Are all lawyers bad?

With so many lawyers around, it is inevitable that there are so many lawsuits. The thought of nearly a million lawyers running around searching for their next victim endangers anyone with significant assets. You can’t blame every lawyer, though. Not every lawyer is in the lawsuit business. And if you look hard you can still find plaintiffs’ lawyers who won’t file a frivolous lawsuit. They use their good judgment and do not abuse the judicial system. We are proud to be part of the legal profession with these lawyers as our colleagues. But how many lawyers do throw lawsuits around like confetti? How many lawyers see the lawsuit as a way to make a fast buck? How many lawyers don’t care if their lawsuit is meritless as long as they can extort enough money from some hapless defendant to make the lawsuit worthwhile? Too many!

Apparently, the tide has turned. The American Bar Association Journal (the largest US publication for lawyers) in its article Protect Your Assets Before A Lawsuit Arises counsels their 400,000 members that asset protection is as critical for them as to their clients. One trial lawyer interviewed for the article frankly admits, “I don’t want people doing to me what I do to other people all day in court.” So, in a sense, by defending the wealth of prospective lawsuit targets we believe we are helping to counteract a bad system that favors bad lawsuits.