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PART 6 of 10: The economics ... Hairspray news is full of half-truths.

By Steve Lombardi

A young lawyer fresh out of laws school arrives for his first interview. The expectations are sky high. He believes it went well and towards the end of the interview he gently asks, 'How much is the pay?' The trial lawyer knowing this newbie lawyer has no clients, never having argued a motion or tried a lawsuit looks straight into the young man's eyes and replies, 'How about if I pay you what you're worth?'

Yesterday we listened to Texas Tort Reform propaganda and it should make you wonder where before you've heard similar proclamations by people in power or from those taking the most from society. We have CEO's of major corporations reaping multimillion dollar bonuses for running a public corporations into the ground. We have Congress seemingly getting wealthy without any explanation as to how these men and women of power have accumulated their wealth on the salary of a public servant; a term that seems to me to be an oxymoron. The major newscasters for the major networks get paid million dollar salaries to sit with the perfectly hair sprayed look and then tell us how to live better while breaking for an over dramatization of what they call the news.

And again we ask from where does this entitlement mentality come?

We've seen that the arguments used by tort reformists don't stack up to the truth. Those arguing for tort reforms to take away damages from those that have won at trial, explain their reasoning without proof, simply with conclusions. They claim the jury system is run-amok, but research shows otherwise. They claim trial lawyers are getting rich off of frivolous lawsuits using the contingent fee contract; yet frivolous lawsuits are worthless, so how can a fee based on the recovery be worth anything? It can't and the lawyers aren't but that's the perception being built around what sells.

Most trial lawyers work in nondescript courthouses set in small counties and cities in America. We are county lawyers or small city lawyers working on smaller cases worth very little. We do the work that we are accustomed to doing and have done for several decades. We do it because working people in America need us after they are injured by someone else. Their families need us so we keep doing it. We hear that we are like those doing mass torts making millions off of robbing the system! It's insulting to most of us who still care, but even with the insults we stick by those who need us.

We are the lawyers who drive to work every day, we don't own a jet or a yacht or for that matter a Ferrari. At the end of the year or the end of our careers we don't get handed a multi-million dollar bonus for doing a bad job. We don't sit for manicures or use hairspray and get paid salaries of a million dollars or more.

We coach little league or youth soccer, lead the girl scouts, boy scouts or run our children back and forth to practice lessons. We sit on the PTAs, city councils, school boards and local charity boards listening to hours of boring conversations, discussing how our towns, counties and smaller cities should run. We drive used cars, mow our own lawns, shovel our own driveways, pick up the mail and cook our family meals. We shop at the grocery store just like you and return bottles for the nickel deposits. Some of us wash the supper dishes. I personally like to do it by hand. Believe it or not we even pump our own gas and have to pick the dog poop up off the front lawn. I know it's hard to believe, but that's the truth.

Every Monday thru Friday and sometimes on weekends we commute to the same office where we make coffee and attempt to clear the paperwork from our desks. We sit and listen to clients with real problems that do include clients who can't pay the mortgage or buy groceries because they've been hurt, some at work, and for whatever reason the workers' compensation insurance carrier won't recognize their injured status. Glitches in the system are what we deal with. We make calls to the workers' compensation carriers to find out why for the umpteenth thousand time a client's workers' compensation check has not yet arrived. We do this because once again the bills are due and the money hasn't yet arrived on time. Hunger isn't satiated with one of the many excuses insurance adjusters offer.

We represent clients who've been in a car accident because broken legs, arms, ruptured disks and brain damage seem to us to be important to people who earn their living by the hour. We help them try to simply get-even in life after suffering an injury that takes them out of work or out of the living. We do this not from the leather seat of a Leer Jet but from the leatherette padded seat of a five-wheel desk chair.

Now if you believe tort reform propaganda you'd believe this injured worker isn't injured, is sitting at home planning their next vacation and hasn't worked for the past 10 years because he's been living high on your workers compensation program or insurance premiums. You'd believe the lawyer is flying to work in a helicopter and raping the tort system. Well that's just not true and when it's you sitting at the small town lawyer's desk pleading your case, you know all those bums out on workers compensation must be someone different than you because you're honest. You explain that you are the first honest person to be injured in the history of the world. You forget that you believed the lies and voted for tort reform. But what you failed to consider is that the system doesn't think so because the tort reform propaganda machine has obliterated the last vestige of truth or fairness and like everyone else you will be assumed to be dishonest, shiftless and an insurance fraud. And me helping you is just that greedy plaintiff's lawyer making another million off of a frivolous lawsuit using the contingent fee contract. Yeah, that's you and me.

