›› Personal Injury Attorney
Next to being a
priest or a rabbi, a personal injury attorney probably has more bad
jokes created on his behalf than a member of any other
profession. “What do you call 1,000 lawyers at the
bottom of the ocean? Not nearly enough!”
“What do you call 1,000 lawyers covered up to their necks in
sand? Not enough sand!” So why is the
personal injury attorney portrayed in such a bad light? A lot
of it comes from the stereotype of the personal injury attorney as an
ambulance chaser, hanging around in hospital waiting rooms to accost
injured people to see if they have a case where there’s money
to be made. They’re also often seen as
sleaze-balls, persuading clients to fake back injuries or other
problems in order to secure large settlements.
Part of this stigma may come from the fact that, if personal injury
attorneys are good at their jobs, there’s a good chance
they’ll be making some pretty good money. The
standard pay scale is 33%. That is, if you’re
injured and an attorney handles your case, if you win your attorney is
entitled to 1/3 of the monetary settlement. This may seem
like a lot, especially since you were the one who was
injured. However, think about what happens if you
don’t win. Most personal injury attorneys
won’t charge for consultations or even for taking on your
case. If you end up losing your case, your personal injury
attorney will have to swallow all the costs for the case including
administrative, filing, personnel, and often even court
costs. Every case is a gamble for a personal injury attorney,
so in some ways they’re justified in asking for a significant
portion of the settlement.
So is the stereotype of the ambulance chaser justified?
Though you’ll probably be able to find a personal injury
attorney with flexible morals without much trouble, most of them do
ground themselves with solid ethical frameworks. If you can
get past the stereotype and think about the work they really do, much
of the work of personal injury attorneys is quite noble. In a
sense they’re righting wrongs and getting money and
settlements for people who have been injured by no fault of their
own. Sure, you’ll find the occasional victim who is
falsely claiming injury after a fender bender, but most of the people
who file personal injury claims have been seriously hurt and are just
trying to find a way to cover their medical bills and lost wages.
››
A Healthy Dose of Good Advice
