Drove through the eastern part of my state today and couldn't help being reminded of cases I worked on along the way. The husband and father whose SUV left the highway, rolled over, and whose seatbelt unbuckled during the roll. (I remember the day our expert engineer showed me a mark the latch plate made on the door--a mark that only could have happened if the seatbelt had been buckled at the start of the crash and came unlatched during the roll. It was a model known to "false latch.") A man and wife who had just rounded a bend to see a magnificent view and sunset when a hit and run driver knocked them off the road and down a formidable rocky slope. (Another case that required the understanding of an expert engineer to solve. I forget how we even managed to settle it!) And one of my biggest cases--a grandma who was horribly burned in a fire caused by an insanely dangerous pickup truck that pulled into her path on the highway. Migrant farmworkers pulled her from the burning car. She lost her face and a leg but was injured most brutally by the loss of her granddaughter, whom the farmworkers couldn't save. When she finally agreed to settle the case, after three separate all day mediations, she came up with the best line in all history--but you'll have to read my book to know what it was.
Tomorrow, on the way home, we'll pass more. Two tractor rollovers, and the home of Jesse M., a client paralyzed by a cheap car and a flimsy front seat, who went on to help countless others after his injury.
I no longer feel remotely like a lawyer, but these stories and the ghosts of my clients follow me wherever I go in this state.
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