Quite often‚ personal injury lawyers and trial attorneys are blamed by various tort reform groups and corporate interests as harmful to society. They argue that lawyers are leeches and take from their clients without giving anything good back to the community as a whole.
However‚ reality is another thing entirely. When individuals and businesses act carelessly and recklessly and injure other people‚ it is often personal injury attorneys who are on the front lines representing the victims and trying to help them get back on their feet and made whole. They hold BP‚ Goodyear‚ Toyota‚ and Ford accountable when their products damage the environment and cause numerous injuries. Meanwhile‚ corporate interests and misguided lobbyists do much to hurt the public all in the name of trying to curtail trial lawyers’ ability to obtain damages. Case in point: California’s MICRA law which limits damages in medical malpractice cases to $250,000 for pain and suffering. This amount has not changed in 35 years‚ despite the fact $250,000 has much less value due to inflation.
The Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC) produced a fantastic video describing all the good injury accident lawyers do for the public. Enjoy and‚ please‚ pass it along!
