By David Fonvielle, Partner

Several weeks ago, I spent the day medi-ating a case for one of our clients. At one point during the mediation process, the defense attorney asked why I was handling such a “small” case, and before I could answer the question, he (correctly) answered it himself saying, “I guess he just wants to help this lady.” Although it never occurred to me that this particular case was “small,” the answer seemed obvious to me. By the end of the day, we successfully settled the case through the mediation process.

I have thought a lot about this question since that mediation and asked myself why the value of that particular case never seemed “small” to me, even though the dollars, relative to many of the cases our firm has handled, were not huge. The answer is easy: the dollar value of any particular loss has never seemed any more significant than the impact the loss has on our client. In this particular case, our client suffered a great personal loss as the result of a defective product, and that loss, although not worth millions of dollars in monetary terms, had a devastating personal effect on our client’s life, which was all that mattered to me.

One of our responsibilities as personal injury lawyers is to translate personal loss, such as an injury or the loss of a loved one, into monetary terms. So long as the dollar amount is reasonable under the circumstances of the case and fairly and justly compensates for the loss, the case is just as significant to our client and to us regardless of the monetary value. I suppose that is why the fact that I was mediating a “small” case never occurred to me.

Another element of our practice, which may not seem obvious to most people, is that as the result of representing our clients, we know much more than most about the dangers that exist in our everyday lives. We are more aware of these dangers because we routinely see the consequences of them in the form of injuries to our clients or accidental death of their loved ones. As we examine the situations which lead up to the injuries or deaths we are dealing with, we usually learn how the accident could have been avoided, whether by safer driving procedures in a car, better design of a product, proper use of safety devices such as seat belts or bicycle helmets, or better warnings of dangers not appreciated by the general public. Our law firm has historically responded to this knowledge with charitable donations, such as hundreds of bicycle helmets for children and, most recently, cash prizes given away to participants of Project Graduation in our area schools.

Our experience with defective drug cases and cigarette litigation has taught us the importance of medical research and warnings to the public about the dangers of certain products, and we have supported these causes with our contributions to organizations involved in cancer research and public awareness programs. We also realize there are those in our community who need our help simply because they are unable to take care of themselves. We provide support to these community members through our giving to entities such as United Way.

These thoughts all came from that simple question asked at the recent mediation. One point here is that this firm treats every case and client as if that case were a multi-million dollar case. Another point is that our law practice goes the next step in representing persons who have been wrongfully injured by seeing that some part of every case goes back to the benefit of our community through contributions to the many charitable and research organizations we have supported over the years. If we represent you, a friend or family member, or you refer a case to us for representation, it should be comforting for you to know that regardless of the level of injury or loss, we treat every case the same. Likewise, we want you to know that through our representation, you have contributed to our community and the organizations we support.