Whocanisue.com calls itself a lawyer listing service. I call it ridiculous. This is a Web site that has been featured in Time Magazine and the Today Show. It's founder Curtis Wolfe, who calls himself an attorney, says he's not out there to encourage frivolous lawsuits. Really? His Web site's logo is the stereotypical man slipping on a banana peel. The Web site's slogan reads: "The legal process made easy."
The Legal Process Is Not Easy
Now, any lawyer worth his or her salt knows that the legal process is anything but easy. There is no magical attorney referral service or Web site that can ever make the legal process "easy." The beauty of the American civil justice system is that it is not meant to be easy. Wolfe tells the Today Show's interviewer: "One of the great things about America is its civil justice system." Well said. But his Web site, which is riddled with ridiculous graphics and nonsensical slogans, does not show any respect for the civil justice system that Wolfe lauded on the Today Show. In fact, Whocanisue.com makes a mockery of the civil justice system, which has given personal injury attorneys like me the invaluable opportunity and privilege to serve and represent seriously injured clients for the last 31 years.
The injured people who walk into my office are not rubbing their hands in glee as they ask: "Who can I sue?" That's what the actors in Whocanisue.com's commercials do. My clients are real people who are broken by this devastating incident in their lives. All of them are victims of someone else's negligence -- be it a drunk or reckless driver or a defective product manufacturer. All my clients say they wish they would never have to see me again. And that's my hope and prayer for them too.
Personal Injuries Devastate People
No one should ever have to go through what these injured men, women and children have been through. Would my client want a million-dollar settlement with the car company or her dead daughter back? Of course, she would rather hold her daughter safe in her arms than to have to sue someone. Would my paraplegic client want to go through a harrowing product defect lawsuit or have her old life back? She would give anything to have her old life back.Whocanisue.com does a major disservice to the civil justice system, disrespects the legal profession and feeds the myth that lawsuits generate millions for victims and lawyers.
SLS Consulting