"The State of Litigation"


Blogger points out that the lawyers aren't working for us anymore
Warren Myer posts a great piece on lawyers, but this bit really caught my attention. Emphasis in original.

...However, I want to make a different point. This points out fairly clearly that Lerach and other top litigators have adopted a whole new theory of litigation and of the relationship between lawyer and client.

It used to be that clients would suffer some sort of injury and seek redress in the courts. To do so, they would hire an attorney to help them. The attorney was the hired help, compensated either hourly or via a percentage of any awards.

Today, the situation is often reversed. It is the attorney who is identifying lawsuit targets for class actions and shareholder suits, and then seeking out clients who can maximize his chances of success. Clients, who typically make orders of magnitude less than the attorney in class actions (think 50-cent coupons and $8 million attorney fees) are selected because they are sympathetic, or give access to a particularly plaintiff-attractive jurisdiction, or, in cases such as ADA suits in California, because they have effectively become partners with the attorney in serial torts.

So if you wonder why Lerach is suing his client for not using his services, and if that makes you wonder who is working for whom, now you know.

Given what the "clients" usually take home in tort legislation, he has a point. Makes me think of a certain Shakespeare quote...

— NeoWayland

Posted: Thu - January 11, 2007 at 02:01 PM  Tag


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