Today’s media continues its campaign to attack trial attorneys (the lawyers who represent the injured) and the actual injured. Of course, the folks responsible for spreading the lies and generalizations about trial attorneys and plaintiffs tend to shed their beliefs when they are injured or when a family member has been wronged. I represent people injured in a variety of situations – car crashes, tractor trailer accidents, falls on property, animal attacks, dangerous consumer products, dangerous drugs and pharmaceuticals, mask and silicosis cases. Most of the clients I represent do not want to go to trial, they are forced to. Why? By whom? Well, in most cases, the injured end up at trial because the insurance company or the defendant (the one who caused the harm) simply doesn’t take responsibility for the caused harm.
What is an injured individual supposed to do when the insurance company and/or defendant refuses to own up and pay for the damage? Is that person supposed to go into bankruptcy because she cannot afford to pay her medical bills incurred as a result of the defendant’s negligence? Is she supposed to not seek medical treatment at all? Most of the time, plaintiffs (the injured) and their attorneys try to resolve the claim prior to filing a lawsuit. Further, most of the time, plaintiffs and attorneys continue to try to resolve the claim even after the lawsuit is filed. But it is very common for insurance companies and the defendants to use delay tactics hoping that the plaintiff will grow tired and run out of money and find herself unable to prosecute her case. We try a case to a jury when the insurance company and defendant aren’t being fair. Most of the time, the Plaintiff just wants what is fair and her only option, because no one will take responsibility, is to have a trial.
I have seen cases where an insurance company has paid a defense attorney to defend a case of clear liability for more than three years, hire doctors and experts at high prices to try to defeat the claim, and then be ordered to pay by the jury anyway. Why would the insurance company rather pay $50,000 in expenses and lawyer fees just to avoid paying the plaintiff’s $10,000 medical bills? Because most insurance companies, and most big companies in general, protect profits over people. They hope the injured will just give up. If you have been injured, I urge you to not give up. I urge you to fight for what you deserve.