Five Democratic presidential candidates are planning to pay homage to America’s leading trial lawyers’ group, the American Association for Justice, by turning out at its annual convention in Chicago this weekend.

Senators Clinton, Obama of Illinois, and Biden of Delaware are scheduled to speak to the lawyers on Sunday, as are a former senator, John Edwards of North Carolina, and Governor Richardson of New Mexico.

“It’s an opportunity for them to come speak on issues of civil justice and other issues they want to address,” a spokesman for the lawyers’ group, William Schulz, said. He said his organization, formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, talked to major candidates on the Republican and Democratic sides, but only the five Democrats agreed to attend.

Advocates of less litigation said they expect almost all of the candidates attending the meeting to stand with plaintiffs’ lawyers in opposing so-called tort reform efforts to cap damage awards in medical malpractice suits. “Trial lawyers are consistently the no. 1 or no. 2 biggest campaign contributors. Those contributions tend to go three-to-one Democrats versus Republicans,” a spokesman for the American Tort Reform Association, Darren McKinney, said.

Proponents of greater limits on lawsuits spoke positively about only one of the presidential hopefuls set to attend the Sunday forum, Mr. Obama. “At least compared with some of the Democratic candidates, he is willing to listen and doesn’t walk in lockstep with the trial lawyers,” the president of the Illinois Civil Justice League, Edward Murnane, said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if he gets a little bit of heat from AAJ members.”

Mr. Murnane noted that Mr. Obama supported so-called jury reform and class action reform legislation while in the Illinois state Senate. After being elected to the Senate in Washington, he voted for a similar measure, the Class Action Fairness Act. “He stuck to his guns and his position,” Mr. Murnane said.

Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Biden voted against the class action bill, which became law after being signed by President Bush. No Senate Republican opposed the measure. Mr. Murnane also pointed out that a Republican state senator who has championed litigation limits in Illinois, Kirk Dillard, is prominently featured in a television ad Mr. Obama is running in Iowa as part of his presidential bid.

Mr. McKinney called Mr. Obama’s record “encouraging” compared to other Democrats in the field and speculated on whether the senator might tweak the trial lawyers a bit. “He seems to be willing to go into the lion’s den and often speak some truths his hosts would not necessarily like to hear spoken,” Mr. McKinney said.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Obama, Jennifer Psaki, gave no hint yesterday that he plans to rankle the litigious crowd. “As a former civil rights lawyer with a long record of speaking out against injustice, he views this as an opportunity to speak about what kind of champion for these issues he would be in the White House,” she said.

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign suggested that her message would strike a populist tone. “As president, Senator Clinton will stand up for the many Americans who have been invisible to the Bush Administration, and on Sunday, she will continue to emphasize the importance of doing so,” a spokesman for the former first lady, Blake Zeff, said.

The lawyers’ group released polling data yesterday that it said indicated voters are far more concerned about corporate misconduct than about abusive litigation, large jury verdicts, and attorneys’ fees. The survey, done by Peter Hart Research Associates, found 65% of voters said they were more likely to support a candidate stressing easy access to the courts, while 26% said they would prefer a candidate promising to end frivolous lawsuits and lower legal costs.

Mr. McKinney, the tort reform advocate, observed that the legal conference is to take place in Cook County, Ill., which has been designated as one of six “judicial hellholes” by his group. “Too many judges allow far too much forum shopping and other legal shenanigans that the tort bar has grown comfortable pulling there,” he said. “It’s not surprising the trial lawyers’ bar would feel very at home.”