The Rainmaker

“I’m the last thing this profession needs—another hungry young vulture roaming the streets, scavenging for litigation, trying to make something happen so I can squeeze a few bucks out of broke clients.” 

This quote one addresses problems inherent in the legal profession. It is argued that there are simply too many lawyers, so that the competition for clients borders on the grotesque, such as “ambulance chasing.” The reality of this type of situation sheds a revealing light on what being a lawyer can be like, far different from the glamorous image of a person in a costly suit arguing before a jury.

“A professor told us last year that bankruptcy was the growth area of the future, what with uncertain economic times and all, job cutbacks, corporate downsizing, he had it all figured out.” 

Though this quote speaks of a future period, it actually describes the economic situation of many of the characters in the novel, e.g. Rudy, Jackie, the Blacks, Great Benefit. The sentence, therefore, also acts to foreshadow not only Rudy’s declaration of bankruptcy, but also that of Great Benefit.

“One lawyer’s as good as the next. She’ll trust me as much as she’ll trust the next guy, which is not saying much. How strange. With all the money spent by lawyers on cutthroat advertising, the silly low-budget TV ads and sleazy billboards and fire-sale prices in the classifieds, there are still people like Dot Black who don’t know a trial stud from a third-year law student.” 

Even though there is a conspicuous hierarchy within the legal profession, the general public, especially the lower classes, are unaware of any of the differences. This is not only a slap-in-the-face for those lawyers who invest highly in advertisement, and lumps all lawyers into one category, underrating the importance of the profession in general. It also highlights the naïveté of the working and lower classes, and their lack of education, which becomes somewhat of a vicious cycle. The lack of education causes them to be easily manipulated by larger companies and their only defense is through, litigation i.e. a lawyer, whom they struggle to distinguish from the ones who manipulate them.

“Because for the vast majority of lawyers who don’t have clients they can bill by the hour forever, the only hope of serious money is representing people who’ve been hurt or killed. It’s easy money, for the most part.” 

The critique of the judicial system, and specifically the legal profession, becomes repetitive, but this only serves to reinforce the criticism. While Rudy condemns the practice of ambulance chasing and lawsuits designed solely for the lawyer’s financial gain, he also acknowledges the reasons why lawyers pursue these cases, and oftentimes it isn’t entirely based on greed, it’s because those lawyers don’t have much of an alternative if they want to make a living.

“I have continually been astonished at the lengths to which wealthy insurance companies have gone to screw little people. No dollar is too trivial to connive for. No scheme is too challenging to activate.” 

Open criticism against the insurance business. Great Benefit may be an exaggerated version of a greedy and manipulative insurance company, but certain parts of the novel, such as the above quotation, are conspicuously directed at all insurance companies. The quote highlights the fact that insurance companies’ primary goal is profit and not the care of its customers.

“I started law school less than three years ago with typical noble aspirations of one day using my license to better society in some small way, to engage in an honorable profession governed by ethical canons I thought all lawyers would strive to uphold.” 

Throughout the novel, Rudy becomes increasingly disillusioned with the legal profession. He was never very keen on it in the first place. Rudy openly admits to entering the profession to spite his father. Nevertheless, he also developed an ideal, noble aspirations for pursuing the career when spite was no longer enough to keep him going. However, those ideals are quickly shattered and disappointment settles in as the novel progresses.

“If lawyers earned the same salary as schoolteachers, they’d immediately close nine law schools out of ten.” 

Rudy ridiculed his college friend for wanting to become a teacher rather than enter a profession that paid better, but the fact that his friend was motivated by factors other than money makes Rudy begin to ponder which motivation is better. Rudy realizes that the vast majority of his fellow students are not driven by noble aspirations to defend others and fight for right and justice. Rather, the sole motivation is to become wealthy and influential. Rudy finds financial motivation increasingly problematic.

“The system barely has enough time to run these thugs though and allocate some measure of justice. How can the system be expected to care for the rights of one beaten wife?” 

Rudy offers, with these words, less of a critique of the judicial system and more of a tragic observation. The judicial system is overwhelmed with criminals and lawsuits like the one he is involved in, which causes someone small and reticent to fall through the cracks. Rudy’s subsequent behavior regarding Kelly attempts to offer a solution to the overburdened judicial system, namely it is up to the lawyers not to waste their time with ambulance chasing or filing frivolous lawsuits but use their time and energy to protect others from the bad people.

