Why Trial Lawyers Have a Valuable Place in our Society

I am a serious personal injury lawyer.  You often hear me referred to as a Trial Lawyer.  I represent Hoosiers when they have been seriously injured as a result of another’s negligence.  If a Hoosier suffers an amputation, a brain injury or wrongful death, they often seek me out to help them achieve a modicum of justice.  My guess is that you, the reader of this entry, are skeptical of my motivation and what I do.  I ask you to examine why you feel the way you do about trial lawyers, if for no other reason then consider the following.

Our legislators (whose approval ratings are in the toilet) are consistently telling us that trial lawyers are greedy no good SOBs who live off the misery of others and interfere with our competitive abilities in the world market place.  Now, these folks don’t come up with this vitriol on their own.  They get it from vested interests whose goal it is to be free from the obligation of being responsible for the harm they cause, so as to maximize profits.  Don’t get me wrong, I am all for maximizing profits, I just don’t think anyone, whether an individual, a corporation or a government should be able to do whatever they wish without being responsible for the harm they cause.  My mother was right.  Mom taught her children that being a good citizen, whether in our neighborhood, our city, our state or our country required us to be responsible for our actions.  This included being responsible for making up for the harm we cause.  She would be shamed if a law was passed giving her children protection from their actions, when those action hurt others.

If you agree with my mom, ask yourself, why should a corporation be protected and not be responsible for its actions?

Now, here comes the part about trial lawyers.  Our Government is too big.  We spend more money than we have.  But the people need protection from those who would flaunt safety rules and regulations for their own gain.  The simple, low cost answer is the trial lawyer.  Trial lawyers do not require subsidies from the government.  Trial lawyers hold wrong doers responsible for their actions.  Trial lawyers take people and corporations to task for the harm they cause others.  We do this at little or no cost to the tax payer.  When people and corporations follow simple safety rules, we have less injury, fewer people out of work, fewer people on Medicare or Medicaid, and more people contributing to the welfare of society.

So I ask you again, do you really think that trial lawyers are the problem?