Hello, everyone! Today I would like to talk about the profession of lawyer. It is one of the most prestigious and moneyed professions in the States. It takes many years and a lot of money to study and get a lawyer's license. Not everyone can afford to get such a license. In addition, people in America like to sue, so the profession of a lawyer is very popular. Everybody likes to be in court here. In our countries, this is the prerogative mainly grandmothers, who because of too much free time, begin to go everywhere to send their claims, complain and quarrel. Everyone loves to sue here, because it is most often associated with winning a lot of money. That is the phrase: "I will sue you" is pulled out by people automatically in case of any conflict connected with any minimum assaults. That is, the first thing a person yells is: "I'm gonna sue you" - I'm gonna sue you.
Lawyers work a little differently here than they do in our countries. First of all, we have a fairly broad division of lawyers. We have a lawyer who works with civil cases, a criminal lawyer, a lawyer in cases involving legal entities. Here the division of attorney specialization is very narrow. It's all separate here: a lawyer who handles immigration matters, handles family law, handles bankruptcy matters, etc.
I would like to elaborate on this specialization of attorneys who deal with personal injury compensation. Bodily injuries can be related to anything: accidents, falls, even falls on a boat or injuries at work. Anyone who falls and gets an abrasion has the right to file a personal injury lawsuit. And for that, accordingly, there are attorneys.
When we talk about fall-related lawsuits, most often we're talking about places like this where the floor has been scrubbed. The floor is wet, the person slipped and fell. Then the person with the lawsuit goes to the company that actually cleaned the floor. So companies try to protect themselves. Everywhere where the floor is washed, they put warning triangles, which say: Beware, wet floor.
I had a funny situation once. I was in the lobby of some building (either a hotel or a bank), I don't remember exactly. There was a puddle on the floor, something had been spilled, and a security guard was standing over this puddle. At first I did not understand, I did not see this puddle. I saw the guard standing there and saying something to everyone. When I passed him, he said: "Be careful, there's a puddle here. Look under your feet, the floor is wet here. So it's even more profitable for an organization to pay an hourly wage to an employee who will stand and walk people around a puddle, because everyone knows what happens if a person, a client, falls in that puddle.
The lawyers who deal with these cases have the following responsibility: to make a huge claim out of any fall or bruise in order to ask the court for as much money as possible. Any ailments a person had prior to the fall are presented as a result of the fall.
How are lawyers paid for? Here there is no such thing as in our countries, that the lawyer takes a fixed amount for participation in the case. Here the lawyer initially doesn't take any money. He then takes a percentage of the amount won. I don't know if that percentage is fixed or not, but I've seen this case where the lawyer takes 33% of the amount won.
The lawyer has a kind of team, like agents, assistants - these are the people who bring the lawyer clients. The lawyer works with these people on a commission basis, i.e. from each client, the lawyer pays the person money. Just the other day I was talking to a guy like that. He says, "I made a contract with an attorney that I would bring him clients who fell somewhere, and he would pay me $5,000 out of every client he brought in." These kinds of fall cases last a long time, about a year, because the man is treated first. It's important for him to show that he's been in treatment for a long time, so that he can knock out a bigger amount later. I ask, "And how's that job working out for you?" He says, "It's okay. Found a woman who fell in the lobby of one of the apartment buildings located in Sunny Isles on First Line" I mean, again, the floor was wet, she was walking, didn't notice, slipped and fell. The cameras caught it. The damage to her was serious, because the bruise was halfway down her leg. He takes the lady and takes her to a lawyer. The lawyer fleshes out a big lawsuit and a lawsuit begins. The lawyer promises this lady she will win $100,000. It turns out that from this amount the lawyer will take 33,000 - his commission. Out of this 33,000 he apparently gives 5,000 to the guy who brought the client.
The legal profession in America. Legal cases involving compensation for personal injury. How much a lawyer earns from one winning case.
