What's Going On With These Long Island Lawyers?

I have worked very hard in the last twenty years for my clients. When I started practicing law as a personal injury lawyer I was quite proud of what I did. I felt that I was helping people regain some part of their lives at a difficult and in some cases a devastating time. Don't get me wrong I still devote myself to my practice and my clients but when I see a story like the one I saw yesterday I say to myself "not again".

William Hamel, personal injury lawyer, and affiliated with a well known law firm, in the Metropolitan area, was charged with bribery  in what the Attorney General and the Department of Investigation says was a hospital fraud scheme. In essence the claim is that hospital employees received money for giving patient information to personal injury lawyers who lured the patients to receive unnecessary medical treatment and then submitted millions of dollars in claims for treatment. Now I think its important to know that nobody has been convicted of anything. Mr. Hamel will have his day in court. He may be found innocent. But...

These stories have come to the surface all to often and there are many convictions.Each story chips away at what I always believed was an honorable profession. To be fair, there are times when lawyers are charged with some kind of fraud and are ultimately found innocent. Here is one such ending . Unfortunately, these stories end up with a different ending which adds another cut into a great profession and what Clarence Darrow once said "the only real lawyers are Trial lawyers".

Of course I open the paper this morning to find this. Not a personal injury lawyer but an adoption lawyer on Long Island charged with bilking thousands from his client. Stealing from a couple who wants to adopt a child? Sure, he has not been found guilty but come on. Where does it end? Its hard sometimes telling people when I am at a social gathering that i am a personal injury lawyer. Sometimes you get the jokes sometimes not.

In the end its about greed. I admit there are many on my side that are not only bad lawyers but bad people. I will continue to be a proud member of the bar and will always represent my clients zealously and ethically. Stay tuned for the best of trial lawyers.