Another Look at Trial Lawyer's Images
This morning’s Hagar the Horrible by Chris Browne has a reminder of our image in the community. It starts off with Hagar and Lucky Eddie pulling guard duty in the middle of the night. Hagar shouts out:
“Halt! Who goes there – Friend or Foe?” the response is:
“I am just a friendly lawyer dedicated to helping the little guy in his unending battle against the forces of Evil, with no thought of personal gain whatsoever”.
Hagar turns to Lucky Eddie and says
“Foe”.
Ouch. And the worst part about it is that he didn’t use lies or misinformation. He used our own language against us. Double Ouch. Large corporations and their organizations have made a concerted effort to put down the jury system, which is the only method the average guy has to fight back against large corporations and the government.
But, the commercials of a few of our plaintiff’s brethren don’t help. The ‘Heavy Hitters’, the ‘Strong Arms’, the commercials for ‘One Call, That’s All’ don’t help us. If you don’t think we have a changed jury pool, then this comic strip should be a wakeup call.
It’s way past the time where we can tell people that we are doing good. We have to show them we’re doing good. We have to be willing to help people in ways where there isn’t a reward or payoff for the lawyer. Things like passing out bike helmets to children, buying copies of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ for junior high students, having fingerprint registration/identification for parents at County fairs…, providing information on the internet for people that need help. There are a ton of ways we can help and change public opinion.
Right now, ATLA is grappling with the issue of our image. That’s a good start. But it’s not enough to change our image. We’re no longer perceived as the good guys in white hats. We have to change what we do.
I've always thought that lawyer advertising, especially personal injury advertising, was doing us all a diservice. It may be great for getting people in the door but it just poisons the jury pools. I heard that David Ball spoke at our Washington State Trial Lawyers Convention last year and told the audience that in large part, due to lawyer advertising, we had zero credibility. I have also heard that somewhere out there in the blogosphere people are saying that David Ball is very critical of the proposed name change of ATLA to the American Association for Justice on the theory that people will see right through it. I tend to agree. Why can't we just be trial lawyers and proud of it instead of always trying to spin.
