Personal InjuryDoes the World Need Lawyers?
Many people are sitting and laughing at the very question. Their minds are running through the thousands and thousands (no exaggeration) of lawyer jokes that they have heard or told. Most people look at lawyers as money grubbing, "anything for a buck" people who will take any lawsuit, no matter how stupid, if there is a dollar to be made or something for their own self-interest.
Well, everyone wants to make a living, but lawyers have more constraints on theirs than most people do, by the courts, by their code of ethics (yes there is one), and by their own sense of fair play. The Consumer Attorneys of California have been making an effort to let people know how important the lawyer is in their life.
Think about why you might hire a lawyer. Perhaps you are buying or selling property and need an attorney to check the title and oversee your interests in the closing process. Naturally, everyone should have a will, which lawyers are happy to draw up, but what happens when the death occurs. Who is there to see the family through the sometimes-complex probate process and protect their interests as heirs? A lawyer.
If you are a small business person who wants to incorporate or enter into a limited liability partnership, the lawyer will be the person who can create the documents and make sure that everything is correctly registered with the State, not to mention the IRS. Therefore, there are many uses for lawyers in day-to-day life from adoptions, to divorces, to problems with the IRS.
However, these are not the legal jobs that come under fire from the public and, of course, from the big corporations. It has been said that if it weren't for product liability law, we would all be driving Ford Pintos and Chevy Corvairs today -- no matter that the manufacturers of these dangerous cars felt it was more cost effective for the company to settle wrongful death lawsuits than to recall the dangerous cars. Hmmm, think about that, it's more COST EFFECTIVE for people to die in car accidents than prevent them. Is that thinking about the bottom line or what?
Lawyers did not feel this was right and hammered these companies with lawsuits and everything that was in their legal arsenal to make cars safe to drive. Yes, the lawyers made money as did their clients, but nobody wants to sue for a death or an injury; they would rather it had never happened at all.
This video by the Consumer Attorneys of California sums up some of the good things that lawyers do. Lawyers are making your workplace safe and equal, and your products defect free -- interestingly something that major corporations have not been doing. Maybe we need some Exxon, Ford or BP jokes, although it is not funny to those who suffered.
One of the things the Consumer Attorneys of California does not mention in the video is the number of lawyers who work without pay. Furthermore, many work for lower income in Legal Services offices and Protection and Advocacy Services for the disabled. These lawyers are not making a lot of money; they are helping people who would have no voice in the justice process otherwise. In addition, almost every law firm and lawyer do "pro bono" work. More lawyers than you can imagine see their work as a labor of love, and yes, we need lawyers in the world.
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