In our continuing series of what a racket Proposition 65 has created, I thought I would focus in one individual “private attorney” that seems to have carved out a very nice practice for himself. Interestingly, if you google Anthony Held Ph.d, the only reference you can find is that on the website Prop65ClearingHouse.com/. I will talk about that a little later.

The state law requires any person suing “in the public interest” to enforce Proposition 65, “The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986,” to notify the Attorney General of the lawsuit and the outcome of the case. Each year, the Attorney General posts the annual listings of settlements. In an earlier blog I put a few examples of this utter shakedown process and showed the outrageous fees these scam artists are getting for supposedly protecting the public.

Dr. Held caught my eye because he seems to really have a ferocity for filing suits against businesses. Just in 2008, Dr. Held had a total of 31 settlements with judgments totaling $1,173,250. His “attorney fees” were $901,150. The civil penalties against the 31 entities totaled $272,100.

Back to Prop65ClearingHouse.com. This website claims to provide “accurate, unbiased and timely information about Prop. 65.” Our dear friend and public do-gooder, Dr. Held is listed under the 60-day notice section on the right side. Between April 30th and May 6th he has filed suits against 10 entities including HMS Host Corp., Kmart, and CVS Pharmacy.

This sham needs to be stopped. The voters intended to clean up the environment, not financially underwrite a bunch of shakedown artists. People wonder why businesses are looking for the exit doors of this state. Between regulations, an un-friendly business environment and litigation this state is at the bottom of the list.

Stop this Prop. 65 shakedown and if you see a letter in the mail from Dr. Anthony Held, write on it “Return to Sender.”