2. The milking phenomenon is a part of any hourly paid legal service. It's really unavoidable. What's interesting, to me, is how the insurance companies do successfully negotiate for very low hourly rates in my town. There are plenty of lawyers ready to get on the corporate gravy train. But, the idea that insurance defense lawyers are prestigious is laughable. Most of the time they are nothing but low-level pawns taking orders from insurance adjusters. They may parade around town as "Corporate lawyers" but they have no power. Of course, there are exceptions to this generalization. But, I hardly bother talking to my opposing lawyers until we begin preparing the case for trial bc that lawyer has to get permission from the insurance adjuster for everything.
...
PS: I don't have to "set up" insurance companies to commit bad-faith. They do it on their own. When they get caught they say, "Hey, you set me up!" lol.
Sorry I'm only now catching up on this.
I'm not an attorney and don't play one on TV, and
@FIREby35 is completely correct about this.
DW & I were once involved in litigation over an automobile accident. The other (negligent) party never appeared for anything, but his insurance company's attorney represented him. The dispute concerned ~$2000 in damage to our 10 year-old vehicle, so we were
pro se. The attorney kept pestering us to settle, including sending us a fax for 1/2 the amount the night before trial, but since we were
pro se, we went all the way - we wanted those bastards to pay. After we won a full judgment, he bitched about his client and about [insurance co] forcing him to waste his time on such a piddling amount, and said [insurance co] wouldn't contest further. He also implied that I had a friend help write our pleading, which I corrected. We got the check the next day, leaving me to reflect what happens to less eloquent writers and less educated drivers whose cars are totaled.
I later crossed paths with a Diplomatic Courier, a retired attorney who had toiled for one of the big auto insurance companies, and I related this experience. He said, yeah, that's typical. I would often tell my supervisors, the other side will take us to a jury, and they'll say this and show that and demonstrate the other, and they'll win. And the supervisors would say, we don't care, go defend us at trial anyway. And despite my best efforts, we'd always lose exactly the way I predicted.
Why did they insist, I asked.
Because underwriting's job is to write policies, and claims' job is to avoid paying claims, and the left and right hand don't much communicate, he responded.
He was much happier in his job as a Diplomatic Courier, methinks, than working as an attorney for [insurance co.].
This reminds me, I need to renew my umbrella coverage. Apologies for the derail.
