted the oath and mandated it for all new attorneys after being urged to do so by ABOTA. ¹⁶

As of April 2021, Save Our Juries appears to be inactive. Its most recent blog post is from 2017, with all posts before that coming from 2014 and 2015, and most of the links on the Save Our Juries website are now inactive. ^{17 18}

Anti-Arbitration Clauses

Much of ABOTA’s work has focused on advocating against “forced arbitration” clauses in contracts, in which an employee or customer signs an agreement to settle any potential grievances with a given company in arbitration rather than going to trial. In 2019, ABOTA members, including then-Texas ABOTA chapter president Grace Weatherly, called on Congress to pass the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act, a bill which sought to prohibit arbitration agreements and class action waivers in consumer rights, employment, civil rights, and antitrust cases. ¹⁹

ABOTA representatives have called arbitration agreements “disturbing” and argued that they prevent potential class-action lawsuits. ABOTA officials have also claimed that arbitration naturally skews in favor of employers and argued that arbitration agreements keep sexual harassment and discrimination cases out of the public eye. ²⁰

In 2015, ABOTA was especially active in advocating against arbitration agreements. Former ABOTA president Harry T. Widmann called on consumers to “put the pressure on these corporate interests” in order to get rid of arbitration agreements entirely. ²¹ Other articles published by ABOTA on the Save Our Juries blog called on consumers to “take action” against arbitration agreements, which the blog claimed “send you to a decision-maker picked by the company that wronged you.” ²²

In 2017, then-ABOTA president F. Dulin Kelly published an article in response to the U.S. Senate considering overruling a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule which prohibited forced arbitration clauses in consumer financial agreements. Kelly claimed that overturning the rule would “rob Americans of their constitutional right to a trial by jury and banish them from the courthouse.” ²³ ABOTA has dismissed the benefits of arbitration agreements, which allow for a more efficient handling of disputes and fewer costs for consumers, calling them a “sustained attack upon consumer rights.” ²⁴

Partisan Statements on Political Issues

Despite claiming to be nonpartisan, ABOTA frequently weighs in to support left-of-center policy proposals on controversial issues through press releases on the organization’s website. ABOTA promotes the contested idea of implicit racial bias, hosting a September 2020 webinar on the “racial injustice and systemic problems with policing and the legal system” that sought to train lawyers to avoid their own alleged biases. ²⁵ In June 2020, ABOTA released a statement supporting protestors who “exercised their First Amendment right” to protest the death of George Floyd, without acknowledging the damage done by the riots, and calling the protests “peaceful resistance.” ²⁶

In March 2020, ABOTA published a vague statement condemning “ongoing attacks on the judicial branch and the jury system, made by both the executive and legislative branches of government.” The statement condemned alleged efforts to make “judges dependent on a singular party’s will for the tenure of their office,” alluding to Republican control of the executive branch and the U.S. Senate. ²⁷ ABOTA criticized former President Donald Trump directly in a November 2017 press release, calling the justice system a “model of fairness and due process” in light of President Trump’s criticism. ²⁸ When President Trump called a February 3, 2017, judicial order that blocked President Trump’s order on refugees “ridiculous,” ABOTA responded by claiming that then-President Trump’s comments “lack dignity and civility.” ²⁹

ABOTA has also taken left-of-center positions on a number of legislative issues, calling on the U.S. Senate to block the passage of a bill which sought to cap medical malpractice noneconomic damage payments at $250,000. ³⁰ Moreover, ABOTA has staunchly supported left-of-center immigration policy. ABOTA released a statement in July 2018 claiming that deportations at the border without full trials “violate longstanding constitutional rights to due process” and claimed that opponents of left-of-center immigration policy “ignore history and depart from the rule of law.” ³¹

That same year, ABOTA claimed that the detention of unaccompanied minors at the border and policies of family separation “are an offense to human decency” that “violate the tenets of the U.S. Constitution.” Despite claiming that “politics must be put aside” in the question of immigration reform, ABOTA has not made a statement on the continuing detention policies of the Biden administration. ³²

COVID-19 Regulations

ABOTA has supported the implementation of COVID-19 restrictions since the beginning of the pandemic, including advocating for internet-based trials. In 2020, ABOTA published a guide to conducting civil jury trials during the COVID-19 pandemic. These included imposing social distancing in courtrooms and “engineering” air flow in restrooms to limit the spread of COVID-19. The guide also advocated for the use of remote testimony by witnesses over video call. ³³

ABOTA also worked to coordinate fully virtual civil jury trials, organizing mock trials in Florida during the summer of 2020. ³⁴ In November 2020, the 4^th Judicial Circuit conducted two fully remote, legally binding jury trials over Zoom with assistance from the Jacksonville chapter of ABOTA. ³⁵ Other legal professionals have warned against remote trials, arguing that they may violate the constitutional standards set for fair trails including mandates around jury selection and issues with evaluating evidence. ³⁶

