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S hectven spoudle rrr of TIT hed gaye b sharpened) Mes with ¢ ape Tanilles, the works “The juris tok ane lank and ihey Aneie it hal bee se lbileteine, Vong walize what d bad tit Upou by accident? The elect of domenuratine ‘evidence in “ttl PE oamipghe never have talked thoeg - ft jurors inte serving selldefonse, bait Phd. ‘paaved iewhen tf opped thar drawer, Well, that’s Dickprownd. J hind a lot of * diffetent cases after that, all kinds. And } gradually built up a pretty good prac. ‘itice, at least enough to live on. "PLAYBOY: | How did you come to spe- ‘cialive in Personabinjury suits? ; BELLE: Mainly’ because when I “entered _ practice, the Average individual who had-| uffered a personal injary faced a pretty” ydismal financial-award Prospect “if he |) =F went to court. Well up into the 190s, setlemenis were in the neighborhood of $1100, for the loss of a leg, $5500 for the vJoss of a male organ. -Sonictimes people oog ast bteogad Wosiuw dilades, | ~ i t I i ‘ SDN ew wey : + - i who! were: even paralyzed with permat 22 nent? spiral injurics would ‘get simply. on 23 inathing, perhaps on the basis of a “con | - . > “wibutory. negligeuce” claim by the de. ; - fense.: Some Stites had hws: making | . -4§10,000 the maximum allowable death. | 7° : The: average’ suffering, scared, inex: perienced plaintiff had usually heen ren- dered, penniless by medical costs and the. loss of habitual income. If he cil getan attorney to go to court, a fec of one third of the average award wouldn't per- - mit the’ attorney to present a really per: suuasive case. And when 12 well-meaning Dut confused jurors sat hearing a jumble of degal terminology dey couldn't nn- derstand, if dhe plaiecdil por wayidbing, it was the usual, sotally inadequate award. a Wel, J began to make wu practice of 2 * showing ‘demonstrative’ evidence to ju ties: human skeletons, Moving pictures, Chlarged X rays, stall pictures in color, infrared: pictures, wooden sce madeéls, When the jurors kVaphically saw whe nae ture and? extent of injuries, my clicsts began’ geting substantially increased "awards, And when other personal-injury attorneys around San Francisco, then svound California, cuight on and began “: doing the same thing, the whole picture of awartls begat’ improving, | | Yo. a AN de WN OOD ID et owe See re ot we Ae ee Oe we ‘ “es Ve was about then chat the defendant ° ; insurance campattics began campiigning 19. + agiinse us. Awards were getting “too high.” “Ambulance chasers!" che Us. “Shysters!” Since is 75 percent of _ plication was a y called personalinjury law all trial work, their im. wat only 25 percent of lawyers in America were respectable—a thought co conjure with. PlavBoy, Still, any business—including the insurance compani¢s—muse make a Profit w survive. Isn't it reasonable that they would. resist personitl-injury awaids of often hundreds of thousands af Goljary eh we we tt wt we wise wh wt ened sale wit lee Linea a Lemeeliee st arn SREOeT Ey" ‘ TCC Ruste ¢s fronterrichin- EUNICE company? the rich insuriace cvinpany uying to whittle “down or wvoid payinenc of an adequate wward for ,@ personal injury intlicted through the + faule of the defendant whose paid-up in- “surance. premium thit company has reg- ‘ularly collected? Which is the greater perfidy? You tlk about insurance-com- pany profits—well, let me tell. you some. thing: The insurance companies: are : Haiacill trying ow a among the world’s biggest businesses, : ie und. they got that way by taking in‘unt | mr believable amounts of the public's mon- - -ey in premiums—billions of doNars a "year. The public is- buying protection. ‘But the insurance-company executives ; scem to forget that they are holding the : public’s money in trust. They come to ' regard that money as theirs, and they'll be damned if they'll give it up without a struggle. They accept your money readi- ' ly enough, but did you ever try to collect ‘ ‘any moncy from a big insurance compa- ny? Nine timés out of ten, time comes ‘to pay off, and nail to get out of t Their cries when the? ‘they fight tooth ; heir obligation. that adequate awards | threaten to bankrupt them are nothing : Alongside their shrill cries whenever | ‘SOMEONE sugeests now and then that the : “State take over their business. Isn't it; odd for someone claiming to be losing so : -much to scream so loudly against losing . the Opportunity to keep on losing mon.’ ” cy? No, the six-figure adequate awards I've pioncered are equitable, just: and necessary. These awards are here to stiy, and I think the trend is further upward. But I will guarantee You that awards to ihe personalinjury plaintiffs will never - keep pace with the insurance companies’ | fantastic and mounting profits. ——~ : Let me ask you something: Except an ; ‘adequate award, what else can be of- : fered to the personal-injury victim? We : have nothing that will make the per- ; manendy injured victim whole again, | nothing thaf will-let him walk without [ | | t ‘ ‘a limp, nothing but drugs to let him “"'sleep without pain. For many, one iday not even morphine any longe. } 7eases their frightful suffering, and the i only alternative left is a cordotomy—the } : S€vering of the spinal cord to halt the: : dreadful journey of the pain impulses to | the brain. Think about that the next; _ time you sce one of these propaganda - * pieces about the “high awards" hat are “ “ruining” the country’s insurance com- - panies. Think abour those piufal per- _ Sonal-injury victims who tempt one to : Say “They'd be better off dead.” But the : law forbids them to choose death; they ‘have no legal choice oUt to —and suffering. Think about the double amputees, the “basket cases,” the usu- . Matic psychotics, the paraplegics. the Spinal-injury invalids, the blinded, the : §rotesquely burned and scarred. Think about i §0 on living