Asbestos Lawyers and Legal Ethics

Most states have adopted some form of the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Ethics. The ABA passed many of these rules in the wake of the Watergate scandal. It was clear that White House lawyers, including Richard Nixon, had been playing fast and loose with the vague ethical rules in place at the time.

The MREs are more specific and, in most states, more strictly enforced. In fact, it is difficult to find a lawyer who has not had at least one scrape with an ethics committee.

In court, ethical matters are not legal defenses. However, if the jury believes the lawyer is unethical, it could reduce the amount of compensation it awards the victim. Once upon a time, an attorney offended jurors. The jury reduced the damage award, so in their words, that lawyer could not buy a new Porsche.

So, a good nationwide mesothelioma lawyer should be on the watch for such arguments and be prepared to refute them. Alternatively, a lawyer might pull the pin on this grenade, often during jury selection. If jurors trust the lawyer, they’re much more likely to award maximum compensation.

This complaint is common and, alas, often on point. Some law firms aggressively solicit asbestos-exposure clients. Then, after only a cursory case review, which usually does not involve a doctor, they refer the matter to another law firm and collect the referral fee.

This arrangement is perfectly legal. Lawyers often refer legal matters to more experienced lawyers or to lawyers who have the time to deal with a matter. This arrangement is also shady, at least in the context of asbestos exposure. The soliciting law firm usually does not care about victims. Usually, these firms only care about quick referral fees.

Our nationwide mesothelioma lawyers typically use a reverse screening process. If another law firm wants to send us a matter, we’re happy to accept it as long as the case has some legitimacy. We usually look for a competent medical diagnosis and a probable asbestos exposure source. If the matter lacks these two things, we usually tell the referring person to get his/her house in order, and then we will think about accepting the case.

Excessive fees are a common complaint, not just in asbestos exposure matters but in all legal matters. Defendants sometimes imply that the plaintiffs; attorneys collected huge fees and did very little work.

First, an attorney’s “fee” is not just a legal fee. We must also deduct costs that, in most cases, we have already paid. Quite frequently, medical costs, expert witness fees, and other expenses, not our fee, make up the lion’s share of a settlement deduction.

Second, the great ones always make it look easy. Baseball fans sometimes think almost anyone can pick up a bat and hit. However, that is clearly not true. They make it look easy because they have worked so hard and trained for so long. The same is true for a nationwide mesothelioma lawyer. We use proven methods that we have developed over many years to obtain top results.

We close with probably the weakest ethical argument in asbestos exposure cases. Some defendants claim that lawyers always blame solvent companies for asbestos exposure injuries.

This claim isn’t completely without merit. Environmental diseases, like mesothelioma and asbestosis, could come from a number of places. The exposure source is especially difficult to pin down in ambient (environmental) claims, like people who got sick because they lived near an asbestos mine and an asbestos manufacturing facility.

Mesothelioma victims need and deserve significant compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced nationwide mesothelioma lawyer, contact the Throneberry Law Group. We routinely handle these matters on a nationwide basis.