I often ponder what it is I do, and why I do it. It's the trial lawyers that are blamed for high malpractice insurance for doctors, the costs of safety regulations that must be borne by businesses, the high price of automobiles, and on and on. But when somebody has been hurt or a family member has been killed or injured due to the negligence of others, as a civil society we decided over 200 years ago with the adoption of the US Constitution and even longer ago than that for European countries dating as far back as the Magna Carter agreed to at Runnymede, in the year 1215, that the people had a right to trial by jury- a group of ordinary citizens today- that would sit and hear cases and resolve civil disputes that should not be decided by governments and kings, which often robbed the people of justice.
The pursuit of justice is often characterized by the Corporate world and businesses as the greed of trial lawyers who put people out of business, and who themselves are only interested in the fees they earn. Trial Lawyers are in the word "no –good ”until you need them that is. It is when your child has been hit by a drunk driver and killed or you have been in a car wreck and injured and suddenly the " good hands people" are not wanting to pay your claim or be fair about a settlement that you need a trial lawyer, who if he or she cares, will be willing to fight for you, and I do mean fight. For justice is neither free nor easy to obtain. Then the damn trial lawyer is your friend. Trial lawyers have to be like modern-day gladiators who are hired to fight the battle you cannot fight, often risking their own pocketbooks, personal comfort, nights without sleeping, and long hours away from their families to get justice done.
The President of the National Trial Lawyers recently wrote about the role of the Roman gladiators, who often cried out before they went into the arena the phrase, " Morituri Te Salutamus," which means:" We who are about to die, salute you." If a trial lawyer cares, and most of us do, while we may not die literally, we often risk much, both personally and professionally, to see that justice is done.
To all our clients, Morituri Te Salutamus, We who are about to die, salute you the client! It is why we are " Trial Lawyers!"