Anthony Chiarello

I used to teach political philosophy at the University of Florida. At the time, I was teaching about how and why bad things happen to good people. The hope was to discern ways to prevent these things from happening. One day it became clear that I wanted a more direct role in the lives of people who have been affected by misfortune and were suffering because of it. Realizing that a career in law would allow me to be more directly involved in the lives of people who are suffering, I opted to go law school, and the rest, as they say, is history. Early on in my law career I worked on the defense side – defending against personal injury claims. It was during this period that I learned the insurance companies’ preferred tricks of the trade for denying, delaying and minimizing injured victims’ claims. These tactics were used by insurance company lawyers against every claim. More important, during this time I was exposed to the way insurance companies socialize the legion of adjusters, managers and attorneys defending personal injury claims. This socialization resulted in the universally held conviction on the defense that every claim was dishonest, fraudulent, made-up or frivolous. Working on the defense, I became a strong attorney, but my value was adjudged by my ability to minimize injured victims’ recoveries, regardless of the strength of their claims, or the seriousness of their injuries. This did not seem fair. Over the years, in fact, I’ve seen the insurance companies invest billions of dollars in marketing, lobbying and public relations that has succeeded in tarnishing trial lawyers’ reputations and changing laws to stack the deck against the rights of personal injury victims. But I’ve seen both sides, and the rhetoric created by insurance companies does not match the reality that persons with injuries are living.