“I’m comforted by the image of his gaunt face and withered body. It makes me mad.” 

Similar to the previous quote, Rudy speaks about his motivation in the Black versus Great Benefit case. Rudy is no longer motivated by dreams of making off with a sizable settlement, retiring in the Bahamas, etc. Rudy has taken on Donny Ray’s cause as his personal crusade against a terrible company.

“A lawyer has a duty to give his client the best possible advice without regard for his own financial circumstances. There is no doubt in my mind that I could beguile the Blacks into settling. With little effort, I could convince them that Judge Hale is about to jerk the rug from under us, that the money is now on the table but will soon be gone forever.”

When Rudy first got involved with Dot and Buddy Black at the Senior Center, it was just part of his class. However, he quickly learned that the case looked substantial, and taking on a wealthy insurance company could mean a big payout. Those were Rudy’s initial reasons for taking on the Blacks and fighting to keep the case in his hands, rather than pass it off to another lawyer as Max Leuberg had advised Rudy to do. Notwithstanding his first motives, Rudy becomes the noble and chivalrous lawyer by not manipulating his clients for his own means. He does what an ethical lawyer is supposed to do, and that is to place his client’s needs before his own, because he knows that the Blacks are uninterested in money. They want revenge.

“It’s standard procedure in insurance litigation for the defense firms to assign two lawyers to a case. They always come in pairs. Regardless of the case, the facts, the issues, the work to be done, you get two of them.” 

Rudy offers insight into the tactics involved in insurance litigation and by doing so he highlights Tinley Britt’s strategy of intimidation by sending in more than double the standard number of lawyers. This shows that Tinley Britt not only wants to intimidate Rudy, but is also planning on using the weight of their wealth, power, and prestige to win the case rather than on evidence and wit, which is exactly what Rudy will have to do.

“He’s tired of my questions about ethics and tactics. It’s a rough and tumble world out there, lots of hungry lawyers who know how the cutthroat game is played. Sit on your butt around her all day and you’ll starve to death. The good cases don’t have a prayer of getting here.” 

The discussion between ethics and survival in the lawyer world returns. Rudy increasingly moves towards the ideal, the ethical, and Deck Shiflett is there to remind him of the reality of his and Rudy’s situation: They have few clients, nothing permanent, and they have to find a way to earn a living.

“One big case, and you can retire. That’s one reason lawyers do so many sleazy things, like full-color ads in the yellow pages, and billboards, and placards on city buses, and telephone solicitation.” 

Rudy points out the motivation behind personal injury litigation, explaining why lawyers are willing to spend money and make fools of themselves in order to attract clients. It is all a part of the American Dream of becoming wealthy and independent.

“According to Kipler, and also Deck, it’s not unusual in these cases for the insurance companies to hide things from their own lawyers. In fact, it’s quite common, especially when the company has really dirty laundry and would like to bury it.” 

Rudy points out more dirty tricks used by not only Great Benefit, but most if not all insurance companies. This highlights the evil of the insurance company while shifting some of the blame away from the lawyers because it is hard to defend a client who lies. Of course, this, too, illustrates just how bad insurance companies can be when they lie and cheat the people they have hired to defend them. 

“So this is how the uninsured die. In a society filled with wealthy doctors and gleaming hospitals and state-of-the-art medical gadgetry and the bulk of the world’s Nobel winners, it seems outrageous to allow Donny Ray Black to wither away and die without proper medical care.” 

This is perhaps the most important quote of the entire novel. It is open criticism of the American Health Care System. The novel was published in 1996. Coverage of lower-class American citizens was a problem then, and it remains an issue in American society and politics still. It is the core problem at the heart of the issue: the means exist to take care of the sick and afflicted, but who is going to pay for it all.

“The heart of any bad-faith case is the claim file, the collection of letters and documents kept by the claims handler in the home office. In a good bad-faith case, the claim file is an amazing historical account of one screwup after another.”

