Avenatti addresses the "ambulance chaser" accusations

[Jim Lane]

16. As another PI lawyer, I salute you. Great post!

One fact I'll add about the "hot coffee" case: McDonald's took an appeal and then settled with the plaintiff. McDonald's followed the common practice among corporate defendants in demanding, as part of the settlement, that the plaintiff and her lawyer agree to a gag order, preventing them from discussing the case publicly. Thus, one reason that the media gave such preferential treatment to the McDonald's side of the story was that media outlets couldn't get quotations from the people who were in the best position to present the other side.

Let's also recall the mass recall of cars with the ignition lock defect. That didn't occur because General Motors had a corporate conscience. It didn't occur because government regulators detected the problem. It occurred because one of us "ambulance chasing" lawyers, representing the parents of one of the victims, pressed the hell out of the case and laid the whole situation open. There's no telling how many lives that lawyer saved.

I understand why Avenatti wants the nature of his practice to be correctly understood. He doesn't want accident victims coming to him, because he's not experienced in handling those cases. It is unfortunate, though, that some people may read his comment as agreeing with the idea that lawyers who do represent accident victims are somehow disreputable.