Breaking Barriers to Justice
The Information War: Guerrilla Tactics for Fighting Corporate Disinformation Campaigns By Ryan Stygar
It’s no secret that the general public doesn’t trust lawyers. From shady caricatures like Lionel Hutz from The Simpsons to Saul Goodman from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul , the public perception of our profession cannot be denied. This is not a new problem. Anti-lawyer sentiment traces as far back as 1591 “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” (said by Dick the Butcher in Shakespeare’s Henry VI ). More recently, in 2024, a Gallup poll revealed only 16-17% of respondents considered lawyers “trustworthy.” That’s a commanding lead over car salespeople (8%) and an easy victory over Congress (6%) - but the problem remains - most lawyers are considered elitist, greedy, and untrustworthy by most of the general public. Which makes lawyers a convenient scapegoat for insurance companies and corporations. While insurance companies are generally despised, they are somehow less despised than lawyers, with 21% of the general public viewing insurance companies favorably (yes, the damn gecko beat us by 5%). I won’t go as far as to call this a credibility crisis. It is really a perception problem. Lawyers are [2] [1]
still viewed as generally intelligent and capable - and we can use that to fight back.
And fight back we must. Uber’s recent attempts to rewrite California’s constitution would have hurt not just lawyers, but the clients we’ve dedicated ourselves to protecting. The ballot initiative fight from October 2025 to June 2026 was a stark reminder of the stakes. Uber used attorneys as the scapegoats in a massive disinformation campaign. According to Uber, their initiative wasn’t about protecting corporate profits, oh no! It’s a benevolent business protecting YOU from GREEDY LAWYERS! I know that’s not true. You know that’s not true. But many would inevitably be fooled. In a fight like this, a corporation like Uber with its near-limitless cash reserves, would appear to have the upper hand.
Money Talks, But Credibility Persuades
Do not despair. I have highlighted the recent Uber initiative to demonstrate the urgency and the stakes, but don’t think for a moment this isn’t a fight we can win. As plaintiffs’ lawyers, we routinely square up against multi-billion-dollar corporations. We are career underdogs, and we like it that way. But with as much airtime as companies like Uber can buy, they cannot buy the most important weapon in this fight: credibility . A single word from a credible person destroys a thousand words from a non-credible, faceless corporation. How do I know this?
Ryan Stygar is the founder and CEO of Centurion Trial Attorneys, APC. Better known as “Attorney Ryan,” he is one of the most well-known worker’s rights lawyer in the country. Ryan is also the author of Get It in Writing: The Ultimate Guide to your Rights at Work.
ryan@centurionta.com
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Consumer Attorneys of California
FORUM July/August 2026
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