{"id":3650,"date":"2014-04-14T15:30:34","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T22:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.aitkenlaw.com\/?p=3650"},"modified":"2014-04-14T15:30:34","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T22:30:34","slug":"palmsprings2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/2014\/04\/14\/palmsprings2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Successful Palm Springs Seminar"},"content":{"rendered":"

From April 4 through April 6, 2014, over 200 attorneys from across the state descended upon the desert for the CAOIE\/ OCTLA Palm Springs Seminar.\u00a0 Celebrating its fifth year since being reborn after a lengthy hiatus, this year\u2019s seminar represented the first year OCTLA was invited to partner in this legendary event.\u00a0\u00a0 The energy and camaraderie generated by the melding of these organizations proved infectious and harkened for many a return to what a gathering of trial attorneys should be all about.<\/p>\n

\"Palm<\/p>\n

Each and every MCLE panel reflected the best of the best \u2013 providing useful and practical information on all aspects of a trial practice \u2013 to actually help teach other attorneys how to do it better themselves.\u00a0 As should be repeated whenever possible \u2013 when any one of us succeeds for our client, it is a success for all consumers.\u00a0\u00a0 When any consumer advocate secures the confirmation from a jury of an increased value for the loss of a loved one, that result necessarily becomes part of the universe of information that insurance companies and corporations must consider in evaluating all claims.\u00a0\u00a0 All consumers and plaintiffs\u2019 attorneys benefit from the success of any one of us.\u00a0 However, the converse is also true.<\/p>\n

Saturday afternoon\u2019s keynote address by past CAOC and OCTLA President Wylie A. Aitken urged attendees to take a good look at themselves and reflect upon those less attractive aspects of the \u201cbusiness\u201d of law that have caused the plaintiffs\u2019 bar to bring criticism upon itself \u2013 illustrated most graphically by pervasive (and ethically questionable) attorney advertising.<\/p>\n

How can we, as a profession, really be serving all consumers\u2019 best interests when plaintiffs are frequently forced to seek early representation while still mourning the loss of a loved one or rehabilitating from catastrophic injuries, as a result of the onslaught of attorney solicitations?\u00a0 And even if such solicitations (sent under the guise of advertisements) pass ethical muster, don\u2019t they just serve to perpetuate the ambulance-chaser image and reinforce jurors\u2019 otherwise misinformed biases against plaintiffs?\u00a0\u00a0 Is signing up any one case more important that preserving the dignity of the profession and helping to maintain juror neutrality, so that once in court plaintiffs will at least get a fair shake?\u00a0 We must take time to reflect upon how we are engaging in the business of law to make sure that we aren\u2019t doing more harm than good to consumers everywhere.\u00a0 The questionable acts of any one of us will be seized upon by our well-funded opponents and used to continue to influence public opinion and, ultimately, jury results. We simply cannot afford to do any further harm to consumers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From April 4 through April 6, 2014, over 200 attorneys from across the state descended upon the desert for the CAOIE\/ OCTLA Palm Springs Seminar.\u00a0 Celebrating its fifth year since being reborn after a lengthy hiatus, this year\u2019s seminar represented the first year OCTLA was invited to partner in this legendary event.\u00a0\u00a0 The energy and… read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-blog","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aitkenlaw.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}