ABSTRACT
Some of the ends accomplished by ambulance chasing are socially desirable for the injured claimant. Ambulance chasing, however, contains other structural components having functional consequences which contribute to its interpretation. As long as the legitimate provision of adequate legal services is recognized as a problem, the positive quality attributed to ambulance chasing is likely to remain. Generally, the closer the lawyer was to the plaintiff's side of personal injury practice where ambulance chasing occurs, the greater the likelihood of his being favorably disposed toward solicitation. The court has given the bar associations the task of initiating action against deviant lawyers in their area. The actual chaser, or runner, is frequently a layman rather than a lawyer. Since advertising and solicitation imply that the layman has the capacity to evaluate skills which took professionals years to learn, prohibiting them enables the professions to control their fields on the grounds that they alone are capable of judging professional performance.
