I get at least a call a day from some service or another that generates leads for personal injury claims, mostly accident or pharmaceutical drug product liability claims. They all leave the same message, pretending like they are either referring lawyers or victims themselves without actually saying as much, keeping it as vague as possible while trying to generate enough interest for a callback. The giveaway that they are marketers: they always overuse the phrase "personal injury," wielding it like a sword without realizing that neither victims nor referring lawyers use that phrase in the context in which they are using it. "This is Mike, I'm calling you from Atlanta about personal injury cases." Personal injury lawyers just don't talk that way.

Their frequent calling cousin is "I work directly with Google" or the more boldly audacious "I'm with Google." The claim is identical in almost every case: "I'm 'with Google' and I am going to work exclusively with one personal injury lawyer in the Baltimore area. I can get you on the front page of Google in 24 hours." Again, the caller's purpose is to mislead you into thinking you get guaranteed high placement on Google through some magical trick as opposed to what it really is: pay-per-click advertising.

I always respect anyone's job and I remain polite to everyone, including cold callers. Between college and law school, I got my stockbrokers license, Series 7 license, the whole 9 yards. I think I made about three cold calls before my short lived career died. (I did make some decent progress with one guy on Smith Avenue in Baltimore pushing tax free bonds... I still remember that the calls I made were on that street because I probably looked at the list for hours before making my first call.) It was just brutal and I respect anyone strong enough to keep making call after call. Still, I do resent the fact that the messages are almost invariably intended to mislead the gullible.

Miller & Zois will contribute a dollar to Doctors Without Borders for the Haitian Relief effort for every new fan we add on Facebook. So if you are not already in, become a fan by clicking here. We have already donated a dollar for each current Facebook fan we have to date.

I'm tempted to add here my trite commentary on the scope of this tragedy. But at this point, we all get it. It is unspeakably horrible world sometimes. All we can do is pray and send money.

The reality is that Haiti has been a disaster forever. But if the world throws its heart and soul (and checkbook) at Haiti, is there a chance that Haiti can overcome its history of corruption and instability and can be rebuilt better and stronger than it was before?

Also, if you want to do your own Facebook friend drive or any other hook you can think of to raise money, let us know and we will plug it for you.

Last week, I announced our Miller & Zois new Facebook page. We had 31 fans. Today we have 325 and we continue to advance forward every day. I think that is pretty cool.

If you are a regular reader, please click here and become a fan.

I can not long argue that social media is a passing fad. You can now follow Miller & Zois not only on Twitter but also now on Facebook. All of our blog posts are linked on Facebook and Twitter. So become a fan of Miller & Zois today. You can find Miller & Zois on Facebook. Become a fan by click on the link. (You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter.)

One thing I have been doing though Facebook is keeping track of lawyers in other states when we have potential clients that come in from other jurisdictions. If you want to be on the list of referring attorneys that we use, please sent us an email though our Miller & Zois page after you have become a fan, telling us of your areas of practice and what part of your state you cover.

Five Miller & Zois lawyers were represented on the Maryland Superlawyer 2010 list: Ron Miller, Laura Zois, Rod Gaston, John Bratt, and John Cord. This honor is accorded to less than 5 percent of the total number of lawyers in Maryland.

Some have questioned honors like these. Eric Turkewitz in his New York Personal Injury Blog specifically questioned how much gravitas the Superlawyers award should have. Of course, some awards are so powerful that it is impossible to question whether politics and other factors impact whether an honor is bestowed, such as the Nobel Peace Prize and the Time Magazine Man of the Year. Oh, wait, bad examples.

You get my point. Every honor is tainted with some measure of politics or something else that qualifies the purity of the award or accomplishment. So you graduated as your class valedictorian. But did you really work harder than everyone else or were you just good at taking exams? Yes, your child turned out great but was it the luck of the draw or your spouse's genes or were you really a great parent? So I think when you get an honor, particularly one like Superlawyers that puts you in an exclusive class of Maryland lawyers, I think you should happily smile and be proud.

I'm also proud of what this shows about the depth of our law firm. Five of our lawyers received mention in SuperLawyers. Our goal in bringing new lawyers aboard was to make sure that every lawyer that touches a Miller & Zois file could handle a case at the highest level. Does this award prove that? No. But it is definately a point on the right side of that question.

I am going to be speaking to the North Carolina Advocates for Justice in Greensboro on Friday, December 11th on maximizing the value of personal injury claims and the related issue of dealing with insurance companies.