We've all heard for years about the professions that are the most, and the least, trusted. Teachers and doctors have historically topped the list while, rumor has it, car dealers and lawyers usually pull up the rear of the list.
So this year's list, reported by the Institute for Global Ethics, has no surprises. As usual, Doctors top the list, followed by teachers, scientists, police officers and professors.
The Harris Poll reported that members of congress were distrusted by 63% of people (no surprise). Obviously, people elect people they think they can trust and learn not to trust them after that. Something wrong with the system there, I suspect. It just might be things like the recent vote by the House of Representatives to throw out broad ethics reforms in favor of a narrow measure that some called "one small step" toward partial honesty with voters.
And what politician dropped the most? That's right, the President, with a 17% drop down to an all time low of 48%. Regardless of your political stripes, and that's no tip off on mine, that drop should concern us all because it means that people across this country are losing faith in our elected officials. On the other hand maybe it just means that more people think it's time for a change. That isn't necessarily bad.
Meanwhile lawyers have gone up slightly (now that's a surpise), with 27% of people trusting attorneys. Only thing I can figure out of that is that most people deal with defense attorneys because that's about the percentage of defense attorneys that I would trust, frankly. Okay, that rating isn't great, but as a profession attorneys are ahead of actors and car salesmen are so low they didn't even make the list!
So how do you find a lawyer that you can trust? Talk to other people. Look for a track record in handling your kind of case. After all, you wouldn't hire a dentist to do heart surgery. Don't hire a probate attorney to handle a Lemon Car case either. Not surprisingly, many Consumer Law attorneys know each other. For a national list of Consumer Law and Lemon Law attorneys, click here.