If you are injured in a car accident . . .
Countless lawyer ads start with that phrase, or something like it. After a while it starts to sound like lawyers just circle around like vultures waiting for bad things to happen so they can cash in. That is certainly what insurance companies would have you think.
But whatever you think about the car accident lawyers (more on them later) lawyers do a lot of good things for all of us.
Let’s say you have been injured in a car accident. Did your car burst into flames? If not, you can thank this lawyer for forcing auto manufacturers to make safer cars. Did your seatbelt or airbag help save your life? Thank these lawyers for helping to raise safety standards and these lawyers for helping get faulty equipment out of your car.
But safer cars don’t mean anything if you can’t afford them. You probably have a car loan. These lawyers help make sure that the loan you took to get the car was fair and relatively understandable.
Of course, you still have to make the monthly payment – and employment lawyers help to enforce the laws that protect you in the workplace by helping you understand your rights, making sure that you get paid fairly for your work and that your employer adheres to the law.
Let’s say you need to go to the hospital after the accident. You can thank a lawyer for making sure that the doctor thinks twice before having that second martini at lunch. Lawyers are also involved in the hospital administration, maintaining the hospital’s non-profit status, negotiating with unions, writing the bylaws that govern the hospital, and countless other things. An immigration lawyer was probably involved in helping some of the doctors in your hospital come to the United States. Lawyers were even involved in the construction of the hospital itself, and in protecting the hospital’s name and logo.
And if the accident was caused by driver who broke the law, these lawyers will make sure that he or she is prosecuted, while these lawyers will make sure that his or her civil rights are protected.
So, you get discharged from the hospital. You are going to be out of work for a few weeks, unpaid, you’ve got thousands of dollars in medical bills (which a collection lawyer is pestering you to pay), and the doctor tells you that you will have some pain for the rest of your life. Now what?
Remember that accident lawyer? The accident lawyer can help make sure that your medical bills are paid by insurance, and that you are compensated for lost wages, and for your pain and suffering. Maybe we’re not such vultures after all.
The Pledge of Allegiance ends with the phrase “liberty and justice for all”. That is what lawyers do. We work to obtain liberty and justice for our clients. We’re not always successful, and the process is not always pretty. The justice system is terribly inefficient and deeply flawed. But it is the best system in the world and I am honored to be a part of it.
This is why I became a lawyer.