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Should Your Lawyer Pay $500 to Impress You?

By Gerry Oginski

Just today I received mail from a company called Elite Lawyers of America asking me to join their organization to promote my success stories. How did they propose to do that? By joining an organization that supposedly restricts its membership to attorneys who have had awards, settlements or verdicts of at least two million dollars. "Acceptance in this organization represents an incredible accomplishment by the civil trial attorney."

You may ask, "What do I get for joining this Elite group?"
Well my friends, I get a lucite object to put on my desk which is etched with the name of the (previously never heard of) organization and a statement that says "Membership limited to civil trial lawyers who have obtained a verdict or settlement of at least 2 Million dollars." Then there is a place for your name, and the accompanying photo says "Your name here."

How nice. And the cost to have this company pay a few dollars to put my name on a generic lucite obelisk and for a fancy certificate I can impress you with? Only $500. Payment of this fee guarantees lifetime membership. Ooh, I feel so lucky.

Guess what? I personally don't need to spend $500 to show my clients that I have obtained settlements in excess of $2 million dollars. All they need to do is read my website and realize some of my accomplishments include settling a failure to diagnose heart attack case for $6 million dollars.

Why do I tell you about this? The next time you walk into an attorney's office and are impressed with their certificates and fancy objects on their desk, look closely at it and ask them how they got it. The answers may surprise you.

Full post as published by New York Medical Malpractice Blog on March 13, 2009 (boomark / email).