While doctors are often “put-down” as “glorified car mechanics”, lawyers on the other hand are sometimes insulted as being “money seeking vultures”. Sounds bad in both cases however, there is some truth behind it. Car mechanics have the luxury of making a mistake while fixing your car but when a doctor performs an operation, there is NO room for mistakes. However, doctors will often admit that mistakes are made every day.
Lawyers make mistakes also. Most attorney mistakes can easily be corrected, if your attorney has enough honesty and candor to admit it, and correct it.
Actually, “candor” is extremely important. Not long ago, Assistant FBI Director (lawyer) Andrew McCabe was fired, for a number of transgressions, one of which was “Lack of Candor”- lying to the FBI about what he did. But let’s try to stay away from politics, not my favorite subject.
We all make mistakes, and the reality is that our society reacts to error, even if unintentional, in a very negative way. The rule of thumb is, if you make a mistake you are a bad person. It can take years to build trust and good relationship and then one day lose it all because of some stupid mistake.
Integrity will follow us, catch-up and then make us aware of the bad choices we’ve made. In today’s world, where communication is instantaneous, and no more secrets can be kept hidden, the stakes are higher than ever. We can see how important it is to be candor and honest because keeping secrets is becoming an impossible “bad- habit”.
Mechanics get a car in their shop and it’s their choice how to do their job, with candor and honesty, or not. Should there be a mistake made, the customer can come back and have the opportunity to fix the problem. Should the mechanic decide to deny and “brush-off” the client? It will reflect very badly on the professional however, if integrity is present, the mechanic will repair the issue, admit and possibly offer a discount. Can you imagine the great review he or she will get on Yelp? Five-stars, I bet.
The same goes for car accident lawyers. Both strategic and document errors are common, in most cases; the problems are correctable or reversible. Many errors are identified and corrected without the need to inform the client. However, in some unfortunate cases, things can and do go wrong a little too late to fix before it becomes evident. The attorney has the choice, to take responsibility and do all it takes to resolve the problem, if in fact it is possible, or, to make a run-for-it. It is always the best choice to stand up with integrity and do the out most to “put out the fire”. Very seldom a lawyer will offer credit in the form of money back or no fee for the rest of the case duration but it is something I have seen lawyers do.
The song by the Thompson Twins – “Doctor Doctor” goes “Oh, Doctor, doctor, can’t you see I’m burning, burning” in the chorus in reference to burning love but, what if a patient expresses the same because of a physical pain after surgery when there should be no pain felt? Patient goes through a series tests and visits from doctors, specialists and nurses. Time is of the essence, the problem must be found soon before something very wrong might happen. This is a life and death situation, it is not a car or a legal case in court. Tensions run high for two hours and then, the problem is identified, the patient was given the wrong type of antibiotics.
This example is fairly simple to overcome, correct and move forward with the healing process. Doctors will come and apologize for the error. But what if it was a more severe mistake what caused a loss of life?
Integrity is a must in all aspects of life. We are a society that thrives on good-will and compassion towards one another. We will only gain rewarding experiences through our will to be good to one another. Candor, honesty and transparency are all key elements for a healthy, happy lifestyle.
