And they make money by going after low-hanging fruit. Ever wonder why they advertise 90%+ success rates and work on contingency? Because if your case isn't easy, you aren't their customer.

If you are injured in a car accident and the insurance company is trying to screw you over, they seem like an important advocate

That's why other lawyers call them ambulance chasers. Their ethics are notoriously questionable.

…and patent trolls…

Just Sayin’…

We're such a weird society when it comes to enforcing laws on business. It's all "scummy" behavior.

For examples: Accessibility laws, consumer protection laws, and privacy laws.

It's a trivial matter to determine which websites don't comply with the easy targets of accessibility. Yet the concept of running such a scanner, automatically, and charging for corrections, is seen as predatory behavior.

There was an article about grocery pricing with obvious collusion, dark practices, and misinformation yet nothing is done. Business as usual, people need to understand it and work around it. Problem is, it's clearly outside the realm of the average intellectual ability.

Predatory behavior is everywhere. I don't feel compelled to list even a single example.

If the lawyer chasing the ambulance results in a law being followed instead of ignored, that is a positive thing.

More importantly, there's money out the other end for them. The payoff is more questionable for information from Snowden leaks. Yes, I guess a journalistic outlet can get a big scoop and that drives eyeballs which leads to advertisers... But that's pretty different from the ambulance-chaser payout.