Are Personal Injury Lawyers Wicked
Personal injury lawyers are considered by a large segment of the population to be causing harm to society. No matter where you look, it is hard not to find some sort of criticism of the personal injury profession. Some call us ambulance chasers. Others call us parasites. The Republican Party blames us for the high cost of health care. Big business blames us for the high cost of consumer products. The liability insurance industry has labeled us domestic terrorists.
If the portrayal of personal injury attorneys that has been spun by Republicans, the health care industry, big business, and the liability insurance industry is true, why would anyone want to become one? These entities portray us to be like the wicked witch of the west in the Wizard of Oz. Born of pure evil. We apparently swoop down on our broom to capture unsuspecting clients (Dorothy and Toto) and use them in their time of grief to blackmail productive members of society (the wizard and the community of Oz) into paying us exorbitant sums of money. If they refuse our extortion, we will force them to endure the torture of a jury trial where we con handpicked members of the general public that are selected as jurors (those same unsuspecting members of the community of OZ) into awarding even more money than we originally tried to extort.
For those of you that have seen the play "Wicked", the analogy of the Wicked Witch may not actually be wrong. It turns out that the Wizard of Oz was the evil one. He was harming the animals of Oz and covering up his actions. The Wicked Witch was actually good. She resisted the corrupting power of the Wizard and was trying to save the animals. As a result, the Wizard used his power and influence to portray the Wicked Witch to the public as evil.
Every once in a while, however, an event comes along that is so big the propaganda machine cannot cover it up. When this happens, the truth shines through and the public can see that many personal injury lawyers are actually helping society by exposing corporate wrongdoing and obtaining just compensation for their clients. The recent scandal surrounding the Toyota defective product recalls of their automobiles is one such event.
For years, Toyota has been denying that their vehicles suffer from a defect that causes sudden acceleration. Undaunted, personal injury lawyers relentlessly pursued Toyota for just compensation for their injured clients. Like the Wizard of Oz, Toyota successfully branded itself as good while it branded plaintiffs' attorneys and their clients as evil. Slowly but surely, plaintiffs lawyers assembled expert testimony to uncover the cause of the problem and convinced courts to disclose evidence implicating Toyota. As a result, the momentum has shifted. Recent disclosures by a corporate insider, coupled with the media finally focusing its attention on recent episodes of Toyota vehicles involved in sudden acceleration causing injury and death, have brought the truth to light. It appears that Toyota may have been covering up the sudden acceleration problem to avoid a recall. If true, its actions in trying to protect its reputation and profits caused many unnecessary injuries and deaths.
The Toyota example is just one of many that demonstrate the stereotype of personal injury attorneys is not accurate. The truth is that we are no different than any other profession. Most of us are motivated to help our clients and have a positive impact on society. A few are motivated by money and power. Political and corporate interests use the actions of the few to condemn the rest of us.
