Ashamed at the thought of bringing a lawsuit?
Posted by
Staff WriterApril 01, 2006 12:03 PMMany prospective clients open our conversation with an apology. They feel ashamed for wanting to use the court system and bringing a lawsuit against a corporation or a doctor. They then assure me that they're not sue crazy, and that they have tried every other means of resolution apart from bringing a lawsuit.
As I write this, powerful corporate interests lobby members of the legislature to change existing laws or create new laws intended to make it even more difficult for a private litigant to recover damages in a civil lawsuit--particularly lawsuits that are focused on recovery for physical injuries and mental trauma (where true victims exist).
These are the same interests that have created this culture of embarrasement following use of the very court system that corporate interests use at a rate of four times that of private citizens.
In Massachusetts, LoJack Corporation has recently used the Superior Court to obtain a $36.7 million jury verdict--the eventual judgment estimated to be as high as $54 million after the addition of interest and costs. The lawsuit was used to obtain redress related to complications caused by the defendant--the same as with private litigatants. The difference being that, unlike private litigants, LoJack was not caused the death of an infant child, loss of feeling below the waste or even a lifetime of back pain. Lojack will not have occasional nightmares related to the breach of contact that it alleged in the lawsuit.
Nevertheless, LoJack, like other large corporations, used the court system to obtain a result, which amounted to a higher verdict than almost any achieved by private litigants for physical injuries. It wasn't embarassed. It didn't apologize. It simply hired a lawyer and brought a lawsuit.