Injury Lawyer and the Ambulance Chaser Myth

For any injury lawyer who works on the plaintiff’s side of things in cases, he or she is all too familiar with the “ambulance chaser” myth.  Perhaps my reader is familiar with this phrase as well.  The expression comes from the idea that some attorneys, dastardly, conniving, and cheap, actually “chase” ambulances down the street in an effort to make contact with their unlucky and presumably injured occupants.  This myth is probably perpetuated by those sympathetic to the insurance company lobby, or perhaps businesses and companies that feel threatened by the fact that a single man or woman can haul them into court and demand justice from a jury.  Nevertheless, I (and any stand up injury lawyer like myself) am not interested in these clients.  There are a few reasons why.

For one thing, I do not seek my clients out—they seek me out.  Bringing a lawsuit is serious thing that I would never imagine putting a client up to without their 100 percent devotion to the idea.  Attorneys who bring cases that they desire which their clients do not is a recipe for disaster.  Litigation can involves hours and hours of work, commitment, and risk.  It is hardly something which should be undertaken with a client or legal professional who is only concerned about what the “ambulance chaser” is probably only concerned with: the promise of money.

Another problem with this “ambulance chaser” myth is that it is impossible to say anything about a person riding in an ambulance besides the fact that they are hurt in some way.  Who or what was responsible for the harm is obviously anyone’s guess.  Was it crime?  Was it the injured person’s own fault or negligence which caused the damage?  Or perhaps the accident was just that, a pure accident.  In all the above cases, there is no lawsuit.  Since some estimates say that more than half of the people transported by ambulance are victims of crime or of old age, our “ambulance chaser” would probably run out of breath before he actually found a client to represent.

Yet another reason the “ambulance chaser” really does not exist is simple: it is entirely and flagrantly unethical!  Before you become an injury lawyer you are generally required (here in in Louisiana you certainly are) to take an oath to uphold the professionalism and observe the sanctimonious responsibilities of being an officer of the court and an attorney at law.  And that includes no soliciting!  Without getting into too many specifics about the exact lineaments of the solicitation rules here in Louisiana and elsewhere in the United States, it is generally the case that an attorney cannot make contact with people who he knows to have a legal problem which he could represent them for.  There are exceptions to this generally rule, but chasing around ambulance and approaching people who are injured specifically to potentially represent them is definitely a big NO-NO.  If our “ambulance chaser” injury lawyer did exist, he would likely be disbarred before long. 

This article is not meant to be anything other than information on the law.  For legal advice, please speak with an attorney.  Will Beaumont.  New Orleans.