What will happen toall the lawyers as the economy continues its collapse?????

[wardoc]

I work in a medical field that interfaces with the litigants involved in injured workers and their care and legal issues. 
I am seeing increasing frankly vicious aggression on the part of many of the lawyers involved with these patients. 
A) in the past 3 months, I've seen at least five cases of lawyers pulling tricks of various sorts to get more than their agreed upon
share of work injury settlements (e.g. recently the senior partner of the firm that was representing a patient tacked on
a 2% "senior partner fee" on his $500K catastrophic injury settlement and he had never seen or heard of this guy);
B) the insurance company lawyers are becoming aggressive to the extreme, attempting to deny care in cases
that have already settled with "lifetime medicals," and pulling stunts like getting medical care cut off (e.g. advising the carrier to
refuse to pay for patient's  prescriptions or for needed procedures) then offering some
pittance (e.g. $5K) to "buy out" their lifetime medicals. 
Things are getting sleezier and sleezier and I can't help but think its related to everybody being squeezed and
attempting to get as much money as possible while the gettings good. 
Also, I'm hearing more and more talk from patients and former patients blaming lawyers for their financial problems.  Where might
this go if its really some kind of trend? 

Any ideas? 

Wardoc

[Shamaness]

What will happen toall the lawyers as the economy continues its collapse??

Also, I'm hearing more and more talk from patients and former patients blaming lawyers for their financial problems.  Where might
this go if its really some kind of trend? 

They'll all go to work defending Goldman Sachs?   

[fiziwig]

In the short term, they will get very hungry. In the long term, they will become farmers or die.

[rocketgirl]

In the short term, they will get very hungry. In the long term, they will become farmers or die.

I'm smiling very widely at the thought

[sc]

anybody know what the effect on criminal lawyers was during the great depression?

and yes I share the sentiments re: the legal profession

[Ming]

Just like any other profession now, their business is suffering.

Attorneys made a lot of money at least in PA doing real estate closings.  That has all but dried up. 

They have more time to spend on injury litigations.

[Megadoom]

I don't care what happens to lawyers. What happens to me? What happens to you? That is enough to worry about.

[kjeriah]

Trying, trying to get hubby on board with that whole farmer thing...

He's one of the good guys -- doens't do defense work or any of that.  But nevertheless, work has suffered tons, like perhaps 50% down.  Many longterm business client just can't pay their bills.  It's sad to see regular businesses suffer so much.  Even sadder to see how few bills we can pay because of it.   

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

the legal profession is in a financial death spiral. The NY Times has had a whole bunch of articles about this over the last year. Usually the legal profession gets through recessions pretty good. But not this time. The amount of work has contracted considerably and the work that does exist . . . well an rapidly increasing number of clients just aren't paying their bills, either because they can't or because their own lives are going to sh-t and taking it out on the attorney (who is probably not a terribly charming person to begin with) seems like a good idea.

Basically the legal industry pie is getting smaller so the people fighting for a piece of it are going to get increasingly desperate and thus more aggressive, dirty, etc.

[Grumalg]

In the short term, they will get very hungry. In the long term, they will become farmers or die.

Organic fertilizer?

[justanouveaufarmer]

The problem with lawyers, like everything else, is that there are just too many of them.  They had a good gig for awhile but that time is over.

[firewalker]

LAWyers turning on LAWyers should prove entertaining.  MAybe there will be a new reality show.

A combination of LA LAW and Bully Beat Down. 

LAWyer Beat Down.  Go Mayhem

http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/bully_beatdown/series.jhtml?kw=sem/g/bully+beat+down/

Surely a self respecting LAWyer would take on a Pro Martial Artist for $10,000.

I can't wait!

[EastcoastJD]

I'm a lawyer by day, musician by night.  I like to think there will always be a place for musicians in whatever type of society comes next, but given the type of collapse we're undergoing, i.e., sliding back down into the Olduvai Gorge, I'm not so sure. 

anybody know what the effect on criminal lawyers was during the great depression?

and yes I share the sentiments re: the legal profession

Wish I knew the answer to that.  No question crime is on the rise.  Of course, the need for criminal lawyers only come into play assuming the suspected criminal is caught and charges are filed.  With tax revenues plummeting, law enforcement's budgets will contract (unless state and local government gets their own bailout??), thus meaning more crimes will go unsolved and/or unprosecuted.  You can only stretch law enforcement so thin.  Once you get to a certain point, anarchy starts to take over.  There will come a time when so many people are committing crimes at any given time, there simply won't be enough law enforcement to go around.

All this said, I don't see the demand for criminal lawyers going down, but I don't see demand going up much more than current levels simply because the justice system can only handle so many cases moving through our courts at any given time.

[justanouveaufarmer]

on the other hand, public defenders should do pretty well.  As long as they can still get Prozac.

[swampman]

Ny wife got served with subpoena last week due a minor car crash she had last May.  Traffic was stopped for construction (one lane at a time) and she decided to take a different route and made a U-turn.  Long story short, someone hit her and it was clearly her fault.  The guy that hit her told the LEO that he was not injured.  There was about $2500 damage to his car and about the same to our car.

All of a sudden, he is injured and USAA tried to settle, but he refused.  We are getting sued for $100,000 which is the legal limit on our policy. USAA will litigate this for no charge. I was talking with the claims agent and he said this is happening all the time now.  People are trying for the big score and lawyers are convincing their clients that they can win big time.  What will play out is that USAA will settle for some larger amount and the lawyer will take 30% and the poor snook will get less than the original offer.

A guy and his lawyer friend were walking when the lawyer stepped in dog crap on the sidewalk.  Look, the guy said to his lawyer friend, you're melting.

Can we morph this thread into a thread on lawyer jokes?