Lawyers Talk About The Cases They Regret Winning

Lawyers who agree to take on a case have a responsibility to their client to represent them to the best of their ability, even if they find their client to be morally reprehensible.

My father is a lawyer. I asked him once why he didn't do family law anymore. He told me about a case where he was able to get a father full custody of his children. But by the end of the case my father wasn't convinced that his client was innocent of molesting the children.

That's a fact they accept from the first day of law school, which is why many lawyers focus on winning a case at all cost rather than trying to prove their client isn't a scumbag.

Defendant lawyer here.

It was a fatal dependency claim. Mother with 5 children, loving father taken away by my client's negligence. When it came to pay the dependants, I discovered that the children weren't the deceased father's. Wife had affairs and fathered children to other men.

We paid her children nothing. Two days before the conference where we outlined our strict position our client gets a phone call from dead father's best friend.

Before the father died the best friend came clean about the affair with his wife. Father forgave him, told him that he knew and loved them anyway. We get out of paying these children anything, and I've always felt bad about it, feeling as though I let one of the world's most beautiful human's down in the dead father.

The Lawyers of Reddit were asked "what cases are you sorry you won?", and their responses are sure to make you feel better about your job.

I represented the woman in this. Guy and girl lived together for a decade as a couple. She cheated on him so he left town. He ended up moving to Michigan and got a good job building cars. The guy retired a few years ago and got some kind of ERISA money from his pension. She found out about the settlement and ended up suing and getting half of the $ because she was his common-law wife.

Read 10 Honest Lawyers Reveal The Cases That They Actually Regret Winning here

Lawyers who agree to take on a case have a responsibility to their client to represent them to the best of their ability, even if they find their client to be morally reprehensible.


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The dependency one seems like a real flaw in the legal system. If he raised those kids from infancy and they thought he was their father, why does it even matter that they aren't biologically his?

Reading through the other posts and comments on the reddit thread is just... really depressing. Informative, but god, so awful. I guess it's good to know that at least some of these lawyers regret what they've done.
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I think you have to address the issues of culture too when looking at who is to blame for diet. Coca cola ads abund with the statement, 'Coke adds life and everyone needs a bit of life'....'A Mars a day helps you work rest and play'..catchy and memorable...and we are like monkeys and copy behaviour...and parents can't be left out of this equation...as mum's and dad's influence too...economics...yes the poor will say a £1.99 chicken and chips meal is the cheapest way to feed a family...I've seen the results in their lives...'cos some people do this daily...bad...pie ads on tv are trying to make pies look sexy ..interesting isn't it!
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Eating healthy foods and engaging in exercise is a personal responsibility. I fear the government with the power to control what I eat or force me to work out.
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I was an obese child (& adult), struggling with my weight all my life. I can remember when I ate school lunches in elementary school, they were processed foods way back when and it has gotten worse since then.
When will we wake up and see the food that is being heavily advertised to us is killing our children and ourselves???!!!
This YouTube documentary (Killer At Large)is from 2008. The US Surgeon General states that obesity is the largest threat in America. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iBHm5zji_Y)
I have taken back my health & life by eating whole foods and taking supplements that support every metabolic function in my body.I never felt better.
I pray that America will wake up and teach our children about the dangers of processed, refined foods, sugar, flour and the dangers of eating an empty nutritious diet. Also, like Jamie Oliver, I wish they would wake up and feed our children healthy food at school so they have a good foundation.
I read a study that our children also have the highest rates of diabetes, high blood pressure & heart problems at a very young age. That are likely to see our children die young.
How sad!
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