Catholics and Trial Lawyers

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My question: can a Catholic be a trial lawyer?

Many trial lawyers are known in the United States’ society as “ambulance chasers”, “slip-and-fall attorneys”, and I’m sure there are other nicknames for this profession.

It seems as if (maybe I’m wrong) many trial lawyers are in their profession exclusively to make money in the most desperate or immoral ways possible. “Pain and suffering”, “faulty products”, “compensation and damages”…while these issues can be true, it seems as if oftentimes they are “get rich quick” schemes.

One only needs to watch 30 seconds worth of commercials on television (or listen on the radio) or drive half a mile down the highway to see a trial lawyer commercial or advertisement.

I know friends who are good and honest lawyers and spend their time as legislators, writing wills and contracts, and assessing real estate values. I also know friends who are trial lawyers who, under the guise of “helping people”, seem to sue for just about any reason they can.

My opinion is that trial lawyers are ruining our society and encouraging people to sue each other instead of working out their problems in a civil manner.

Given the modern profession of trial law, can a Catholic be a trial lawyer and remain moral? Or will the nature of the profession cause him to forsake his ethics to make money?
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Trial lawyers are like any other profession, there are good ones and bad ones. You might as well ask if a Catholic can be an IRS agent, a police officer, a prison guard, an investment banker, etc
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Yep, makes sense. Thank you!
 
Cthompson said:
My opinion is that trial lawyers are ruining our society and encouraging people to sue each other instead of working out their problems in a civil manner.
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Having answered your question in my other post, and having liked Horton’s comment, I would note that most court cases settle, so the parties do work out their differences and the lawyer is part of that. Getting the lawyer is part of the settling process. Even if you go straight to alternative dispute resolution, like mediation, the lawyer can help you with that and in many cases is trained to help you with that.
 
DH isn’t Catholic, but he’s an attorney.

The first firm he went to, he ended up doing criminal law and family law, because none of the other attorneys at the firm cared to do that kind of stuff. For the criminal law, he defended people who were innocent, and he defended people who were guilty. It didn’t particularly matter-- they were entitled to their day in court under the law, and he was going to do his job, and if they were guilty, then the prosecutors had to successfully make their case.

Currently, he works as an attorney in an elected position, so now he’s on the other side of things. He’s the one who offers people deals, and they can either settle with him out of court, or they can take it all the way to a bench or jury trial. It doesn’t really matter, it’s their choice. Generally, his offer is pretty generous in comparison to what you might get on a good day with a jury— and a jury can always give you much worse for wasting their time.

He still does family law on the side, and ad litem work for kids and the incapacitated.

Both as a prosecutor, and as an ad litem attorney, and even in the family law side of things, he runs into plenty of people in the justice system in about a 200-mile radius. And it’s the full spectrum. Just because an attorney focuses on x doesn’t mean that he’s a good guy, or a bad guy, or a diligent guy, or a moral guy, or anything else. Which is why we can never win the lottery, because DH is a diligent guy and takes his responsibilities seriously… and he’s got too many vulnerable little kids depending on him for us to win the Powerball and retire to Aruba. 😜

In TX, there are these things called the Blue Books. Basically, it’s a list of every attorney in every town and city in Texas. And it will tell you how many attorneys to people there are in a given municipality. So if you’re in a place like DFW, it might be 1 attorney for every 200 people. But if you’re in a rural area, it might be more like 1 attorney for every 5,000 people. So you can imagine that it’s harder to stand out and make ends meet in an area with more competition, and that’s when you get the silly commercials and the big billboards and trying to make a name in a certain niche. If you wander out to a town an hour away from an Interstate, you don’t need to be gimmicky.

But not all defense attorneys (is that what you mean when you say “trial lawyer”?) are going to be “anything”, just like not all prosecutors are going to be “anything”, or all ad litem attorneys are going to be “anything”, or all divorce attorneys are going to be “anything” or all judges are going to be “anything”. They’re not monolithic.
 
Cthompson said:
My question: can a Catholic be a trial lawyer?

Many trial lawyers are known in the United States’ society as “ambulance chasers”, “slip-and-fall attorneys”, and I’m sure there are other nicknames for this profession.

It seems as if (maybe I’m wrong) many trial lawyers are in their profession exclusively to make money in the most desperate or immoral ways possible. “Pain and suffering”, “faulty products”, “compensation and damages”…while these issues can be true, it seems as if oftentimes they are “get rich quick” schemes.

One only needs to watch 30 seconds worth of commercials on television (or listen on the radio) or drive half a mile down the highway to see a trial lawyer commercial or advertisement.

I know friends who are good and honest lawyers and spend their time as legislators, writing wills and contracts, and assessing real estate values. I also know friends who are trial lawyers who, under the guise of “helping people”, seem to sue for just about any reason they can.

