Hi guys personal injury lawyer Scott DeSalvo here.
In today’s video I’m going to share with you the dirty little secret that defense lawyers in Chicago don’t want you to know.
So what I’m about to tell you is a true story. I’m not going to change names. I’m not going to tell you my client’s name and I’m certainly not going to tell you the name of the defense attorneys who were involved.
So I represented a lady who was injured on somebody else’s property. There are two entities, two business entities we sued for the condition that caused her to fall and be injured. So there’s me against two defense attorneys in the case.
We’re at the stage of the case where we’re doing depositions, which are recorded statements. There’s a court reporter typing up the questions and the answers. The idea is that the witnesses that I’ve named who I want to call at trial are deposed by the defense lawyers. In other words, the defense lawyers get to ask the questions.
I disclose the significant other of my client and I took some defense depositions. Obviously when I’m taking a deposition, the defense lawyers are also there taking notes and paying attention to what’s happening.
After the defense deps are done lawyers will sometimes talk scheduling and things like that. The defense lawyers started making sort of untoward comments about my client and her significant other after the deposition was done.
At first I wasn’t sure exactly that that was happening because that’s pretty rude. It’s especially rude to do it in front of my face because they know that I’m there to represent my client.
This does happen from time to time with defense attorneys. All of their humanity is left outside the door when they become defense attorneys. It’s certainly not true of all of them.
There are some very nice defense attorneys who are always respectful to all the witnesses.
But these two attorneys in particular, a man and a woman both with lots of experience, both well respected in the industry, were making these sort of rude, lewd comments about my clients’ significant other who has yet to be deposed for strategic reasons.
I just let them walk out of the room and have their laugh.
I separate out attorneys into defense attorneys and black hat defense attorneys.
The difference is a defense attorney is an ethical person who treats witnesses and plaintiffs and attorneys with respect.
The black hat attorneys are the ones that in their hearts have no regard for other people. They are there to win their case. They don’t care how they do it.
At the end of the day the way they think about people comes out every once in awhile. How I know that these two are black hats, not honorable defense attorneys, is the way that they let their beliefs about the people involved in the litigation slip out by making these rude, lewd comments about these people.
All of this was off the record. It’s not part of the case but it lets me know who I’m dealing with. It let’s me know what’s in their heart.
Obviously I come to care about my clients and even when I have a client that I don’t have a close connection with, I always try to show them respect.
I was taught that all people deserve respect. Even if they’re in a situation that you’ve never been in or if they have made life choices and life hasn’t worked out for them too well. You don’t walk around feeling superior. And you certainly don’t make fun of them behind their back.These two attorneys did.
I think I know why they do it.
I think that in order to defend cases that you know in your heart should be paid you know there should be an offer you know the case should go away.
Remember a lot of these insurance defense attorneys fight these cases on technicalities so they know that it’s not even the real reason or a justifiable reason for denying a claim.
In order for them to get through the day in their minds they have to make it right. The way they make it right is they start to ignore the humanity of the people involved in the litigation.
That’s one of the reasons why I could never be a defense lawyer. When I see people, I see them as people. I don’t want to stop seeing people and stop seeing the fundamental justice and fairness in a case just so that I can collect insurance company paycheck.
Why am I telling you this? It’s because if you’ve been injured in a case or you have a claim, 99% of the time it involves an insurance company. These insurance companies hire lawyers that dehumanized these defense lawyers and they encourage these defense lawyers to win at all costs.
At some point it starts affecting their brain.
Now, whether a black hat defense attorney started out as a good person and they had to wrap their mind around and get their minds around helping defeat valid claims for injury or whether they started out with sort of a black heart where they don’t really care about other human beings, they really want to hurt other people, they enjoy competition for competitions sake, they like to win even if they shouldn’t win.Some people bring this sort of attitude to the table right out of law school. Other people learn it because they need a pay check.
The reason I shot this video and told you this story is because I want you to understand what you may be facing.
The reason I’m giving you this information is because I want you to understand that if you’ve got a case or claim, you can’t count on the system or the judge or the defense lawyers to do the right thing and be fair.
All of your ducks have to be in a row and you need representation by somebody who knows what they’re doing because nobody’s gonna cut you a break. It’s sad but true.
The defense attorneys can sometimes appear to care about your injuries and what you’re talking about. Some of them do, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. There are some really decent, good defense attorneys out there.
But unfortunately you can’t sort them out from the bad guys without experience.
These two attorneys that I just had this experience with have pretty much revealed themselves to be bad guys.
So if you’ve been injured in some kind of crash or accident, consider getting a consultation from an attorney because you don’t want to go up against these guys by yourself.
You didn’t ask to get hurt and nobody should denigrate you or your spouse or significant other just because you have been injured.
Thanks for watching.