Rudy points out the importance of the paper trail in litigation. When the entire problem consists of written words and documents it is paramount that an effective defense or prosecution is founded on proof of who-said-what and what was agreed upon. Rudy makes sure to illustrate that the problem, however, mostly lies with the insurance company making mistakes and that he knows where to find proof of them behaving badly.

“A judge has unbridled discretion in matters like these, and there’s no way to appeal. Kipler is punishing Drummond and Great Benefit, and , in my humble opinion, I think he’s a bit overboard. There will be a trial here in a few short months, and the judge is establishing himself. He’s telling the hotshot lawyer the he, His Honor, will rule at trial.” 

One of the most important aspects of the American judiciary system is the temperament of the judge. The above quotation illustrates the need for a judge to establish his or her authority before the beginning of a trial, especially in the face of powerful entities like Great Benefit (a wealthy insurance company) and Tinley Britt (a powerful and influential law firm).

“Virtually no competent CPA can understand a set of financials from an insurance company. They’re not supposed to be understood because no insurance company wants the outside world to know what it’s doing.” 

The reader is made aware of the convoluted nature of the insurance business. A CPA is a certified public accountant. It is pure hyperbole, of course, but if a person trained and skilled in numbers and forms and financial systems is unable to disentangle the knot that is an insurance company’s finances, then something must be seriously wrong, or, as Rudy wants to point out, it is clear evidence that the company is not operating ethically and is attempting to hide its illegal practices.

“They’ll do things like secretly photograph their homes and automobiles, find out if they’ve been involved in any litigation, obtain their credit reports and employment histories, dig for dirt on possible divorces or bankruptcies or criminal charges.” 

The process of jury selection and the importance of the jury for a lawyer’s case is highlighted in the novel, and the lengths to which a law firm might go into learning about potential jurors is as well. The above quotation also juxtaposes the difference in means available to larger, more powerful law firms and smaller ones. The larger the firm, the more resources it can make available to ensuring a positive verdict. It shows just how much opposition Rudy is up against.

“With the exception of stealing money from a client, contacting potential jurors is probably the gravest sin a lawyer can commit.” 

Jury tampering is highly illegal and getting caught would carry severe consequences. However, Rudy shows that it is possible. Because of this possibility, it is shown that even though Tinley Britt would more than likely have had the means to hire someone to talk to the jurors about the trial, and perhaps even be able to get away with it, it is an ethical line that not even they would be willing to cross.

“The ‘dumping’ of documents is a favorite tactic of insurance companies and their lawyers. They love to wait until the last minute, preferably the day before that trial, and unload four storage boxes full of paperwork on the plaintiff’s lawyer’s doorstep.” 

The above quotation is a good illustration of the bureaucratic aspect of the law profession. It is the boring aspect of being a lawyer, the requirement to read a lot of legal documents in dry, boring language. It contrasts greatly with the excitement of being in court. Furthermore, it highlights the strategy of the defense in attempting to overwhelm its opponent with superfluous paperwork. It also illustrates just how little chance someone like the Blacks has in filing a claim with an insurance company who can use a similar tactic, which Great Benefit does, by drowning the issue in legalese and bureaucratic mumbo jumbo.

“It had never been done before in the industry, and it was generally viewed by management as a wonderful idea. Deny for a year, add up the money saved, deduct the amount spent on quickie court settlements, and there’s a pot of gold left.” 

This quote makes sure to establish Great Benefit as a purely fictional company, and the Blacks’ case as hypothetical. Nevertheless, it shows the possibility for a similar situation to exist in the real world. All of which helps define the situation with Great Benefit as a cautionary tale.

“I use an example that’s been around for many years. It’s a favorite of trial lawyers, and I’ve read a dozen versions of it. It works because it’s so simple.”

The example Rudy uses is one that can be changed to fit many circumstances. In essence, it is using fallacious logic to compare two vastly different things with one another. In this case, an insurance company and an individual citizen by focusing on commonality, e.g. money is the connection. Both an insurance company and an individual have/use/need money. Percentages are then used to show that 10% from an individual’s finances is not much, but 10% of a large company comes across as a large sum, but really it’s still only 10% of what they have, and thus, equal to taking 10% from a single person. The trick is then to make sure to divert the fact that that large sum from the company is an astronomical amount for the individual to receive.