Today, May 1, is Law Day, a day to celebrate the ideals of the laws of the United States and to recognize that the law is vital to our democratic system. The Library of Congress has assembled a Research Guide to understanding Law Day.
The theme of this year’s Law Day is “No Courts, No Justice, No Freedom” to bring awareness to the need to protect access to our country’s courts. In the opinions of the attorneys at Doran & Murphy, one of the greatest innovations to providing and protecting access to courts is the contingency fee. Contingency fees level the field for individuals who do not have the resources to ensure that their rights are protected.
Victims of negligence come from all walks of life, but when the negligent party is a corporation, pursuing justice can be daunting. The contingency fee system allows victims of negligence to stand up for their rights on equal footing with the party who was negligent, regardless of any inequality of resources.
Our firm represents people who have been injured through the negligence of others, who do not have the resources to obtain full justice without a contingency fee arrangement. We are proud to do so. When the widow of a railroad worker calls us to say that her husband passed away due to his exposures to asbestos or diesel fume exhaust at the railroad, it is our honor to represent that family. We know that without a contingency fee, a fight against the railroad corporation might seem overwhelming.