Alan Grayson has never claimed he was harmed by AT&T Corp. or the other phone companies he sued in 2004. He thought they were stealing from the taxpayers of the District of Columbia. To get the money back, the future congressman from Florida brought a case in his own name.
Now his lawsuit has more than the phone companies concerned. A full panel of Washington’s highest local court is preparing to consider whether private attorneys general like Grayson — that is, private citizens who file cases solely on behalf of the public — should be able to sue corporations under the District’s wide-reaching consumer protection law.
