Never Stop Fighting For People

All too often, personal injury lawyers are nothing more than settlement brokers

. They take a case with the hope and prayer that it will settle early before they have to do any real work and before they have to incur any real expenses so they can earn a fee without the risk of failure. A client cannot get a fair settlement when their lawyer is going into the case with that mindset. This mindset is offensive to me irrespective of what the case is about, but it is especially offensive when the case involves a catastrophic injury or death or involves egregious conduct that must be stopped.

When the case is more than a simple car accident case with minor injuries, a trial lawyer should go into the representation with the mindset that he or she is going to one day present this case to a jury for the purpose of sending a loud message to the defendant or defendants that our community is not going to tolerate this kind of conduct.

Trial lawyers need to hire the best experts possible before suit is filed and offer the defendants an opportunity to settle the case for a fair amount at all times throughout the case, with the term fair to be defined objectively as opposed to what the defendants unilaterally want to call fair. A trial lawyer must come up with a strategic plan at the beginning of the case and then reevaluate that plan throughout the case to make sure it is still the correct plan to take in that particular case, but must always fight for their client with trial as the ultimate way to resolve the claim. It is amazing how often cases get settled on the way to the courthouse when they are prepared as if they are going to trial.

It is the job of the trial lawyer to do everything in his or her power to make the defendants want to settle the case. However, as a trial lawyer, we cannot make anyone settle; we can just make them sorry that they chose not to settle after we beat them at trial. Even when the defendant sees the need for settlement, they will typically try to offer as little as possible to get the case settled and if they believe that the trial lawyer is really nothing more than a settlement broker that is afraid to go to trial or that will not be prepared at the time of trial.

Just enough is never enough and the only way to get a fair offer, is to continue fighting for your client with preparation and planning. It is only when the defendants know that the trial lawyer not only is prepared to go to trial, but is also confidently looking forward to the trial that they will be moved to make a legitimately fair offer.

We must never forget who we are fighting for and what we are fighting for. I hear clients say over and over again that their case is not about the money, but about what someone did to them or their loved one. They repeatedly tell me that they want to go forward with the case so that other families will not have to go through what they have been forced to endure. They tell me that they want to stop the defendants from continuing their careless ways and they recognize that their courage to stand up and fight is one way to accomplish their goals.

The trial lawyer must be an extension of the client to carry out these goals and he or she must fight for justice and for change. If the goal is to simply submit medical bills and ask for a settlement offer, the lawyer must disclose that he or she is not a trial lawyer and is merely a settlement broker. If the goal, however, is to stop careless conduct and to make our hospitals safer, our roads safer, or our workplaces safer, the courtroom must be the destination in mind from the outset of a case. If the defendants see the wisdom of settlement along the way to the courthouse, so be it; settlement must always be an option for resolution of all claims. However, when the defendants are allowed to settle cases for amounts that they unilaterally think are fair, we allow them to factor in the cost of settlement as a cost of doing business, which does not necessarily move them to change the way they do things and we all remain at risk of harm from their careless actions.

Love God, love people and never stop fighting for them.

by: Rosenblum Reisman

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