The Tree of a Life

I heard an interesting story the other day. Apparently a family moved into a house and found that there was an apple tree in the backyard. Over time, they found that the tree did horrible things to the wife's allergies,so after a couple of years the husband thought the best thing to do was to take the tree down. The tree removal took care of the breathing issue.

A year later, the husband was out in the yard and a man came walking up. Apparently he had lived in the house many years before. He asked to see the tree because he planted that tree the day his first son was born. He was saddened to see the tree was gone.

It is just another example of how important stories are. In each of our cases, we are presented with the story that the person brings with them. We have to ask the questions about how their injuries affect them because a broken bone or a soft tissue injury is not just simply that. It is the hobbies that were dropped, the work that couldn't be done, or it's the little things that changed because of the injury.

There are firms out there that take cases and settle them fast. They settle them for low numbers and they probably don't see the client as anything more than a number. I would guess that there are people who are OK with that kind of impersonal quick service, but it looks to me like they are hiring plaintiff claim adjusters and not lawyers who really represent them.

It takes time to learn the story, but when you are explaining a lifetime loss or injury, you have to take the time to learn them.