And after many months you'll walk out of my office a wiser person for having seen how the propaganda machine works the system to make your life not just difficult but impossible after an injury. And then you'll go brain dead.

Election time will roll around and you'll forget about how they treated you and you'll believe the politician wannabe that touts tort reforms to get all those shiftless people off the dole and to stop all those personal injury attorneys from filing yet another frivolous lawsuit while making millions from filing cases that are worthless. And you'll vote for him just because they are on national television and they wouldn't be there if they weren't telling the truth. And think of all the money we'll save! There will be some good looking, exceptionally good looking hair sprayed interviewer getting paid millions of dollars to sell you his networks version of the news-a-tainment and you'll buy it hook, line and sinker.

The not-so-funny thing is after you're hurt you implore me to believe it wasn't you that voted for the tort reformers and that you're not one of them! Funny thing is you are one of 'them'. You are because during the last election you voted to be one of them. You voted for the program that makes no sense and all the politicians, corporate CEO's and hair sprayed media entertainers will continue to feed you the untruths so long as you keep believing them and not asking for a different program. So long as you sit there and buy the bull they will continue to shovel it your way.

Tort Reform as Entertainment – Listen to Andy Rooney attempt to toss the entire tort system under the bus by talking about five lawsuits he doesn't like while stating the suits aren't justified, then changes his mind and says they are justified but the amounts aren't right. Well are they or aren't they justified? Are the amounts wrong or are they right? How can we know based on a converstion meant to be humorous from a guy earning what has to be at or above a million dollars per year? Perhaps a judge in one of those cases tossed out the verdict or reduced it. Just maybe 60 Minutes could check their facts to see if that's what happened? Or is the story line more important than are the facts and is the truth?

I notice that Mr. Rooney is paid quite a bit more than the average wage earner I represent. According to the New York Times, back in April 1987 his weekly pay check was $7,700.00. I'm sure it's quite a bit higher today. Is that money being earned based on reporting frivolous news as entertainment or for being a make-believe news reporter? Are you trying to be funny or are you trying to be news worthy? Which is it?

CBS officials said that the suspension of Mr. Rooney's pay was prompted by his refusal to appear on ''60 Minutes,'' a gesture of sympathy toward his striking colleagues. Until yesterday, Mr. Rooney had been collecting his weekly salary of about $7700.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuHB_oiLct8

You aren't funny but what you do say is deceptively cute. The Finance and Law Adventures blog pointed out in 2007, stop giving us pretend news, give us some actual news, the news-a-tainment industry is doing more harm than the small town and city personal injury law ever could do.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Andy Rooney - "If I were rich..."

After watching my Cowboys fall to the Beagles, I accidentally caught the end of 60 Minutes. As a result, I got to hear Andy Rooney go on and on about what he would do "If I was rich."

Andy - You are RICH!!! When you got suspended in 1987 without pay, it was reported you were making $7,700 per week. Assuming you managed to get a raise in the past 20 years, one would expect you are making $500,000 to $1,000,000 per year in salary. Having lived in NYC for 20+ years, we can assume you own a multi-million dollar co-op on the UWS or UES.

More importantly, you continue to make a great salary well into your 80's. While most 88 year olds are trying to make do on a fixed income, you are collecting a six or seven figure income.

By any standard, you are rich. Don't pretend you aren't.

Here you go Mr. Rooney let me show you some real news. How about you and the news organizations in America take a look at this video, because this is news, not pretend news and this is what we trial lawyers face every day. While you were visiting your next hair dressers appointment some real news reporters were actually trying to report real news. And like these real reporters, most lawyers are busy doing another days thankless job of trying to get the insurance company to send this weeks 'computer generated' $270.00 weekly compensation check. Oh, and by the way the reporters trying to report the real news, they were fired for doing their job. And when they were fired where were you? Certainly not publicly supporting them. Oh sorry, I forgot about that weekly hair appointment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7ZpcPQP3yg

As a trial lawyer I've come to expect a distorted version of the truth being reported from the major news desks. You pick on us, not because what is being said is true, but because it sells ads. You're shameless, gutless and will do anything to keep your hair spray news desk job. You didn't walk out to support these reporters against FOX because of the size of your pay checks and the fancy lives you live off of million dollar salaries. You report on how common working people can save pennies to live off of minimum wage, acting all the time like you really care. How about you quit that $7,000 per week job and come to work for me.

I'll even pay you what you're worth.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Steve Lombardi

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on May 25, 2009 (boomark / email).