I have people frequently walk in our office and ask what's their case worth. And the answer is: I don't know. I can't give any guarantees. The fact is, we may take only one in ten malpractice and defective-products cases that we review. If we arrive at the judgment that there was bad or faulty treatment in a medical case, we'll take it on. But the most difficult part of my job is telling people I can't take their case, or that it simply can't be litigated. An injury may not be serious enough. Or the law simply doesn't provide recovery for the emotional damage of a loss of a loved one. If an elderly family member is impacted by terrible care in a health-care facility, there may be no way to recover substantial damages. Frequently there is no pecuniary loss in a situation like that. It's very tough for us to hear those stories - and then say there's very little we can do about it. We take on significant risk when we take on a case - we are financing the case to its conclusion, with no guarantee of success. There's no fail-safe process here. If we lose it hurts. The jury system really is one of the bedrock institutions of our society, and some powerful interests have done their level best to discredit it. But I believe the jury system does work well; I think that citizens on a jury get it right far more than they get it wrong. Insurance companies are going to make sure they get their share - they collect more in premiums and fight to pay out little if anything. They peddle the phrase "frivolous lawsuit" around in the media, and paint trial lawyers somehow as evil-doers - it all really is outrageous. A planeload of people die every day from medical malpractice. The outrage is that insurance companies and big business go out of their way to demonize the injured person. It's interesting, sometimes a juror from an old case will come into our office a few months later with a claim of their own. I got into this because I wanted to make a difference in people's lives. It's more than about money - it's about a desire to be respected as a practicing lawyer. That was always a big deal to me. I like to think we do some good. We'll spend countless hours without pay answering people's questions. There's been plenty of lawyer-bashing in recent years. But you know what? I'm proud of what we do. We make insurance companies, wrongdoers and big corporations accountable for negligent, sloppy, wrongful acts. And that's an important and satisfying role.