Dr. Chris Rangel has the story. Here are some select bits:
...[W]hat Edwards own web site does not mention is that he earned tens of millions by suing obstetricians over allegations of "botched" deliveries. The problem with this is that cerebral palsy (an umbrella term referring to several conditions of neurological damage present in newborns or neonates) has many different causes other than negligent malpractice by the obstetrician at the time of birth.
[...]
Yet as recently as 1997, Edwards successfully litigated a case of a "botched" delivery and "beat his own record" by winning $30 MILLION dollars for the plaintiff (he won another case that year for $23 MILLION). I don't know the details of these cases but one has to wonder if North Carolina was suffering a crisis in completely incompetent obstetricians! The physicians in these cases must have done something bordering on criminal activity (assault?) in order to have lost the case on the order of tens of millions . . but I doubt it.
Rangel's article is one of those cases where a blogger knows more about the subject than the professional press. I highly recommend reading it.
Out of the unlikeable bunch of Democratic presidential hopefuls Edwards might have emerged as my least favorite.