As I see it, people want someone who they trust who is going to fight for them. You know it is a funny question because in law school we are taught not to take things personally. We are taught to look at the facts, to make reasoned judgements, to do the research, to go to the books and do all that stuff, things that we have gained over the past 20 years of representing injured workers.
For me personally I wasn’t good at that lesson because I do take things personally. If a client has a doctor from the insurance company tell them that they are better, that they are faking it, that they are exaggerating their symptoms, and they go into court and this doctor testifies and makes a record and tells the judge that this client is a phoney a fraud a fake. I see the pained looks on my client’s faces when that happens and I do take it personally and any lawyer that doesn’t take that type of thing personally isn’t someone that I would want to represent me. Now the client doesn’t get their cheque on time and has to go to collections because of an unpaid electric bill, an unpaid mortgage, I take that personally. I call that adjustor. I bring that to the judge’s attention and I get compensation for him for that aggravation. It’s not fair.
And so a lot of lawyers do play it straight. There are a lot of corporate lawyers out there and tax lawyers and they all have their purpose in life. This is a really tough practice. It gets really competitive and unless you have a lawyer who is willing to fight for you who knows the law, who knows the judges, who has the experience and who takes it personally then you don’t have the right lawyer. And that’s the way I feel about it in my 20 years of representing people who have had Worker’s Compensation claims.
It’s humiliating. We know that you don’t want to have to go through this. You would rather be working. You would rather have your medical benefits and your pension. You would rather be productive and yet the insurance company insist on humiliating you and I won’t stand for it. Whoever you choose as a lawyer make sure you trust that person that they are going to take it personally and they are not going to let that happen.
