There are countless professions out there performing every type of service imaginable. While some of these occupations may be better known than others, everybody they are fixed with certain perceptions and social labels. For example, school teachers are considered noble, firefighters are heroic, and scientists are intelligent. However, a professional occupation is viewed very differently from all others. This particular line of work is referenced in many ways, and none of them are flattering. You’ve heard them call them greedy, sleazy and even bloodsuckers. Yes, we are talking about personal injury attorneys.
Some people think waste management is horrible and dumpsters are filthy. Still, most would agree that they perform a valuable service, and while it’s not desirable work, it’s respectable. On the other hand, personal injury attorneys are almost universally appalled. Even other types of attorneys make fun of injury attorneys. Oddly enough, anyone will tell you how they despise the accident law profession, but few can tell you why; and even fewer can speak from personal experience. Where this wave of discontent finds its roots is anyone’s guess. So why does the world love to hate personal injury attorneys?
In general, people perceive injury attorneys as these vultures who wait for an accident to happen and when it does, they jump in without fault to make a quick buck. At the very least, this is a gross distortion of reality. To suggest that accident attorneys expect people to come to harm or take advantage of the misfortunes of others is criminal. Since injury lawyers make a living because people get hurt, but so do many occupations. For example, doctors are paid when patients are sick; police officers are paid when a crime is committed; but doctors and policemen are not considered to benefit from the misfortunes of others.
Think about it. It’s a fact of life that people get hurt. No matter how safe a place is, injuries are inevitable. In a just society, if someone is injured, the person responsible is responsible for the damages caused to the victim. All a personal injury attorney does is help the victim navigate the justice system so that she can claim the compensation to which she is legally entitled.
Most injury skeptics accept the above statement: Victims deserve justice, and attorneys are needed to help them achieve that justice. However, skepticism remains as they gape at what they perceive to be outrageous amounts of money awarded in settlements and verdicts. The critics are wrong because it is not a lawyer, a judge, or even a politician who is responsible for assessing the dollar value of an injury: it is a jury made up of American citizens. Trial by jury is the cornerstone of our legal system and is one of the few elements of the judiciary that works well. Thus, an attack on the verdicts is not only an attack on the cherished ideal of American justice, it is also self-inflicted on the attackers themselves, while the blame falls on a scapegoat.
Still, much criticism remains despite admitting that victims deserve justice and that verdict amounts are awarded fairly. The argument is that personal injury attorneys take too large a percentage of the victim’s award. In some cases, where millions of dollars are at stake, it can appear that the attorney gets more than the lion’s share. This really is not the case. It is important to note that in the vast majority of injury cases, the defendant is a multinational insurance company with virtually unlimited resources and the best attorneys money can buy. Fighting this kind of competition in court is no easy task. It can take years to fight big cases, and when you consider the resources involved, attorneys get a fair share when all is said and done.
In short, personal injury attorneys provide an invaluable service to society and it is about time they earned a shred of respect. Unfortunately, it seems that they will always be the profession that society loves to hate.