I saw a commercial the other day that floored me.  The lawyer said that we should never feel bad for the other driver.  The other guy’s insurance will pay, not the other driver.  If the other guy doesn’t have insurance we won’t sue him.

Dah!

Now that makes sense.  The lawyer just might be rather smart but, clearly, he thinks I’m dumb.  Just what kind of lawyer will go after someone who has no means of paying the judgment?

The truth of the matter is that there is one thing that the lawyer is interested in, his forty percent.  Therefore, he will only sue someone with money or someone with insurance.  It would be stupid to go after someone who has no way to pay.  If he did, then even if he won, he would still lose.  He would be out the time and legal expenses.  …and his forty percent of nothing would still be nothing.

I have nothing to back it up with, but my best guess is that one of the biggest causes of the increase in insurance are lawyers.  Indeed, if you take the lawyers out of the settlements, the cost of insurance would likely decrease by a third, maybe more.

Certainly, this is true about auto insurance, but maybe even truer in other things as well.  Consider the doctor.  He must carry insurance to cover all suits, especially those that have no basis.  Most suits are settled to prevent the larger court costs.  The doctor says, “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

His insurance company says “It doesn’t matter.  Settle or you are on your own.”

It happens every day.  The doctor does nothing wrong and the lawyer walks off with 10 or 20-thousand dollars.  In most cases, the lawyer knows he has no case but he sues anyway, knowing the doctor will settle.

Do you think this doesn’t affect you?  Think again.  A big part of those doctor’s fees goes to pay the malpractice insurance.  Every time you pay a doctor, or the health insurance premium, some of it goes to those lawyers.

Every time you buy a somewhat dangerous product like a lawnmower or even a toaster, some of what you pay is going to go to line the pockets of those lawyers.  Every time you buy medicine, guess what.  Pharmacies must pay for insurance too.  Sometimes, they don’t have enough insurance and they go bankrupt paying the judgments.

Lawyers continually go in search of prey, just as a tiger shark.  Then, when they find it, you see the ad on the TV the next day.  They dare not delay.  They know if they do, some other lawyer will beat them to the pay dirt.

On the other side of the coin, some companies knowingly do things wrong.  Well, actually it isn’t the company.  It is some person or persons within the company.  So, the big corporation goes bankrupt and all the employees are without jobs.  Meanwhile, the character who truly caused the problem retires with a million-dollar golden parachute.  The only people who walk away unscathed are the lawyers, both sides, and the culprit who took the short cut to save a dime or two in the manufacturing process.

By the way, the public loses too.  The product that was being made was a good one.  Now we must do without it.  Don’t you just love lawyers?

By the way, the main reason it works this way is that it is mainly lawyers who write the laws.  They write the laws to benefit the laws, not the folks like you and me.