Bedbug Resurgence Launches New Legal Specialty

• Author: Ed Finkel
• Pages: 15-15

Benefi t of the Bargain

The University of Tulsa, B righam Young University and th e University of Cincin nati

made both U.S. N ews & World Report’s top 100 law school s and Law.com’s top 20

cheapest law schools lists. Law.com compiled the top 20 list utilizing data from the

ABA and U.S. News’ ranki ng system, repor ting that tuition at the 20 c heapest schools

ranged from $25,25 4 to $38,904 per year, which is consi dered a bargain compare d

to other institutions . The majority of th e affordable school s are in the South.

Source: law.com (Dec. 20).

Hearsay

$82 Million

The estimated value of pro bono

services by 2017 law grads, who p er-

formed more than 3.39 mill ion hours

of aid, according to a su rvey by the

Association of Amer ican Law Schools.

Based on data from 94 of the 205 A BA-

accredited law schools, t he AALS found

recent law grads logged 184 hours of pro

bono work on average over the course of

their studies. The inaugu ral survey, with

data from 80 schools, found the clas s of

2016 completed more than 2.2 million

hours of pro bono work, valued at

$52 million. The services i ncluded law

school clinics, ext ernships with legal

aid providers, student organiz ations

and volunteer opportunities.

Source: law.com (Jan. 5).

Up in Smoke

The crash and burn of Matthew Petersen, Preside nt Donald Trump’s nominee

to the U.S. Distric t Court for the District of Colum bia, during his Senate confi rma-

tion hearing highlights w hat many practitioners say is a growing p roblem: Fewer

cases are going to trial, resulting in fewer attorneys with trial experience. Statistics

show the average federal district jud ge tries about three criminal cas es a year, a

decline of roughly 40 percent from eigh t years ago. Federal civil trials are also on

the decline, with an average of abou t 3.7 per judge each year. Politico reports that

these numbers may be overstated, with some judges now going two years or longer

without a criminal jury t rial.

Source: politico.com (Dec. 21).

UNIVERSITY OF TULSA, UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Bedbug Resurgence

Launches New Legal

Specialty

IT’S PROBABLY UNUSUAL FOR PERSONAL injury

attorneys to consu lt with entomologists. But that’s among

the changes to Los A ngeles-area lawyer Brian Virag ’s

professional routine in the past se ven years since he took

his fi rst case on behalf of a plainti attacked by bedbugs.

Virag rebranded his prac tice My Bed Bug Lawyer after

being inundated with ca ses when he learned more about

the anxiety, inconvenience, emotional d istress and humili-

ation su erers exp erience. Then he began soliciting clients

via YouTube.

“I started look ing for resources from other attorneys who

may be doing this kind of stu , and there wasn’t anybody,”

says Virag, whose competitor s now include fi rms with mon-

ikers such as Bed Bug Lega l Group and Bed Bug Lawyers.

“I saw how traumatized these people were. I re solved that

[fi rst] case, and I picked up another one right after that . I

said, ‘Let me try t o fi ll the void.’ ”

In 2017, Virag learned the potential value of such ca ses as

he took a steady swar m of them to trial, with verdict s climb-

ing from $104,000 for a case in Bakersfi eld, California,

to $465,600 in Los Angeles, t o an October case against

Hilton Hotels that resulted i n a $546,000 award. Then, in

December, Virag won a $3.5 million verd ict against Park

Victims bite back against hotel chains,

landlords and other defendants

La Brea Apartments on beha lf of 16 plainti s,

with individua l awards ranging from $34,000 to

$470,200, despite combined medical costs t otaling

only about $2,200.

Legal obser vers say the growth of bedbug law-

yers and climbing verdicts fi t the pattern of novel

personal injury spec ialties that can become over-

run—like mold law a decade ago and the recent

proliferation of ride-share injur y attorneys.

“It has a certa in logic to it,” says Gregory Keati ng,

who specializes i n torts and legal philosophy at the

University of Southern Califor nia’s Gould School

of Law. “If there is a general problem, once one

plainti preva ils, there is a blueprint. So there’s a

kind of mass production e c iency. And you have

to race at least a bit to the c ourthouse door; even-

tually, the industry w ill either fi x the problem or

go running to some legisl ature for protection. And

there are no big mass tort s at the moment.”

Bedbug attacks a re indeed a small tort practice,

but the cases have struck a chord w ith juries. The

majority of the recent awards V irag has obtained

stem from the emotional dist ress aspect; two of the

four recent cases have included punitive d amages,

but those “weren’t humongous,” Virag says. “Juries

are pretty rec eptive to the concept of people suf-

fering because of bedbug ex posure. It’s not just on

a daily basis when you’re living w ith it—it’s on an

hourly basis. You wake up, you’ve got bites. You’ve

got to go to work. You’re apprehensive of that whole

concept because you feel asha med and humiliated.

And then you have to come home and live with it.”

—Ed Finkel

MARCH 2018 ABA JOURNAL || 15

Opening Statements