My opinion is that trial lawyers are ruining our society and encouraging people to sue each other instead of working out their problems in a civil manner.

Given the modern profession of trial law, can a Catholic be a trial lawyer and remain moral? Or will the nature of the profession cause him to forsake his ethics to make money?
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Yes, a Catholic can be a trail lawyer. There is a deacon on these forums who is an Attorney, and I know several deacons who are lawyers.

The problem you are having is that you are trafficking in stereotypes. The majority of trial attorneys are not ambulance chasers and slip-and-fall attorneys.

Most (not all) attorneys who are true “ambulance chasers” or “slip-and-fall attorneys” graduated low in their class or went to a bad law school.

An overwhelming number of trial attorneys represent corporations and other organizations. Also, most who represent private individuals are often in general practice.

I work in a large law firm, and MOST of them are very good people. There are some who are greedy, selfish people - but most are good.

I think you are letting the media distort your view of lawyers. HOWEVER, I do believe that the devil is focusing more on corrupting lawyers today instead of focusing solely on the priesthood. This is because the devil knows that the court systems are the easiest way to push though his agenda.

God bless
 
A young couple in love were in an automobile accident the night before their wedding, and both were killed.

In heaven soon afterward, the guy told St. Peter, “My fiance and I really miss the opportunity to have celebrated our wedding vows. Is it possible for people in heaven to get married?”

St. Peter said, “I’ll tell you what–wait five years and if you still want to get married, come back and we will talk about it again.”

Five years pass and the couple still wanted to get married. They repeated their request to St. Peter, who told them, “I’m sorry, but there’s a problem. You’ll have to wait another five years.”

After another five years go by, they brace St. Peter again. This time he answers, “Yes, you may marry now. Thanks for your patience.”

The couple got married. However, they soon found that they were not compatible. Going to see St. Peter, they asked if their was such a thing as divorce in heaven. St. Peter gave them a thousand-yard stare, and finally muttered, "Look, it took us ten years to find a minister up here. **Do you have any idea how long it’ll take to find a lawyer?" **
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I think you are painting a profession with a pretty broad brush.

I’m a Catholic, and a lawyer, and was a litigator (what you would call a “trial lawyer”). Certainly there were lots of jerks and those who wanted the next big payout - but there are people like that in every profession. It isn’t the profession. It’s the people.

On the whole, the ethical obligations imposed on the legal profession are quite high, including litigators. The fact that there are bad litigators doesn’t mean it is a bad profession.
 
If I may ask something slightly off topic, I’m in the process of applying to law school and hope to start next August. What advice do you have to a Catholic 0L?
 
Those 4 jokes came from a group of over a 20. Get over it.

The guy I go to Bama games with is a Lawyer. I rib him all the time.
 
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I suppose that’s fair. Though I’m not sure what to say, in a sense.

Also, @JoshuaIsLord, Gig 'Em, Aggies.
 
Scowler said:
Fact: In the US we have about 6% of the world’s population, but over 50% of the world’s lawyers.
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This is for 2 reasons. First, our system of government relies on lawyers to perform a lot of functions that in other countries are centralized in the state government. We did not even have an administrative state till FDR and many of the jobs within it require one to get certified as a lawyer anyway.

Second, we have too many law schools churning put too many people with law degrees, many of whom end up not even practicing law.
 
Before you go to law school, look critically at the market. Law school is expensive and the market isn’t necessarily favourable. It sucks to leave school with a mountain of debt and no jobs. Also, talk to lawyers and get a good sense of what you can expect in the practice areas you’re interested in and decide if that’s appealing to you.

In terms of being Catholic and a lawyer (or law student), my suggestion is to look critically at the school you are planning to attend. I attended (and still attend, now as a graduate student) an extremely left-wing school. I deal with it, but it can be difficult to be the only pro-life person in a class. I remember sitting in one class and having the professor claim that a devout Christian could not pass the reasonable person’s test (that will make more sense to you after the first month of 1L). If you think that could be difficult to deal with, steer clear of that type of school.
 
On one hand, I think I’ll be fine, since I have an engineering degree and if I’m not mistaken, patent law is doing well. On the other hand, the school I’m looking at is liberal. I was fairly liberal before I converted, so I know that song and dance, but that’s true, it would get grating.
 
We are the Best Catholics. Just ask Nick Saban. 🙂
🏈
 
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I couldn’t imagine that. Or how anyone could do that. Even though the money is good (I guess it is? Idk); it appears you have no life outside that work.

Also, the statistics you showed earlier come as no surprise especially if a lawyer is billing an incredible amount of hours and an untold number of unbilled hours.
 
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