{"id":4616,"date":"2003-12-03T09:00:49","date_gmt":"2003-12-03T13:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2003\/12\/03\/non-litigating-trial-lawyers-"},"modified":"2011-08-05T15:00:36","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T19:00:36","slug":"non-litigating-trial-lawyers-on-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2003\/12\/03\/non-litigating-trial-lawyers-on-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Non-Litigating Trial Lawyers on Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a name=\"a363\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\">A Missouri personal injury law firm is facing malpractice charges that include its propensity to avoid going to trial.\u00a0\u00a0 According to an article\u00a0at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/stltoday\/news\/stories.nsf\/News\/Metro+East\/77ECB5A0F8F57F6B86256DEE00000E1C?OpenDocument&amp;Headline=Madison+County+law+firm+is+sued+again\">StLToday.com<\/a> (Nov. 29, 2003)<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial;color: #000000;font-size: x-small\">, <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\">which is highlighted in today&#8217;s Law.com <a href=\"http:\/\/www.law.com\/jsp\/article.jsp?id=1069801676600&amp;specArtType=newsInBrief\">Daily NewsWire<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small\">, the widow of a mesothelioma victim is suing Goldenberg, Miller, Heller and Antognoli for malpractice on the grounds that its private, out-of-court settlement on her behalf was inadequate.\u00a0\u00a0 The complaint alleges that the firm has not taken a mesothelioma case to verdict in nearly a decade, and that defense lawyers offer less money when they don&#8217;t think plaintiff&#8217;s counsel will force a trial.\u00a0 (Carolyn Elefant at <a href=\"http:\/\/myshingle.com\/article.pl?sid=03\/11\/30\/2138240&amp;mode=thread\">MyShingle.com<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-size: x-small\"> pointed to this article on Nov. 30th) <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center\">.\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\">A more colorful case with a similar focus came out of Rochester, NY, last year and was covered in depth at <a href=\"http:\/\/overlawyered.com\/archives\/02\/jun2.html\">Overlawyered.com<\/a>. <\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial\"><span style=\"font-size: x-small\">(scroll to June 17, 2002).\u00a0 In June 2002, a Rochester jury found attorney Jim \u201cThe Hammer\u201d Shapiro committed malpractice and false advertising, and awarded $1.9 million to a former client of his.\u00a0\u00a0 As a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moranandkufta.com\/hot_topics.asp?ID=9\">competing firm<\/a> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: x-small\">claims on their website, where they are seeking to help former Hammer clients: &#8220;In his TV commercials, personal injury lawyer Jim Shapiro calls himself &#8216;The Hammer,&#8217; claims he is the &#8216;meanest S.O.B.\u00a0 in town,&#8217; and promises to deliver every dime possible for accident victims. The facts: Shapiro lives in Florida and has never tried a case in court!&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<ul> <span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><\/p>\n<li>\n<div style=\"margin-right: 0px\"><span><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\">Shapiro&#8217;s ads were highlighted in a Prairielaw.com article titled &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.prairielaw.com\/articles\/article.asp?articleid=1320\">Lawyer Ads Get Loud<\/a>.&#8221;<\/span><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"> The author, Jeff Williams, noted that manic lawyer ads have spread from late-night TV to the Web: <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<p><\/span><\/span><\/ul>\n<blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\">&#8220;I&#8217;m Jim \u2018The Hammer\u2019 Shapiro,\u201d proclaims this New York attorney\u2019s site. \u201cI get money for seriously injured people \u2026 from imbeciles who hurt innocent people \u2026 I want to get YOU the biggest, fattest cash award I can, as fast as I can, from as many defendants as I can find. Just call me! Day or night, I&#8217;ll talk to you free.&#8221; <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\">The <em>Prairielaw<\/em> article asks &#8220;Aren\u2019t there rules about this? Just how far can lawyers go?&#8221;\u00a0and gives a good general explanation of the issues involved.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" align=\"left\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\">Here at <em>ethicalEsq,<\/em> we believe this line of cases\u00a0can serve clients well.\u00a0 Trial lawyers need to make clear to clients\u00a0<em>upfront<\/em> whether their strategy\u00a0and track record is to settle and avoid trial.\u00a0\u00a0It&#8217;s not just a matter of malpractice and misleading advertising.\u00a0 If a law firm&#8217;s business plan is to attract lots of clients and settle their cases quickly, with no likelihood of trial, charging the standard contingency fee is almost certainly unethical, as the\u00a0risk of putting in a significant amount of uncompensated hours is\u00a0far less than when the firm is willing to go to trial.\u00a0\u00a0Unless the client is fully informed and\u00a0can negotiate the level of the contingency fee, a\u00a0strategy of quick settlement shortchanges the client and overcompensates the lawyer. [See our <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2003\/06\/03#a21\">posting<\/a> <em>Using a Standard Contingency Fee is Often Unethical]<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial;font-size: x-small\"><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Missouri personal injury law firm is facing malpractice charges that include its propensity to avoid going to trial.\u00a0\u00a0 According to an article\u00a0at StLToday.com (Nov. 29, 2003), which is highlighted in today&#8217;s Law.com Daily NewsWire, the widow of a mesothelioma victim is suing Goldenberg, Miller, Heller and Antognoli for malpractice on the grounds that its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-1cs","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14100,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4616\/revisions\/14100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}