Leave it to members of the press, themselves generally disdained by the public, to paint lawyers as money-grubbing shylocks as often as they can.
So it is in the New York Post’s coverage Tuesday of legislation that would make it easier for car-accident victims to sue in New York State. The story’s headline gives us the Post’s angle right away: “Lawyers In Drive For More Car Suits.”
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/lawyers_in_drive_for_more_car_suits_rkupx2c5cB2KFMM1XyvynK
The story talks about a bill, supported by trial lawyers, that would increase the number of injuries that accident victims can take to court, opting out of New York’s “no-fault” insurance law. As the Post explans, right now accident victims have to get payment from their own insurance companies unless they have sustained a really heinous injury.
Under the proposed legislation, that list of injuries would grow to include things like muscle tears, pinched nerves or any kind of injury that requires surgery. Do most people believe that an injury that requires surgery is not very serious, or believe that a pinched nerve doesn’t cause as much pain as perhaps a broken bone?
The Post then quotes an executive from an insurance company who calls the bill “a full-employment act for the trial lawyers” at the expense of higher premiums for New York drivers. New York’s car insurance rates are already soaring, ranking No. 3 in cost in the U.S., topped by only New Jersey and Louisiana.
The article does give lawyers an opportunity to state their case in favor of the proposed bill. The head of the New York Trial Lawyers Association, Richard Binko, told the Post that the Empire State’s 30-year-old no-fault law needs reform.
For example, the no-fault law was written before there were MRIs and CAT scans to “properly diagnose debilitating injuries — but still used today to deny legitimate claims,” Binko told the tabloid.
What gets lost in all these arguments are the accident victims. Forget about us allegedly lousy ambulance-chasing lawyers.
Don’t accident victims deserve their day in court, even if they haven’t suffered the kind of injury that no-fault law today deems serious — like disfigurement? Why should you have to lose a limb before you can file suit for your injury?
Let a jury of an accident victim’s peers decide if he or she has a legitimate case. If not, a judge or jury can just essentially toss the case out, by dismissing it or not granting any award.