Lawyers matter; facts matter more
What we do as trial lawyers is hugely important. Yet, at the same time, there is only so much that can be done with relatively weak facts. Juries and judges are harder to fool than many think - especially those who have little or no actual trial experience.
Trial lawyers are competitive. We want to win. Losing hurts, but it goes with the territory. Lawyers who claim to have never lost a case - or something equally ridiculous, like a 95% win rate - have either not tried many cases or they are lying.
Even when the facts are not strong, what hurts even more is losing to lousy lawyers - the kind of opposing counsel who are sloppy or deceitful or just weak. Unfortunately, that too goes with the territory. As my first boss once put, juries have a “funny way” of forgiving litigants for their “poor choice” of legal representation.
After a loss, good trial lawyers pick themselves up and move on to the next fight. It’s all you can do.
