PROVIDED BY CNNNEXT.COM

We've all heard the worn-out jokes about lawyers coming from comedians and politicians, and even our friends.

They refer to lawyers as opportunistic ambulance chasers who are only out to make a quick buck off of someone else's suffering.

These comments aren't as innocuous as you might think.

In fact, they're focused and developed as a highly financed, well-coordinated, decades-long smear campaign carried out by business interest groups like the U.S.

Chamber of Commerce and the world's biggest insurance corporations.