Yes a client is a client but The money is much better on this side. One ins lawyer told me, after I asked him how he was doing. "Overworked and underpaid." He was a named partner of the firm. I'm not knocking ya just messing around. We're mostly cordial around here with defense lawyers. It wasn't easy starting a plaintiffs firm from scratch as a solo but I'm in a good spot now. This work is fun and rewarding (even though in law school I'd rather have died than become a litigator I started off in securities law) EDIT: Spelling on the iphone is horrendous.
The big plaintiff firms were the ones full of real snakes, just squeezing their clients for fees. If I needed a plaintiff lawyer I'd without hesitation go to one of the little guys. I did a little bit of plaintiff work at the end, but most of my time was inhouse for the insurer. I actually enjoyed the work, but it wad the BS dealing with management that burned me out. The best fun was when you knew more about the plaintiff than their lawyer did.
The best guys here, the ones killing it, are smaller firms with a superstar at the helm. I'm in San Diego, guys like Robert Simon, Ryan Harris, are killing it. I'd pass out with just one case like that, these guys are getting $3m-15m verdicts. Smaller firms doing only big cases. I'm second chairing (meh probably 3rd chairing ) a big trial in May/June with a ringer. I'm excited. Yes, that last part burns. When the client hides stuff and the defense lawyer says, hey what about this MRI from 6 months before the accident? Doh! Oh and sub rosa is just evil. But I always run ISO checks on my clients. They "forget" stuff.
Actually the most profitable plaintiff firm in my locale was one that got solid liability cases and then got quick and reasonable settlements for their clients. They were run by a guy who swapped his side of the street and knew that for insurers their best interest is to pay claims quickly amd reasonably. When the gung ho tried to low ball him he took imto court and gave them a damn good hiding, so all of the local insurers knew to put his claims onto the fast track for settlement. My favorite sub rosa was I had a plaintiff who was working as a hooker, well call girl. I could prove everything except money changing hands. That's an accusation that will get you into deep trouble if you can't prove it so I couldn't pull the trigger on her. However her client we had on tape was another plaintiff who our PI recognized from earlier surveillance. This guy supposedly hadn't worked for 2 years but he can pay for a high end call girl? So I got his financials and nailed him to the wall. Our PI double billed us for his surveillance time too, but I pretended not to see that.
The guys around who make the most money are popping the lids off of policies, and not settling. of course that means you have to make a settlement offer for policy limits to open the policy up, but we cross our fingers they don't accept (and they rarely do). I went to an awards ceremony for a trial lawyer (small firm, 4 lawyers, big support staff) and for 2015, just for cases that went to verdict, public record, the firms fees were over $15 million. They put the verdicts up on the screen (as it is public record), and that does not include any fees from settlements for that firm that year so their revenue was much higher. Ridiculous. I can only dream. Wonderfully nice guy, tried a MIST case (and you know how hard those are) and got a $15 million verdict (CA and especially Los Angeles) is good for MIST cases, other states not so much). We are talking $500 in property damage. Offered anyone who asked the complete transcript from voir dire to closing motion in limines. It was great reading. Anyway, we're so seriously off topic now. So yeah. bullying, incognito.
It helps when the other side is incompetent. I identified as an insurer not a lawyer, so my perspective is a little different to lawyers. In my company getting the policy popped was a sackable offence. Every time it happened you had to show cause why you shouldn't be terminated. It didn't mean running scared but you had to know your cases and make realistic assessment of the risks. For me the key to handling MIST was how you identified and dealt with the psychological overlay, and for them to be worth more than a bucket of warm spit there's always psychological overlay. So yeah, Incognito = unacceptable insurance risk in bullying.
