1-800-IAM-HURT has arrived

Having spent many years working in the legal field and being, now, "retired," my opinion has changed drastically about those firms that advertise that they can help you if you've been hurt. You know the ones. The ambulance chasers. I worked on both sides - for insurance defense firms who fight those evil ambulance chasers - and, then, when I realized I was missing out - financially - I crossed over to go work for the dark side. You can make a whole lot more money working for the ambulance chasing firms than you can working for the insurance defense firms. [Something is really wrong with that picture, but that is just the way it is. At this point in my life? I am staunch defender for "tort reform." Surely you realize that this is how John Edwards made his money... I digress.]

The personal injury lawyers have made it to the Sandbox. When we got here quite a few years ago, I don't ever recall reading in the papers about lawsuits where some aggrieved party would sue another party for alleged wrong-doing. Now? You see it reported much, much more frequently. Cases where a man sues a doctor for botching his wife's delivery [it would behoove women, here, to actually get some prenatal care instead of waiting until they go into delivery to see a doctor for the first time!] - and other medical malpractice type cases - along with other more basic perceived injuries. But this takes the cake. Someone is suing the biggest oil company in the world for the death of beauty contest contestant. [You just can't make this stuff up!]

What [allegedly] happened is that the oil company dug a big hole in a desert pasture and filled it with crude oil. Then, a "well-bred 3-year-old black camel died when she tripped into [the] hole." The owner of the camel is wants 1 million riyals [$268,096.51] in compensation. The court is scheduled to hear the case this coming Monday. What I want to know is how the attorney is going to get paid. Is it the same one-third of whatever is recovered like it is with firms in the States? Or is the attorney being paid an hourly rate? Seems to me, that for a country that is so adamantly against so much that is Western, that it wouldn't want to be copying such frivolous practices with regard to lawsuits. Guess not.