In May 2020, Texas District Judge Eric Moye fined Dallas salon owner and mother Shelley Luther $7,000 for operating her salon during the COVID-19 pandemic and sentenced her to a week in jail. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) called Luther’s arrest “outrageous and out of touch” and accused Judge Moye of “a shameful abuse of judicial discretion, which seems like another political stunt in Dallas.” ³⁷

Judge Moye and 11 Democratic judicial colleagues responded to the letter, calling it “most inappropriate and equally unwelcome” and instructing Attorney General Paxton to “not communicate with the Court in this manner further.” Conservatives across Texas condemned Luther’s imprisonment, especially as Texas released inmates for fear of COVID-19 infection, and Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (R) offered to serve seven days on house arrest in Luther’s place. ³⁸

ABOTA member and former chapter president Jim Grau sided with Judge Moye, calling the letter “very inappropriate” and blaming Luther’s sentence on her refusal to acknowledge the executive order in place. ³⁹ ABOTA released its own statement condemning the letter and all criticism of Judge Moye, claiming that the criticism received by the judge was unfair and arguing that the criticism may make jurors wary of serving. ABOTA claimed to respect dissenting opinions as “part of our American fabric” yet went on to call criticism of Judge Moye “unjust, unfair and prejudicial disparagement of the judicial branch” and an “attack on the rule of law” itself.” ⁴⁰

Embezzlement Controversy

In August 2015, Montana attorney and ABOTA member David Michael McLean pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of identity theft. McLean was the former secretary and treasurer of a local ABOTA chapter, from which he admitted to stealing over $62,000 over five years, in addition to $465,614 he embezzled from clients. ⁴¹ McLean admitted to writing checks from the ABOTA chapters account to himself, forging another member’s signature in order to approve the checks. ⁴² McLean was sentenced to nearly four years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. ⁴³ ABOTA did not release a formal response.

The ABOTA Foundation

ABOTA is associated with the ABOTA Foundation, a sister charitable organization that provides continuing education for attorneys in addition running public civic and legal education campaigns. ⁴⁴

Most of the ABOTA Foundation’s work is focused around providing civics education resources for teachers. The Foundation runs TeachersPayTeachers, an online store at which teachers can purchase products and lesson plans from one another or purchase products from the Foundation directly. Over 5 million teachers reportedly used the site in 2019. ⁴⁵

The Foundation is funded by Foundation Fellows, who give annually to the Foundation, and ABOTA membership dues. In 2019, the Foundation reported $1,430,968 in revenue. ⁴⁶

People and Funding

ABOTA reported $2,235,027 in revenue and $1,907,435 in expenses in 2018. ⁴⁷ Over $1.9 million of this revenue came from membership dues, with ABOTA receiving just over $108,000 in other donations. ⁴⁸

Grace Weatherly is the president of ABOTA as of 2021. ⁴⁹ Weatherly is a founding partner at Wood Weatherly Trial Law, and she has practiced personal injury and civil trial law for 30 years. ⁵⁰ Since 2014, Weatherly has donated $4,600 to Democratic campaigns, including former U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke (D-TX)’s campaign for U.S. Senate. ⁵¹

Richard H. Middleton, Jr. is the president-elect of ABOTA as of April 2021. ⁵² Middleton is the owner of the Middleton Firm, a class action law firm that frequently sues large companies especially in agriculture. ⁵³

Middleton is a notable left-of-center donor, giving $68,310 to various Democratic campaigns and committees since 2000. Most of Middleton’s donations have gone to the American Association for Justice (AAJ) PAC, an organization which works against reforming the tort system from which Middleton benefits and is a major source of contributions to Democratic campaigns. ⁵⁴ Middleton also gave $8,600 to committees associated with former U.S. Representative Bruce Braley (D-IA), $5,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), and $2,300 to Obama for America. ⁵⁵

1. Weatherly, Grace. “Scooter Agreements a Clause for Concern.” My San Antonio. Hearst, April 14, 2019. https://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Scooter-agreements-a-clause-for-concern-13763930.php.
2. Baptiste, Luther J. “Now Is the Time: An Inflection Point to Equal Justice.” ABOTA, June 5, 2020. https://www.abota.org/Online/News/2020_News/Now_is_the_time__An_inflection_point_to_equal_justice.aspx.
3. McGuinn, Cynthia. “Celebrate America’s Rule of Law and Due Process Legacy Secured by an Independent Judicial Branch.” ABOTA, July 3, 2018. https://www.abota.org/Online/News/2018_News/Celebrate_America_s_rule_of_law_and_due_process_legacy_secured_by_an_independent_judicial_branch.aspx.
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25. “ABOTA Presents: Dismissed with Prejudice Webinar.” ABOTA. Accessed April 14, 2021. https://www.abota.org/Online/News/2020_News/Dismissed_with_Prejudice.aspx.
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34. Marbut, Max. “Duval Trial Makes History: How They Did It Virtually.” Jacksonville Daily Record. Observer Media Group, August 19, 2020. https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/duval-trial-makes-history-how-they-did-it-virtually.
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