By Chuck Woodbury
ROADSIDE JOURNAL
Driving California Highway 99 through the Golden State’s Central Valley, you get the feeling after a few dozen miles that the ticket to riches in these parts is no longer winning the lottery but hiring a lawyer and suing someone who done you wrong.
Way back when, driving U.S. 99, which was the main north-south highway through California (and Oregon and Washington) before I-5, was more about laughing at Burma Shave signs and stopping for a burger and orange juice at a Big Orange stand.
But today … it’s billboards along the road, one after another, advertising personal industry attorneys who will go to bat for you when you’ve been injured. Whether a major accident when you’re the innocent party or a minor fender bender when you come away mumbling “Oh, my aching neck,” there’s a long line of lawyers (ambulance chasers would be one description that comes to mind) to right your wrongs, a least financially.
These same attorneys, I learned, also advertise on local television. In one commercial an attorney boasts he got one of his clients $4 million and another $9 million.
Before you leave a hateful comment about how insensitive I am, please understand that I believe that in many cases, legal help is definitely warranted.
Here are just a few of the billboards I spotted from Fresno to Modesto.
P.S. I also saw similar billboards when driving through Las Vegas and Phoenix.
##RVT1140
They’re all over the country, Chuck. Even in our beloved PACNW, if you look closely. But there are many more in the SW and SE, for reasons I have yet to figure out. Ambulance chasing seems to be a very profitable profession!
Hilarious! We feel your pain (crappy pun intended). Here in FL there seems to be more lawyer signs than palm trees!
Since the law firm takes a big hunk of the settlement, and a minimal investment. Yes, they are everywhere.
Best argument for a dash camera.
Lawyers. All over the TV stations here in Corpus Christi, like it’s the only sponsor that has any money. Sugar daddies. Call 3333333, 4444444, 7777777, or 8888888, with no one using 666.
The only advertising on the radio and most of the billboards here in Florida as well!
Lawyers, and greed, are the real problem in North America now. Yes sometimes they are needed but most of the time they are just driving up the cost of insurance to us all.
Continuing with that thought, most in Congress are lawyers (or at least, that used to be the case)
Agreed about the greed problem…and it’s getting worse by the day.
If people would drive their vehicles with consideration for their fellow travelers on the roads and use a bit more patience the lawyer count would decline.
We all want to arrive at our destination. Please use: Common sense, courtesy and patience so, we all get where we want to be.
Those lawyers promise all that “Free Money!” and then take a large chunk of any you win. Had a friend (I call him “Flat-Nose” from running into the back of ambulances as they come to a stop light) tell me once, “If you want justice, go to a house of ill-repute. If you want to get scr___d, go to a court house!” Sage advice.
People love to hate lawyers – until they need one.
I remember seeing a billboard in Bend, OR years ago. It was a divorce lawyer whose ad said, “Logon, move on”, and offered divorce services. I thought it was so funny I did an around-the-block trip just to get a picture of it.
Beware, ‘no fee unless we win’ only applies to the money the lawyer was going to grab. You are always responsible for reimbursing the law firm for non-lawyer expenses spent on your case. It happened to a co-worker.
Lawyers try the case. JURIES award the damages…unless a settlement is reached before hand.
If insurance companies offered fair and reasonable settlements instead of trying to cheat the injured there wouldn’t need to be so many lawsuits.
P.S. I’m not an attorney.
Chuck,
I’ve seen the same ones I think. We don’t use 99 anymore- many of the ramps are very short so merging and exiting is dangerous, especially in an rv.
Thank you, Chuck. 🙂 Sorry about your recent RV trouble. I hope it is all repaired and ready for your next trip. Advertising is valuable, but it is unfortunate when natural beauty is obscured by numerous billboards. Thankfully, we are well away from roads and nothing beyond our own indifference prevents us from seeing the natural beauty surrounding us. Safe travels! 🙂
It’s not just California. In Utah, it seems like every other ad on the 10:00 news is for injury lawyers trying to get you to contact them and share the winning of a lawsuit.
In a wreck? Oh my heck! Better call . . . .😁😁😁
It’s everywhere, Chuck. In the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas we are inundated with lawyer TV commercials and billboards. Frankly I’m sick and tired of it and ready to see them outlawed. Fat chance, right!
I’m sick and tired of all the commercials on TV, utube and even on my truck screen. I have a lawyers advertisement for a accident constantly on my trucks screen. We need to boycott products in commercials. They only raise the price of your products and there are less coupons in the paper.
Not only are there billboards in Las Vegas, all the local TV channels run ambulance chaser ads continuously. It’s annoying!
I remember when getting a law degree was envied by all – especially those of us less likely to enjoy school work! When they changed the laws and rules allowing lawyers to publicly advertise their craft – they have now joined the ranks of used car salesmen! Every nite on Tv – over and over and over again – are ads for legal services. I have not noticed any billboards in eastern ND or western MN – yet! Most land is zoned agric. so many farmers are not willing to change any amount of it to commercial. We had that fight right here in river city when a two week window opened and the billboard co’s. jumped in on the edge of town!
I live near Sacramento and travel down the central valley when headed East from 99, and have noticed all those billboards. They should just show a picture of an ambulance with three guys in suits chasing it?
You get the same kinds of ads for Medicare on TV stations. “NO ONE has the same benefits as we do”.
After 8 years of full time, traveling through out the US and Canada, I have come to realize that my home state of Vermont is the best. No billboards allowed. So all you see are the mountains and beautiful green trees. With all the negative things about RVing nowadays will be hanging up the keys to full-time and moving back to beautiful Vermont
It is not the billboards on state highway 99 that bother me, it is all the trucks and cars on the road and others coming onto the road to join those already using it. And just maybe, all those billboards cause some drivers to consider just how well they are behaving in traffic.
Always ask if they will sue another lawyer who done you wrong.
Honestly, lawyers are a necessary-evil. Hear me out,… it’s not a lawyers fault for trying a case. But, to defend yourself you will have to hire one as well.
I was sued by one of those bill board type lawyers in my 20’s, for a traffic collision with a motorcycle. Hired my own attorney at $2,500 (it was the 80’s lawyers cost less) adjusted for inflation $6,950.
My attorney won, as the plaintiff’s case was not strong. But I was still out the money.