The title of this blog entry reflects a stereotype of
personal injury lawyers in the USA: They have late-night TV ads for
their services (“Get what you deserve!”), they wear ill-fitting suits, and
their status is a few steps below that of lawyers in specialties like criminal
law and the various kinds of corporate law. Personal injury law is in fact
important: it helps individuals recover damages from accidents that are not
covered by insurance, or when insurance firms resist paying out. It also helps
individuals recover damages resulting from product defects. Personal injury law
is one reason why firms will check whether the toys they manufacture are nontoxic
and cannot lead to choking, before putting them in a store for you to buy for
your child.
Having said that, there is some truth to the
stereotype. Personal injury law is a low-status specialization, just a few
notches higher than family law, the lowest-status of all legal specializations.
And they are guilty of bad TV ads and suits.
Phillips, Turco, and Zuckerman noted that there were
many explanations that did not make sense. Status alone was not an explanation,
because these firms entered the lowest specialization of family law, but
personal injury law was higher. Nor was it a worry that personal injury law
somehow would involve them into low-ethics practices (it does not, in general)
or that they lacked capabilities for it. Instead, their interviews with corporate
clients of top law firms and lawyers delivered a simple and strong message.
Their corporate clients viewed participation in personal injury as treason.
Personal injury law means that the firm has crossed over to the other side, and
is now willing to sue corporations on behalf of individuals. For the general
council of a corporation, that is worrying enough that they stated their willingness
to dropping their law firm just for adding a personal injury practice. Corporations
demand loyalty from their law firms and are willing to shop around to get it.
Clearly this means that we cannot expect that a
personal injury will get the best possible legal representation. That will be
found on the other side of the courtroom, defending the corporation. More
broadly, firms can make demands of loyalty from other firms that shape their
business and organization. These in turn shape markets. For example, in markets
with battling giants, like automobile companies, suppliers have to choose sides
if the giants demand loyalty. When lobbyist firms and industry associations
need research to justify their views, they will go to research providers that
do not work with the other side. Loyalty demands have potentially far-reaching
consequences.
OK, we are at the end of this blog entry. Are you
still wondering whether the “bad suits” in the title was an intended pun? Yes,
it was. Thank you for noticing.
