A former trial lawyer has a new show on CNN and he sometimes offers insight into our civil justice system and its importance. On a recent show, Michael Smerconish offered a brief and powerful summary about why injury lawyers are essential to our safety. To see the video, click HERE.
Smerconish focuses on the case of Brooke Melton, a 29 year old nurse who was killed because of a defect in a Chevrolet Cobalt. The defect was known to General Motors but they hadn’t acknowledged the defect nor had they fixed the defect in Brooke’s car or others like it, even though GM knew about the defect before they’d sold the car to Brooke and even though Brooke had taken the car to her dealer just a week before the accident with complaints about the very problem that would kill her on her 29th birthday. The dealer told her they’d fixed the problem. They hadn’t.
General Motors hadn’t fixed the car or the many others with the same defect because the replacement part would have cost GM an additional 90 cents per car. That’s right, 90 cents.
Now here’s the part about this story that illustrates the importance of injury lawyers. The fact that Brooke was killed as a result of a known defect was not discovered by the police or accident officials. These responders presumed that Brooke had simply lost control of her car. Nor was it discovered by the state or federal government agencies charged with oversight of vehicular safety.
The reason the world knows about the dangerous defect in GM cars, the reason why that defect is now being remedied in thousands of other GM cars, is because Brooke’s parents hired injury lawyers who then invested their own money in experts to investigate the crash and the car. If it wasn’t for injury lawyers working and investing resources on behalf of Brooke and her parents, the problem would remain unknown to the world and thousands more Americans would be in danger.
In that regard, Brooke’s case isn’t very different from almost any other injury case. What is common to most Pennsylvania injury cases, and this is what most people don’t understand, is that there often is no government agency charged with finding the truth or seeking justice for people injured as a result of negligence. Even when there is such an agency, the agency often fails for a multitude of reasons, including everything from underfunding to incompetence. The task of investigating negligence and obtaining justice falls almost exclusively upon the injured and their families who have nowhere to turn other than to injury lawyers.
Injury lawyers have always been and will remain the public’s best, sometimes only, option for justice and accountability. At Purchase, George & Murphey, P.C., we remain committed to investigating the accidents that cause death and serious injury so that our clients receive the justice the law provides.
If you or someone you love was seriously injured or killed in a Pennsylvania car accident, call the experienced injury attorneys at Purchase, George & Murphey, P.C. for a free consultation today. Call 814-273-2010 or toll free at 814-273-2010.