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es . eal aud pearly extinet sper cs <uuurcigd _to-the zoo by the A. B.A. presidenis’ : public barking against as. PLAYBOY: For a member: of a nearly extinct species, you seem to be making a pretty good living. It’s been reported that you earn more than $300,000 a -yea from the -“adequate awards” you win for your clients, |” BELLU: Every penny T get, I carnt, Do: You think all a lawyer has to do is pick | up-a phone and get‘an insurance com- pany to settle for $100, 000 and then bite ' off a ‘third of i? To start with, gambling. when I uke. a case. Especially INN ewe PE Le abebommer tbat wate cle “the layman has no dream of the amounts: “jsoftime and-talent and money that the ° 4 plaintiff's - Jawyer’ must invest in pre- —in cash as well as effort. I don’t just sit’ here, we aren't jast some fat-ass corpora- . tion of lawyers sitting around thinking” ‘t about’ new. ways’ to screw the Govern- ‘¥ ment out of ‘taxes; we are a firm of ’ concerned and ‘committed peaple rep- ‘fT help. We care. It’s the most precious. thing we've got here, our feeling for the’: people who come™here. wanting - help. - Im working my cases in the shower, when J'm trying to sicep and can't, so » when I'm on the john, when tm driv- wo ing myocar, when Vin sitting in those late-night planes. Tf Po win che adequate * award for my I feel bo deserve the one third Eotake for the work that got the award. Most persoaal-injury lawyers take a bigger cut than [ do— . many of them 40 and 50 percent. PLAYBOY: Still, you've unimaged to amass “a sizable fortune from the proceeds of such_cases. How much wouid you say _you’re worth today? BEitl: I could cash out today wish—well, look, let's put it this way: E fecl that after i; he makes a million dollars a guy should start counting his blessings instead of » Money. I'm counting my blessings. PLAYBOY: Your remarkable : winning six-figure awards, and carning : five- figure fees, ins medical-snalpractice 22 t eases has made your name a red flitg co the American Medical . Association: as well as to the nation’s insurance com- a4 ‘panies. What’s your bric{ against the medical profession? "4 BELL: . George Bernard Shaw wrote it ¥ better than I could say it, in The Doc- é L tors Dilemma: “We're a conspiracy, not *" a profession. ... Every doctor will allow a colleague to decimate a whole country- _ side sooner dhan violate the boad of pro- 4 fessional etiquette by giving him away.’ *4-The same as with chicken- hearted, fat MwOW DINU eR WN OW mm. wb Ewe ww OR Ow 1 bei ate ps ke fee ee we chent. ft INNS wh oe mw at WN OW 0 wow “! 92 42 Qo @* wf wh 04 © Be 8e - s WWD ,-* © 80 00 al whe? Can Cre wd rma - paring. “thé, best * presentation possible. °.” Tf. we: “getsito ‘court. gnd a jury votes — against my client, I’ve lost ali I advanced . ‘~t in my-office and: work my cases. Our firm | j Tesenting® men and women who need .;— success in ; when it’s a large award to be sought, * - OO a en LE eS An ane ene an “practice acts - against a colleague? * BELL: “ by us, the public, to practice. His train-' . PLAYBOY: Do you think it’s reasonable <: who underwrite his practice? Think of aan © them are: great’, os. doing their best waaay i: rd, Bat here afm, the individual docwor has av Ear higher cede of ethics than when he. acts in cor vention, through his association. With lawyers and doctors, it seems there's some sort of collective amorality, a cal- lous mob psychology, that takes over the individual practitioner's ethics and hon- esty. Doctors as a group condone, mal- that individually they. wouldn’t dream of sanctioning. The in- dividual doctor is so busy treating the .sick and performing operations that he's ‘forfeited the administration of his na- dional organization to a bunch of dirty sons of bitches who try, because of their own “shortcomings in their profession, to . make him conform to what~they think . medicine should be. They tell him not = to publicly criticize his fellow practi- dioners; they have usurped his conscience. to expect a doctor to jeopardize his professiénal standing by _ testifying .Look, every doctor is licensed ing, his talent, his tide, is given to hin in trust, by society. To whom, morally, does he owe more—to mankind, or to the A.M.A. and the insurance companies yourself as a victim of some doctor who was simply careless. Think of your be- ing maimed, maybe irreparably, because of his bungling vour being un- able to get another doctor to testify against a wrong that he can phiinty see. My first malpractice case was my cye opener to this incredible conspiracy. I was retained ta sue a doctor who had and of prescribed cnemas and cathartics for a young man who was suffering classic ap- pendicitis symptoms. The boy's cramp- ing worsened, the doctor sent him to a hospital where he let him wait; the ap- ". pendix burst and the boy died. Not only : the doctor was the treatment patently wrong, but later I had good reason to believe thit. was intoxicated when he made the house call. Are you ready? I lost thtrt-case! Not one of this drunker~ doctor's colleagues would testify in court to what he had obviously done. Worse, five doctors testified in his behalf, in- > University cluding the head of one of our largest hospiteis. Five years later, that defendant ductor killed himself; he had become a dope addict and a habit .: ing an old pair of overalls, but as Jong 3s oy fe sy tember in good standing er” ual drunkard. Twenty-five years have passed since ig then, but it’s still nexc to impossible s- ay Xe get one doctor co testify against anothe:. and it doesn’t matter how Magrant the case is. Good oid Doe Frebish may have come into, the operating: room del. drunk, carrying a rusty knife and wee cowed tien ate AR ONS ee RL a a wma ee _ Mat AREA ots