Personal Injury Law

Is there a difference between a California Motorcycle Accident Lawyer and a California Motorcycle Accident Attorney?

By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq.

First off this article is not about regular yahoo personal injury lawyers who advertise or pawn themselves off as being biker lawyers or motorcycle accident lawyers, when they are nothing more then garden variety personal injury lawyers. This article is about the use of the term lawyer as opposed to attorney.

There has been some debate lately between some of my friends on a lawyer listserve between using the term lawyer or attorney when referring to ourselves.

I have referred to myself as a California Motorcycle Accident Lawyer and a California Motorcycle Accident Attorney. I have also referred to myself as a Biker Lawyer which I am. Most lawyer business cards state; “Attorney at Law” as their title.

I have found that most laymen (persons who are not lawyers or attorneys) refer to a lawyer or attorney at law as lawyers for whatever reason.

I set out to find which term is the proper one to use.

Th">Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines a lawyer as - one whose profession is to conduct lawsuits for clients or to advise as to legal rights and obligations in other matters.

Whereas the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines an attorney as - one who is legally appointed to transact business on another's behalf; especially : LAWYER

It appears that a person licensed to practice law can either call themselves a lawyer or an attorney based upon Merriam-Webster’s definition of attorney and lawyer. However, it appears that attorney is the most appropriate reference to one who is licensed to practice law because the definition includes “legally appointed.”

The bottom line is that it is really apples and oranges. Either definition i.e. lawyer or attorney requires that the person to calling themselves such to be licensed to practice law in their respective jurisdiction. You cannot conduct lawsuits on behalf of others in California unless you are licensed to practice law by the California Supreme Court, nor can you be admitted by the United States Court (Federal Court) to practice law unless you are duly licensed to practice law by a State or Territory of the United States of America.

I have heard of at least one person calling themselves a lawyer because they graduated law school, but were not licensed to practice law anymore. In my opinion they should not be referring to themselves as a lawyer.

Now what about bozo’s pawning themselves off as a California Motorcycle Accident Lawyer, or California Motorcycle Accident Attorney? If you search for California Motorcycle Accident Lawyer or California Motorcycle Accident Attorney on Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft Live Search, you are going to get a bunch of results with generic personal injury lawyers that do not ride motorcycles. You may get one or two that may ride, or have ridden in the past, but the rest are basically garden variety personal injury lawyers. Hell I do not come until the 3rd or 4th page. You will also get the garden variety personal injury lawyers paying big bucks for sponsored pay per click advertisements.

In my opinion a California Motorcycle Accident Lawyer or California Motorcycle Accident Attorney is a lawyer or attorney that rides motorcycles and than handles motorcycle accident cases. I am not saying that garden variety personal injury lawyers are not qualified to handle a motorcycle accident case; I am saying that an actual motorcycle riding lawyer and attorney such as myself knows a hell of a lot more about motorcycle accidents, motorcycle safety, and riding a motorcycle then a bozo who does not.

I do handle regular personal injury cases such as car accidents, truck accidents, slip & falls, dog bites, etc. as well as motorcycle accidents, but when it comes to being a biker lawyer, I am the real deal.

If you have been the victim of a Motorcycle Accident or any other type of personal injury case, anywhere in The State of California give me a call 7 days a week, 24 hours a day at 800-816-1529 extension 1.

You can also check outiz">California Motorcycle Accident website at www.californiamotorcycleaccident.biz.

You can check out my main California Personal Injury website at www.thepersonalinjury.com

By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq., © 2008

Full post as published by Biker Law Blog on June 27, 2008 (boomark / email).