The Real Value of Personal Injury Attorneys

“You have been an amazing blessing in my life.” I got this message recently from a client whose case I settled several years ago.

The client had a very difficult case that any rational lawyer would have rejected (I tend to do that too often). It’s not that it didn’t have any potential. It’s just that the time and expense of pursuing it far exceeded the case’s settlement value, as well as the risk. It was an extremely difficult liability case involving a waiver and numerous other defenses.

I eventually got my client a low to mid six-figure settlement, but it wasn’t until after years of litigation in which I took multiple depositions (I had to fly across the country several different times for a few of them), engaged in expert discovery, drafted and responded to multiple motions, and prepared the case for a trial that was imminent.

My average hourly rate was probably $25 an hour. However, I was able to make a tremendous impact on my client’s life. My client was able to use the settlement money to help buy a house after a divorce.

The value of taking a case as a personal injury lawyer doesn’t just come from a purely economic calculation. The value and benefits extend far beyond that to the differences we make in our client’s lives and for society at large.

Because I took the case, there is a person in the world whose life is better because of the work I did. And there’s a business out there that changed its practices to make it safer for its customers because we filed a lawsuit. There are few feelings better than this.

What do you think? Join the conversation with me on LinkedIn.