The Insurance Locator

I was surprised to find a recent headline in the business section of The New York Times, a morning on the recent trend among insurance companies and groups pressure to restrict their rights.

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This is another chapter in a battle that has lasted more than 20 years as the National Chamber of Commerce organizations, multinational corporations and knowledgeable about the insurance industry decided that its lines background could be improved in some way could avoid costly lawsuits from people who are seriously injured when their products or activities cause harm.

Possibly, some States have a history of wildly outrageous jury verdicts – but that was long ago in the past, and certainly not in Colorado. Also is irrefutable that some bad elements among trial lawyers have tarnished the good work that the rest of us try to do on a daily basis. However, the fact is that the insurance industry is pushing the bar further from being fair and just to all parties to the point that the little people like you and I never will meet to a fair playing field if that is injured and has to sue a large corporation.

The current method of restriction of their rights is to try to boost legislation to limit the amount of attorney's fees that lawyers can charge us when we take a case on a contingency basis. It is a great approach. Leave the face, on the surface appear to benefit victims of accidents than anyone else. However, in reality, severe restrictions on the amount of attorneys' fees severely limit the options of persons injured "by hiring a lawyer.

The compensation law is a business. Even we lawyers have to be able to make a profit in what we do. What makes us unique lawyers is the high degree of risk we have to assume on behalf of our clients. In almost all cases of accident, a lawyer does not get paid until and unless he or she receives a recovery from its customers. If no recovery, then the lawyer will not be paid by the hundreds or thousands of hours they can spend working on a complex case.

Trial lawyers often spend tens of thousands of dollars of their own pockets to bring cases of their client trial. These costs may be evidence of tens of thousands of dollars on even a simple car accident case. In major product liability cases, including cases against drug manufacturers, the costs can reach millions. If the capacity of an attorney to compensation under a contingent fee agreement to assume this risk is limited by state law, the simple fact is that fewer lawyers will be able to handle such cases on a contingency basis – and this is what the corporate interests are really seeking to accomplish.

The business lobby hopes that the state legislatures start to limit the contingency percentage that a lawyer may charge to the extent that it is not economically feasible for a lawyer to have an injury case in a contingency.

They say they still can charge our customers an hourly rate for work on the case so no one will be harmed by such laws. However, the reality is that victims of accidents, few can afford afford to pay an hourly rate, and certainly can not do if they have suffered a catastrophic injury, are in front of hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical care and can not work.

I find it ironic that the business lobby is saying that trial lawyers make too much money at a time when compensation packages executives in large corporations are going through the roof. It disgusts me to think that a president of a large company can make millions of dollars a year and still have right to million dollar retirement packages when they run their companies into the ground. How much do they really care about you and me when loot the funds of their pension employees to keep their bad business decisions are still charging such exorbitant salaries?

Let me be clear that I, as injury lawyer personal, they certainly have cases where I generously compensated for my time. However, I also have cases where only a breakeven or even losing money. These are the risks you take. If I find I can make more money by charging an hourly rate in another area of the law – I be forced to. I, and trial lawyers across the country will be fine regardless. The injured will be left with the bag and nothing would make the business and insurance lobbyists happier.
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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – The Battle Against Trial Lawyers

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