During my research I have found that the law field has multiple types experts. To be considered an expert and a member of the insurance litigation discourse community a person must be a licensed attorney. These experts share a common goal and that is to pass down the skills and knowledge they have down to future attorneys. Depending on the area of law, some attorneys carry a very strong opinion about their field and dedicate their time to teach and do research on their area of expertise. 

I found that the law field has a copious amount of writing styles. From the genre of academic and professional books to the less formal, journal, blog writing style and everything in between (like office memorandums). I noticed that the members of the insurance litigation discourse community prefer to stay on the more formal side of writing styles. 

One example of this is actually a book written specifically for the members of the litigation discourse community. The book Litigation in Practiceby Curtis E. A. Karnow explains the process of trials and tribulations, and the importance of settlement timing. It also has a portion about the analysis of the complexity in litigation. This book is written by a judge of the San Francisco Superior Court, who has been assigned to a litigation department. He has first-hand experience about trials, and the civil procedures before and after these trials and that gives him a lot of credibility when writing this book. This bookreaffirms the formal writing genre in which a lot of corporate attorneys find themselves, especially if someone would have to go to trial and in front of a sitting judge. 

However, there are other people who work closely with attorneys that are also considered “experts” without being a licensed attorney. 

These are people who are licensed by the Department of Insurancewho are also experts in their field and work very closely with lawyers. The term expert applies to them because they have to pass a state exam to work in the insurance field. After passing the state exam, they are given a license # where anyone can confirm if their license remains active or if it has been revoked. 

Since both of these types of experts are licensed in some way by the state, that means that they are both regulated heavily by the government. They both share the same burden of being ethical in their fields at all times. Which is there I find a bit of irony; they both need to be insured by a 3rd party insurance in case they are ever sued for malpractice and other attorneys will be able to defend them. 

These rules and regulations only apply to them. People who are not experts or who are not part of the insurance litigation community do not have to think about these laws or regulations. In a way since these experts have a lot of responsibilities, they carry a lot of weight in their every day jobs. 

There is a website with more information about these regulations, for attorneys it is the Rules of Professional Conduct . The experts in the insurance field, have to take continuing education classes where they review a code of ethics in order to keep their license active. For more information on these licensing classes please see, CA DOI – Education. 

And after all of this research I found that there is also, those experts in different fields that believe neither career mentioned above is worth all of the examination required. There are people who have found amazing careers and had very strong opinions of why not to go to law school and be part of the litigation community.

Some of the strongest arguments had to do with the amount of money it costs to obtain a JD Degree. Each law school may differ in tuition and other fees, so it’s best to look at the website for the law school you desire to attend. If you’re looking for some quick facts on tuition prices, Admissions Dean Calculator  has some information.

Other people argue that many students who apply to law school don’t actually know or understand what being a lawyer really entails. I found this article to be interesting regarding this argument: Above the Law Info

But in addition to these funny online articles, the argument that resonated with me was from a legal journal, author Lawrence S. Kriegers, wrote “Institutional Denial About the Dark Side of Law School”. This article describes recent psychological research on happiness and life satisfaction. It dives into detail about law school faculty who are in denial about the framework of the legal education. It concludes by giving suggestions about approaches the faculty can have based on the research concluded.  

I believe it’s crucial to do your research before deciding if law school is a good fit for you. I personally have strong reason why I would like to attend. But as you can see above, you can still be considered an “expert” and extremely successful even if you don’t become an attorney. 

Wishing you all the best in your future endeavors!