The Truth About Trial Lawyers
By: Victoria C. Swanson
Published in the July/August 1993 issue of Trial Talk
It is the fundamental principle of modern science that truth is determined by testing a hypothesis through detailed observation. In my year of stewardship of CTLA I have had the best seat in the lab to determine the truth about Trial Lawyers in Colorado.
The first distinction among lawyers is why I chose to capitalize "Trial Lawyers". While many lawyers go to trial, approximately one-half of them represent insurance and corporate interests before a jury. Interestingly enough, those lawyers do not wish to call themselves "trial lawyers", but instead consider themselves "insurance lawyers" or "corporate litigators". My observation then, concerned those lawyers who acknowledge they are "Trial Lawyers", those who oppose the interests of insurance and business.
THE CHAMPION OF LOST CAUSES
It is in the nature of a Trial Lawyer to believe in the underdog and to take on the cause, against all odds of legal precedent or opposing financial resources. If there were a "David" complex akin to a "Napoleon" complex, undoubtedly all Trial Lawyers would be afflicted. Trial Lawyers possess visions of slaying the Goliaths of modern society: the soul-less corporations which place market share above safety, the insurance companies which delay and deny benefits due and owing to their insureds. The amazing thing is that Trial Lawyers are beaten again and again, and still believe in the next cause of justice denied. Trial Lawyers never outgrew the "good guys and bad guys" of their childhood and actually believe in a true "right" and "wrong".
THE LAWYER OF THE DISENFRANCHISED
William Kunstler, inconoclastic lawyer of the 1960's, once quoted: "The American Bar Association formula of a lawyer for hire specifically excludes those who most need legal help - the vast army of the poor." Yet the Trial Lawyer represents those who cannot afford a lawyer; they may be poor or middle class, but in no instance can they afford a lawyer. These people have been wronged, usually by insurance or business interests, and desperately need someone to believe in them and their plight. In a business operation that must baffle the rest of the lawyer world (and Harvard Business School students), Trial Lawyers agree to work for a client without a guarantee of getting paid for their work. The Trial Lawyer gambles professional services on the belief that the client is right and that justice will prevail in favor of the client.
THE LAWYER OF ALTRUISM
In a capitalistic society, successful business practices are kept a closely guarded secret. Trial Lawyers are terrible capitalists. As soon as a theory, method or practice is found to reap success in the fight for justice, the Trial Lawyer is on the phone sharing it with other Trial Lawyers and publicizing it to the Trial Lawyers Association. Trial Lawyers will spend hundreds of uncompensated hours preparing for seminars to teach other Trial Lawyers how to be better Trial Lawyers, and as a result, how to better compete for the same business. What a country! It appears that the Trail Lawyer doesn't see other Trial Lawyers as the competitive enemy. The business and insurance interests they oppose are the ones to "beat." With an almost religious fervor, Trial Lawyers want only to help each other better serve the lost causes and underdog clients. Perhaps this characteristic is why some powerful people in our country find the Trial Lawyers so dangerous.
This country could probably get along fine without Trial Lawyers - if the people of this country suppressed their sense of justice and outrage. American society would certainly be a lot less litigious if the people resigned themselves to having their everyday rights determined in the corner offices of corporate America. If the business and government interests had unfettered power over the lady who slipped in the grocery store, over the man who was hurt by a speeding car, over the worker who broke a back on weak scaffolding, it certainly would be a more peaceful country - but it would not be the America we salute on Independence Day.
Keep up the good work, Trial Lawyers of Colorado.