Brewster Rawls’ “Closing Argument”

But they were mine and I learned it. And right now you’re not seeing people who get that kind of experience anywhere. And we need that because there will always be a need for lawyers who are really able to try cases. I’m very proud of the fact that I am a trial lawyer. I’m not a litigator. I don’t flog the file and then settle it at the last minute. Didn’t do it as a defense lawyer. I don’t do it now. And you’ve got to be able to go in and present a case to a court or a jury and be able to do it effectively. I think that is absolutely critical for justice in our country. And I would say that even as a defense lawyer, you’ve got to have that ability to go in there and present the case.

Yes, if everybody’s doing everything right, and cases are being evaluated right, and being worked up right, the vast majority of them will settle. And they should settle, but there are ones that will not. And it is painful to go to court and watch some lawyer who just has no idea what he or she is doing. Not because they’re a bad individual, not because they’re dumb, they just simply haven’t had the experience. We need trial lawyers.

Let me give you kind of an example of what happens when you don’t have an ability to go to court on something. Active duty military members could not sue for many years under the Federal Drug Claims Act simply because they were on active duty. End of discussion. They could cut the wrong leg off, kill them, didn’t matter. Too bad. What was called the Ferries Doctrine barred it. Well, about three or four years ago, Congress did fix ferries. So they didn’t really fix it, because they enabled a provision where you could bring a claim for malpractice in a military hospital, but there was no recourse of being able to go to court. So, guess how well that has worked? The Army, the Air Force, and the Navy, they’re sort of like, “Eh, so what?,” you know? “We’ll get to it when we get to it, and like, no, we’re not going to pay you anything on that. You don’t like it? Oh, too bad. Too bad.”

And we’ve also dealt with that in what’s called the Military Claims Act, which are for overseas claims where, I mean, one of the worst cases I ever saw was where they just killed a baby in Korea. They just killed the baby. And the Army comes along and says, “Oh, we’ll pay you $125,000 for it, $125,000.” And I said, “Well, but look at this case, look at that.” It doesn’t matter, this is an MCA case. In the end of the day, it’s like, take it or leave it, you have no recourse. You’ve got to have that ability to have a recourse to court and you’ve got to have people who can go to court.