Recently Counsel and I were discussing how humbling it is to be trusted by a client who had experienced so many setbacks.

This particular client had been poorly treated by an employer, government departments and initial advisers.  Unlike many of our clients, she had not been personally referred to us and did not have the benefit of a friend who could vouch for our expertise.  Despite this, she readily entrusted us with her claim and assumed that we would do the right thing by her before she had even met us.

Trust is such a personal thing.  We are all let down by people in various aspects of our lives – often unwittingly.

Some people have a bad experience and lose faith in humanity completely.  I can see it in some people’s eyes at their very first consultation.  It is clear that they have doubts about whether they can trust me before they have even met me or heard my advice.

Other people seem to roll with the punches.  They assume that some people can be trusted and others cannot.  They want evidence of a person’s trustworthiness before having them look after something as important as a compensation claim.  The evidence may come from a personal recommendation or from talking things through but they want to be reassured.

It seems to me that the rarest of all are those people, like my recent client, who never lose faith in humanity.  Those people will continue to assume that everyone can be trusted until proven otherwise.

People who trust us so generously inspire me to always be worthy of that trust.