West Virginia lawyer, Jack Fabian, is a battle-hardened, hard-drinking personal injury trial lawyer concentrating his practice in medical malpractice plaintiff's cases. Fabian, who has developed a penchant for big spending, expensive airplanes, top-shelf booze, and luxury vacations finds himself in 2005, feeling the adverse effects of the recently enacted repressive medical malpractice tort reform law in his state that has dulled his enthusiasm for the practice in general and plaintiff's malpractice law in particular. Through a series of unforeseen circumstances, Fabian reluctantly finds himself teamed up with former adversary, Benjamin Darnell, a recently deposed partner in a large insurance defense law firm and becomes embroiled in a case against a young neurosurgeon who, the two contend, botched his first surgery since completing training. Preferential Treatment is a story of two former foes pitted against the litigation section's chairman of Darnell's old firm and his young associate in a case that could make or break each of their small practices. The book gives the reader a bird's-eye view of the rough and tumble of the practice of law in a dying West Virginia town and the risks few lawyers dare to take--the difficult, time-consuming, and expensive practice of medical malpractice litigation.