MTLA President’s Message:
Intellectual Honesty by J. Mitchell Lambros
J. Mitchell Lambros (Lambros & Lambros, Baltimore County) received his J.D. from Duke University School of Law and serves as President of the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association for 2003-2004. His is a member of the MTLA President’s Club as an Eagle and serves as a trustee of MTLA PAC. He is a past Chair of the MTLA Legislative Committee and former editor-in-chief of the Trial Reporter (1997-1999) His practice concentrates in personal injury, medical malpractice, workers’ compensation and social security disability.
Protecting and representing regular people is not an easy endeavor. It’s a worth- while endeavor, and it’s what we do as trial attorneys, but our adversaries increasingly are willing to resort to intellectual dishon- esty to quash the rights of the people we are committed to helping. In the courtroom, in motor tort cases, we see the “property damage defense.” Without any medical testimony, attorneys who are directly employed by insurance companies waive around out of focus pho- tographs of urethane bumper covers to “prove” that someone could not have been hurt in a collision. Never mind that these covers are designed to flex and deliver dam- age to the structures below. Never mind that every medically based study has dem- onstrated no link between property damage and injury. In workers’ compensation cases, proc- lamations are being issued that the sky is falling because of the recent decision in Har- ris v. Board of Education, 375 Md. 21 (2003). This, despite the fact that a study commissioned by the insurance industry (National Council on Compensation In- surance [NCCI] study commissioned by the Injured Workers Insurance Fund, 2003) found that the Harris decision would only have a 2% impact on premiums and that even with Harris as the law, workers’ com- pensation insurance rates need to decreased by 4.7%. In discovery, in medical negligence cases, we see the “do not know” causation defense. Highly trained physicians, skilled in medi- cal research techniques, state with a straight face that although they do not know what caused the patient’s injury, they do know with medical certainty that it was nothing the defendant did. We also hear with in- creasing frequency the “my standard is not the standard” defense. Physicians who write and teach against what a defendant did come forward to say that what the defen- dant did was ok because their own personal standard of care is not the standard. And from MedChi, the state doctors’ association, we hear with soap opera fan- fare that they support a 28% rate increase by Medical Mutual even though a 21% re- bate was handed out just five months earlier.
Fall 2003
What we do not hear is that MedChi, through its in-house insurance agency, re- lies on sales of Medical Mutual policies for a substantial part of its organizational in- come. Without a doubt, intellectual dishon-
esty increasingly is in vogue among our adversaries. But that’s where MTLA helps. MTLA has been my professional family for many years, and during that time, it has become clear to me how effective it is in providing us with the tools to enforce in- tellectual honesty in our mission to keep families safe. You already know that we are the only
organized voice in Annapolis looking out for the legal rights of regular people. What you need to know, if you do not
know already, is that we also provide our members with cutting edge educational programs and seminars to help train you on the latest techniques and legal theories to assist with your cases. We have key docu- ments available online that other well respected members donate to MTLA to benefit other lawyers and their clients. We have a deposition bank second to none in this State. We have a Listserve that, mem- ber for member, is among the most active in the country among plaintiffs’ bars and provides you with nearly instant advice from top notch practitioners on a vexing ques- tion that you may be facing that day. We offer case evaluation services and a
mentor program to newer attorneys. We now have five (5) specialty practice sections to help trial attorneys in the areas of family law, medical negligence, workers’ compen-
sation, nursing home litigation as well as a new lawyers’ section to address the special needs of younger lawyers. Our web site is among the very best state TLA sites in the country. Our Trial Reporter magazine con- tains practical articles on trends in the trial practice and substantive areas of interest to our members. Our Weekly B-L-A-S-T email keeps you up to the minute on im- portant developments and trends in the law and offers practical tips for things such as legal research available on the internet. We also provide products, services and spon- sors who can help you in your practice, and our alliances with vendors help you obtain trial services and information. We regu- larly file amicus briefs before our appellate courts. Our committees address a host of other, important internal aspects of the as- sociation.
The point is that the MTLA is out there,
every day, protecting, advocating and ad- vancing your practice and the needs of all trial attorneys and their clients. Now, more than ever, we need your involvement, com- mitment and dedication to this organization. We need more of you to join our President’s Club as donors giving above the dues paying membership status; we need more new members and better recruit- ment of those attorneys who do trial work, but for some reason, have not yet felt the need to become part of the MTLA family. We all know the resources our opponents possess, whether in the courtroom, in the legislature or on the airwaves. We have to enforce intellectual honesty, and the best way is to do it together.
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