Lawyers are said to “practice” law. Now why use the word “practice?” My theory is that lawyers, from the beginning of time, used that word so if they were ever sued for malpractice, their defense would be, “I can’t be held liable for my poor judgment, your Honor. I am still just practicing law. I know I will get it right some day!”

On a more serious note, the truth is that the field of law is not a science. It is more of an art form. Two lawyers may look at a certain set of facts and come up with two completely different conclusions. And they could both be right!

What makes me think of this is my experience with a popular website where accident victims go for free advice (just like persoanlinjuryhotline.com!) I have been devoting a good amount of time answering all type of legal questions. It is the kind of site where different lawyers chime in on a particular question posted by a user. The most often asked question on the site is, “Do I have a case?” For the most part, lawyers will agree with one another… either “yes” you have a case; or “no” you do not.

But more than a few times, I have answered a user’s question by saying I believed he or she had a case, while another lawyer, analyzing the same fact pattern, answered in the opposite. “No case.”

How can this be? If one lawyer sees a case, why does the other not? Only one lawyer can be right, right? I will give you a simple example to show you how both the “yea” and the “nay” lawyer could both be right. Someone is injured in a car accident. The other driver is at fault. The injuries suffered are minor. A lawyer with a large litigation practice, with a big monthly overhead, will see the case as having some value, but not enough to make him want to invest his time and money in such a small case. Hence his answer to the potential client, “I do not think you have a case worth pursuing.” A second lawyer, a solo practitioner with minimal overhead, looks at the question and concludes the insurance company will most likely settle the case. It will not be a big payday for the client (or the lawyer who typically collects 1/3 of the settlement amount as his fee), but he thinks it’s a good case nevertheless.

The moral of the story here is that each lawyer made the right call from his or her particular perspective.

If you’ve been injured in any type of accident, you should get a free consultation from an experienced personal injury lawyer. I hope you call me here at personalinjuryhotline.com. If I am unable to help you, you should definitely get a second or third opinion from other personal injury lawyers. That’s the way things work. I must tell you, I am more like the second lawyer in my example above. There are very few legitimate cases that I will say “no” to.

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