The Pain Brokers

“Burch is the Jane Goodall of complex litigation… . For an expert in such an unlikable form of litigation, Burch is remarkably likable. She is quick to answer questions and quick-witted as well, a purveyor of analogies and metaphors to explicate arcane legal concepts and a walking archive of legal minutiae going back to the origins of product-liability law–the kind of professor a student hopes to find… . . Burch’s book cannot make this right, but it at least provides an account far more accessible and comprehensible than any case record, and no less appalling.”
–Casey Cep, The New Yorker

“As gripping and important as Patrick Radden Keefe’s Empire of Pain and Gardiner Harris’ No More Tears, The Pain Brokers is a righteous bolt of reportage worthy of acclaim.”
–Booklist (starred review)

“Rigorous and horrifying, this real-life tale of greed run amok will leave readers reeling.”
–Publishers Weekly

“It’s hard to imagine how a single book could tell a story that’s so infuriating, so riveting, so disappointing, and so inspiring all at once, but that’s what Burch has pulled off in The Pain Brokers. Burch’s book is a powerful and timely reminder that there’s strength in numbers–and that we’re all better off not only when we’re looking out for each other, but when we’re not afraid to call out the bad actors in our midst.”
–Stephen Vladeck, New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow Docket

“In The Pain Brokers, Burch vividly brings to life the scandal on which she is America’s leading voice–how plaintiff’s lawyers and their allies turn the suffering of patients into profit mills.”
–Barry Meier, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Pain Killer

“Burch delivers a pulse-pounding legal thriller that hooks you from the start and leaves you gasping for air at the end. It’s a devastating account of a wild scheme–orchestrated by greedy lawyers and con men–that preyed on vulnerable women and subjected them to unnecessary surgeries. Burch has done the nation a valuable public service by exposing a legal system rotten to the core.”
–Eric Eyre, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Death in Mud Lick

“Burch reports and tells the hell out of this story. In the process, she eviscerates a band of rogue operators, working at the fringes of the medical and legal professions, while reminding us that the best authors wield transformative power when they face down the ugliest truths.”
–John T. Edge, author of House of Smoke

“Award-winning legal scholar and natural-born storyteller Burch presents a fabulous tale of scams run out of call centers, misguided patients flying cross-country for expensive surgeries they don’t need, rogue lawyers and their medical sidekicks raking in easy money, and a couple of ethical lawyers trying to sort out the mess.”
–Melissa Fay Greene, two-time National Book Award finalist and author of Praying for Sheetrock and The Underdogs

Elizabeth Chamblee Burch is an award-winning scholar and the Fuller E. Callaway Chair of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law. A prolific author on mass tort lawsuits, she is also a frequent commentator in national news media such as NPR, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, USA TODAY, and the Los Angeles Times.

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