@stephen50right There was an attorney in Pittsburgh whose only client apparently was himself. He would sue anyone he thought wronged him. If a judge would throw out his lawsuit, this attorney would then sue the judge. Judges were afraid of him. He could tie them up in lawsuits for years, costing them huge amounts of money. Once he sued a dentist (a client of the firm I was working for at the time) because the root canal performed on him was painful. Well, I've never had a root canal, but even I know from those who have had it done that is not a pleasant experience. The case was obviously frivolous, but no judge would dare toss it out. Haven't heard anything about him lately. If he is still alive, he has to be far up in years.
This attorney is the extreme. Most litigators won't take a case unless it has merit, and even then, they will try to settle rather than go to trial. If a client has been injured, the attorney will try to get only what is needed for the client's living expenses and in cases where a client may never be able to work again, financial security. A reputable attorney will explain that a legal action is not intended to make the client wealthy.
By the way, those attorneys whose ads you see are plaintiffs' attorneys. They advertise heavily because unless they have a winning track record and a high volume of cases, they don't make any money. Usually, they take cases on a contingent fee -- that is, whether or not they get paid depends on whether or not they are successful in getting money for their clients. If the clients lose, the firm gets nothing. The fee is a percentage of whatever the amount of money received and the maximum is dictated by state law. In Pennsylvania, the max is 40%, but most firms will take 33-1/3% or less. In negotiating a settlement or deciding on a dollar figure to sue for, the lawyer's fee is included. Contingent fee arrangements allow the plaintiffs to retain counsel without going broke. if they had to pay an attorney a straight hourly fee, they would be ruined.
As I admitted earlier, there are plenty of bad apples in the legal profession, but most attorneys are reputable. They perform a valuable service. Sure, you can file suit
pro se -- that is, without an attorney. But the law is complicated and procedures in various jurisdictions are daunting. If you want to sue or if you are sued, you need a lawyer to navigate through the rough seas. Otherwise, you are likely to go down in flames. And as was pointed out earlier, not all lawyers are litigators. They work in other aspects of the law -- corporations and businesses (set up, dissolution, compliance with regulations, mergers and acquisitions, etc.), real estate, estates and trusts, intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyrights) and so forth. You might be able to go through life without needing an attorney, but chances are if you don't want to muck things up, you will be better off having one. Would you refrain from going to a doctor just because there are some bad doctors out there? Same with a lawyer.