Chatter: Faking It

The recession is so bad that even lawyers are losing work, but the medical malpractice industry marches on: “We’re actually a little busier,” says Jim Beasley Jr., one of Philly’s preeminent malpractice lawyers. “We’ve been screening out more bad cases,” he adds, attributing the uptick in flimsy claims to plain old money lust in a down economy. Other local med-mal attorneys disagree about motivation: At one firm, the paralegal who answered the phone said sure, BS claims happen. But she called back for the record after speaking to her boss: “All our clients come to us because they have been seriously injured.” Hey, if you say so.