I received an unexpected call last week: “Are you free the night of October 9th to accept an award for Plaintiff’s Trial Lawyer of the Year from the Washington Defense Trial Lawyers Association?”
It’s nice to receive honors. But some of them mean more than others. This one means a lot to me.
I have very little exposure to other plaintiff’s lawyers. They don’t read my demand letters. They don’t negotiate with me. They’ve never seen me take a deposition or try a case.
But defense lawyers are there every step of the way. And they have context: They are able to compare what we’re doing at Myers & Company to every other plaintiff’s firm in Washington.
So, when the Washington Defense Trial Lawyers decided that I was the plaintiff’s trial lawyer of the year, it made me really proud. It wasn’t something that was handed out as part of a popularity contest. It was based on the results achieved for our clients.
Sam Lin’s been an important part of the team for a long time. As she’s gotten more experienced her role has expanded. First, she started taking and defending depositions. Then she arbitrated cases. Now she’s joining me at trial.
It’s really nice to have both the help and perspective at trial. Sam has different life experiences than I do and provides a great sounding board.
At trial she’s helping select juries, arguing motions in limine and examining witnesses. It’s a really good division of labor and I think both the court and jurors appreciate hearing the different ways we advocate for our clients.
What We’ve Done Lately
We’ve had a pretty productive year. Here are some of the results we’ve achieved.
Drunk Driving Accident: $ 850,000 (including a $600,000 personal contribution)
Fall in Parking Garage: $1,000,000
Motorcycle Accident: $1,350,000
Construction Accident: $1,000,000
Motorcycle Accident: $ 600,000
The year’s not over. We’re hoping to get some more big recoveries for clients before December 31st.
But the amount of the recovery doesn’t always correlate with the sweetness of the result. We had one cases, for example, where the facts were stacked against us. We represented an unlicensed motorcyclist. He collided with a truck that was in front of him. There were about six witnesses who said he was at-fault. The police cited him. But despite seemingly overwhelming odds, we were able to settle his case for the truck driver’s liability limits of $100,000.