SAN FRANCISCO — After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on image-branding pros and focus groups to make a Hollywood-style name change, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America's governing council decided on the American Association for Justice — or AAJ.

Although its Web site still has a section proclaiming "Proud to be a Trial Lawyer," the organization's 56,000 members voted overwhelming to expunge "trial lawyers" from their new name.

Apparently, the trial lawyers — make that justice-seeking Americans — also had their fingers in the wind. National polls show lawyers in general — and particularly plaintiffs' lawyers — are held in lower esteem than members of Congress.

And no wonder! Most Americans now view trial lawyers as obsessively filing frivolous lawsuits that earn them millions of dollars but pay their battalions of class-action clients mostly small change. As true justice is shunted aside by personal greed, it's not surprising that citizens have become more cynical about the efficacy of the democratic process.

There would be fewer complaints about the trial lawyers' various personal enrichment schemes if the cost to individual Americans and society in general were not so unconscionably high. Consider just a few of the disturbing facts:

n The price tag of unnecessary litigation last year alone imposed what amounts to a "lawsuit tax" of $886 on every American man, woman and child, according to the consulting firm of Tillinghast Towers and Perrin. The hidden tax came in the form of higher prices for goods and services to pay the costs of litigation, settlements and soaring insurance premiums.

n The extraordinary growth of tort costs caused by the rising tide of litigation actually exceeded the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (the total of goods and services) by 2 to 3 percentage points over the last 50 years, according to the Tillinghast firm.

n This distressing focus on "jackpot justice" has turned a once smoothly functioning courts system into a doddering process with about the same efficiency as a Soviet auto plant. The Tillinghast study found the U.S. tort system now returns less than 50 cents for each dollar spent on litigation and less than 22 cents on the dollar to plaintiffs. Worse, the clogged courtrooms caused by lawsuits delay — and often deny — justice to claimants with meritorious cases.

The slow, but steady increase in public awareness fortunately has prompted some progress — prodding such states as Ohio, Texas and California to enact various tort reforms, Congress to pass legislation restricting the most egregious class-actions and voters to oust judges overly biased toward free-spending plaintiffs' lawyers.

The success of such reforms, somewhat surprisingly, has spread panic through the ranks of the usually steel-nerved trial lawyers.

In pushing for the name change, association President Ken Suggs candidly noted: "Our research shows that if our message is about helping lawyers, we lose. On the other hand, if we're about getting justice and holding wrongdoers accountable, we win."

In addition to changing its name, the American Association for Justice promptly tripled its public relations staff and hired pollsters and campaign strategists to refurbish its image. So much for lawyerly sincerity!

If America's trial lawyers really want to improve their image, they can do so quickly by heeding the shop-worn adage "actions speak louder than words." A little more pro bono work for deserving clients and a lot less personal profit from dubious lawsuits would work immediate wonders.

John Merchant is chairman of California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.