Posted On: March 16, 2006, 3:42 am CST

Posted By: Jacqueline

Those of us who are P&C agents are not ashamed of trying to make a living selling a product and a service, either. We just resent the greedy lawyer crowd who all seem to think they are the ONLY ones who have a right to make any money and that everybody else is a crook. We resent that when we call the lawyers' hypocritic claims of being so humanitarian-driven out onto the carpet and exposing their hypocrisy, we are then labeled as "ignorant and uneducated" by the elitist money-grubbing lawyers. Most lawyers really aren't any more intelligent or talented than those of us "ignorant" peons with only a bachelors degree - rather the lawyers came from privileged families and were merely wealthy enough to be able to afford to go to expensive law schools right after undergraduate college. The reason property and casualty insurances are skyrocketing beyond consumer affordability is because the insurance carriers, even the reinsurers are not about to go bankrupt and fold for lack of profit- they are in a legitimate business of making money, and they have a right to limit their losses. But greedy lawyers would have the public at large believe that evil insurance companies, and evil commissions-only paid agents are not entitled to make a living for providing the services and products that we are in the business of providing - namely the indemnification products and services. Yet lawyers fall into that fee-paid or commissions-only paid sales group just out to get a fast buck, too. Lawyers must generate a minimum amount of "billable hours" in order to remain employed in a firm or be considered for hire by a firm. Billable hours translate to steep fees charged to clients like $150 for a 15 minute telephone call, $300 for forwarding some paperwork copies to the client, etc. Insurance agents don't charge outrageous fees for the time we must spend researching and comparing the best coverage for the best price for our potential clients, and how to coordinate the general liability policy w/ the workers comp policy w/ the commercial vehicle policy that has a built-in workers comp rider. Yet according to the elitist money-grubbing lawyer crowd, they would have the public at large believe that selling insurance is no more involved than selling Avon!

We have an over-litigious nation where people who spill hot coffee on themselves can become millionaires, costing businesses and insurance carriers millions of dollars - all because some lawyer uses his esq license to elicit entitlement attitudes and generate more lawsuit business to create a situation in which they can continuously rake in high fees. Why, you may ask, would lawyers do this? The answer: Because they can and they are just out to rake in big bucks by profiteering off someone else's misfortune and they think they're the only ones entitled to get paid for their "sales job" of selling paperwork for the tort business.

If lawyers were really in it just for the justice principles, then explain why so many indigent people with no money to afford legal help to acess the justice system end up destitute, financially ruined, or incarcerated or on death row - only to be found innocent 20 years later. If lawyers aren't just a bunch of money-hungry commission hounds themselves, why should lawyers be entitled to grabbing up to 35% of some poor disabled person's SSI award, when it was the disabled SSI applicant's entitlement that he/she should NOT have had to get a lawyer in order to get it in the first place. Insurance agents are trying to make a living indemnifying people in the event of a loss, lawyers are raking in big bucks in the business of screwing other people.