Law Office of David G. Harding

Most lawyers use two-dollar words to describe what they do. I just represent my clients. I don't claim to be smart or tough, just lucky. All tough guys eventually learn that there is always somebody tougher, and all lawyers eventually learn that we can call ourselves experts in the law only until that moment when we first meet a judge, the true expert. But there are no limits on lucky.

All attorneys graduate from law school. A few of us try cases and argue appeals. More than 90% of contested lawsuits settle. I settle closer to 99%, and still I have handled hundreds of trials, arbitrations and administrative hearings. Settlements have several advantages. You do not have to chase them after the case is over; they are solutions the parties find for themselves, instead of have imposed on them; and they avoid risk.

A lot of silly child-lawyers think that trials are about getting away with lying. The law does not have a monopoly on silly children in adult bodies; they walk among us. But for those of us who have actually tried cases, the real challenge of trial is getting a finder of fact, whether judge or jury, to listen to a truth when a lie can be so much more comforting and seductive. As Mark Twain said, "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes."

A lawsuit is not something we do for its own sake, and there is no point in the process where it becomes OK to put our heads down and charge blindly. A lawsuit is a tool, and we file it to reach your goal. We settle when your goal hits the table as an offer, but it would be impossible to reach your goal if we were not willing to go the distance. There will never come a time when I won't be tested, so I live in a state of cheerfully ready to got to trial, and the vast majority of my cases just seem to settle.