If there’s one local story from 2007 that Washington D.C. taxpayers are unlikely to forget, it’s the saga of former administrative law judge Roy Pearson and his multi-million dollar pants lawsuit. The defendants in the lawsuit, the Chung family, were eventually forced to close their Custom Cleaners location in Northeast D.C., and they received an outpouring of support from the community as they sought to defend themselves against what was clearly a ridiculous lawsuit.

At the time, there was also some concern that the Chungs had found themselves becoming poster children for the tort reform movement, since groups like the Institute for Legal Reform and the American Tort Reform Association threw a big fundraiser to help them with their legal defense fees. Recently, the ILR kicked off a new “lawsuit abuse” campaign and launched the web site IAmLawsuitAbuse.org, which features the Chungs prominently in a video and narrative about how the U.S. legal system crushed their American dream.

We’ve posted the video above. It’s pretty heartwrenching to watch Jin and Soo Chung come to tears over the stress that Pearson’s $54 million suit brought them. But it’s also pretty startling to see powerful lobbying groups for business interests like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce hold up the Chungs, who were the victims of a lawsuit so unusual and outlandish that it earned international media attention and a relatively quick dismissal, as being representative of larger problems within the U.S. legal system. Does one Roy Pearson mean tort reform is imperative? We’re not so sure.