Jumping To Conclusions

As Atlanta personal injury lawyers we see on a daily basis that many people jump to unfounded conclusions as to what we do and who we represent. The recent ordeal experienced by Shirley Sherrod is another reminder that society is many times too quick to reach a conclusion that someone is right or wrong. 

            As you will recall, Ms. Sherrod was forced to resign her position from the U.S. Department of Agriculture here in Georgia after a video was edited and posted in a way that made her appear racist.  Instead of considering the source of the posting or conducting a full investigation of what was on the entire video, the NAACP called for her departure and her superiors at the Agriculture Department forced her resignation.  Only later did it come out that the video was edited and that Ms. Sherrod should have been applauded for the message she was trying to convey in her speech.

            Unfortunately, a rush to judgment occurs all too often.  As attorneys who represent injured individuals against large insurance companies and corporations, we see that good people like Ms. Sherrod are falsely portrayed based upon half-truths and/or outright lies.  Big business has spent a fortune to create an unfounded myth that the civil justice is broken by frivolous litigation and runaway jury awards.

            At Chambers, Aholt & Rickard we will not take on a case that we view as frivolous.  We do not want to clog up the civil justice systems with such lawsuits and there is no way to make money on a frivolous lawsuit.  Judges simply do not allow a frivolous lawsuit to proceed.  On the other hand, in our experience, we find far too often that the insurance company puts forth frivolous defenses to meritorious claims.  I cannot tell you the number of lawsuits we have been involved in where the defense refuses to accept responsibility even though liability is clearly established.

            As a small business, we cannot afford to run an advertising campaign to counter the multi-million dollar campaigns put on by the insurance industry and the United States Chamber of Commerce to lead you to believe that every claim brought is a frivolous claim.  Nevertheless, I do invite you to visit the websites for the Center of Justice and Democracy and People over Profits.  These two websites provide research and additional information for you to consider before reaching a conclusion that society is plagued with frivolous lawsuits.

            For example, it seems a number of people have concluded that the so-called McDonald’s coffee spill case is a classic example of frivolous litigation.  Most people think the case is simply about a woman getting $3,000,000.00 for spilling coffee on herself without any real injury.  Three million dollars is obviously too much for a simple spill that caused nothing more than stained clothes and an uncomfortable feeling.  On this point, everyone agrees.  Of course, the case of Stella Liebeck was not about a simple case of spilled coffee, and she did not in fact receive millions of dollars.  The fact of the matter is that Ms. Liebeck suffered third degree burns that required skin grafting and hospitalization. Additionally, the evidence of misconduct on the part of McDonald’s was overwhelming and the punitive damage award was reduced.  For more details go to www.centerjd.org/archives/issues-facts/stories/MB_mcdonalds.php for the full story

            The jury system works because a trial is where both sides of an issue can present all of the pertinent information and the Court will provide proper instruction to the jury.  For instance, most people don’t know that the compensatory damage award in the McDonald’s coffee case was reduced because the jury felt Ms. Liebeck bore some responsibility for the incident even though McDonald’s was primarily at fault. Facts do matter. Yet, ten second distorted sound bites  meant to evoke quick, biased and uninformed decisions are all around us..  Hopefully, the lesson we learned from Shirley Sherrod’s ordeal is that the pursuit of truth requires due diligence and deliberation as opposed to knee jerk reactions to half-truths and distortions.

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