Not Enough Good Cases

It used to be that people thought of Deep Pockets as a bank, insurance company, or other big company with billions of dollars to pay claims. Unfortunately, that’s no longer the case. There are nearly 1 million lawyers now, and each year another 100,000 come out of law school and set up a practice. There are not enough good cases to go around.

A good case involves a serious injury with clear negligence by a company with significant assets or insurance. The problem for the lawyers is that most of the good cases go to a relatively small group of established trial lawyers with a history of multimillion dollar verdicts.

This makes sense. If you are seriously injured by an Exxon gasoline truck crashing into your house, you want the best trial lawyer you can find. You want a lawyer who has won large jury awards. The ability to argue successfully and convince a judge or jury of the merits of a claim is a unique and specialized talent. Few attorneys possess these skills, and those that do often earn millions of dollars each year. Since all contingency fee attorneys charge the same one third or 40 percent of the award, why not hire the best trial lawyer in the country? It doesn’t cost you any more.

And if your case is a good one, any attorney would love to work for you. You can get the top trial lawyer in the country to handle your case, and he won’t charge you a penny more than your niece’s brother-in-law who has never been inside a courtroom. This is democracy in action. The poorest of the poor can hire the richest and smartest trial lawyer in the nation to fight for his rights. All it takes is serious injury or death and a defendant with deep pockets.