One of challenges of our justice system is cost. Not everyone can afford a lawyer. And sometimes people don’t get justice because they don’t have the money. That’s the biggest reason why we take personal injury claims without payment of fees upfront. When it’s a personal injury claim our firm will wait until the client wins to be paid.
Aside from lawyers the biggest expense when going to court is the cost of experts to provide expert opinion. These days it’s almost impossible to do a trial without needing an expert. And they can be very expensive.
Recently I saw in American news that Donald Trump paid a real estate appraiser almost $1,000,000 in fees to prepare for and testify at his trial in New York City. Of course the first reaction when I heard this news was the expert was bought. For that kind of money I’m thinking that the expert will probably say anything that the client wants them to say. Which is not a good reaction – you want the expert to have credibility.
The exact same thing happens here in Ontario. In personal injury claims the defence has the right to have a qualified medical expert examine the claimant. And of course insurance companies have their favorite doctors.
I have stopped being amazed at how a doctor’s opinion often seems to depend on who is paying the bill. It’s amazing how one doctor hired by the insurance company will have a completely different opinion from the doctor hired by our office.
Rarely is this difference of opinion created because one of the doctors is not being genuine and is a corrupt doctor. Insurance doctors are usually smarter than that. Often medical opinion comes down to discretion and expert doctors get paid to exercise that discretion in favour of the party that is paying the bill. For example, nobody is going to dispute a broken leg that required surgery and metal hardware to repair. X-rays and the hospital surgery records can prove those facts. However, what could very well be in dispute are the consequences. Will the victims recovery be such that they can never go back to work? Or should they be able to go back to work? This difference of opinion can mean thousands of dollars. Consequently a big part of being a good personal injury lawyer is knowing how to address and deal with adverse medical opinions.