I had an exchange with an attorney the other day. His client’s discovery was late. I asked when we could expect it. He responded that we’d probably have it already if I had followed up sooner.
It seemed he was the type of person who blamed the victim instead of taking responsibility. That seems to be a pretty common tactic.
We all know this guy: Harvey Weinstein. He doesn’t do the dirty work (of blaming the victims) himself in court.
He—like a lot of defendants—hires lawyers to do the dirty-work for him.
This lady’s name is Donna Rotunno. During an interview she claimed that she has never been a victim of sexual assault, “because I would never put myself in that position.”
It looks like Ms. Rotunno gets a kick out of repeating these tropes.
And it’s not just defense attorneys. People like Mr. Weinstein hire “experts” to blame victims.
One of the most notorious “experts” is Elizabeth Ziegler.
Dr. Ziegler 2.0 loves to blame the victim. The way she does it is by (1) denying that they suffered a concussion and (2) attributing all of their symptoms to “secondary gain.”
Secondary gain sounds kind of scientific. But it’s really just another way of calling someone a liar. In personal injury cases, a liar for money.
But the irony is that Dr. Ziegler 2.0 was formed in the crucible of secondary gain. Some simple research shows that not too many years ago Dr. Ziegler 1.0 racked up massive credit-card debt, stopped paying her student loans and defaulted on her mortgages. This was in Southern California.
After filing for bankruptcy, she moved to Spokane and ultimately reinvented herself as an expert witness. She no doubt resolved to never be poor—or lose a house—again.
It was her: “As God is my witness, I will never be hungry again” moment. Dr. Ziegler 2.0 emerged from the rubble of Dr. Ziegler 1.0.
Her strategy worked. It worked because she provides extremely predictable testimony to the insurance companies who hire her to blame victims.
Now Dr. Ziegler makes close to $1M a year by besmirching brain injury victims.
At the end of their lives how will these defense attorneys and “experts” think about what they’ve done? Will they feel like their integrity was worth $1M a year? Or will they realize they traded their pride, professional reputation and legacies for something very worldly and insignificant?