Have You Ever Needed a Lawyer?

I never have, but one was very helpful to parents, in getting their estate in order, and to my brother, who was the executor of my parents' estate when the time finally came.

Same brother runs his own contracting business. He also has a guy who handles stuff for his business. Again, very helpful.

Micro Jr. is a first-year law student. Hard work, but he is really enjoying it.

 

I have, and apparently will need to again later this year.

The previous matter, a fair wage claim, was dumped by one firm because it wasn't enough $$ to pursue. The solo practitioner they referred me to did just enough to earn his percentage.

I am now looking at a accident injury case (non-automotive) and it looks like the company will not settle, which means pushing forward.

 

I got my paper sued because I wouldn't give in to a guy pissed off about a story about the death of his son. There was a legit mistake because of a false-positive on a drug test following an accident. Guy wanted a full retraction. I offered a follow up story only. Guy sued for libel but the case got tossed for, among other things, a lack of standing. Of course the case was not dismissed before our company's lawyer got official statements, went through records, got the case moved to federal court and filled several motions. Cost us, I want to say, close to $50k to sort out. My publisher called me into his office, showed me the bill and said basically you were right but next time just do what the guy wants. We can't pay that much everytime.

 

I think I went my whole life without needing one, and then in the past 18 months we've had to consult several after my father in law died. One for some probate matters, and another to file a wrongful death suit that's winding its tortured way through the legal process.

 

Twice.
The first for an out-of-town incident. Hiring a lawyer -- in the town where this happened -- allowed me to skip going to court 4-hours away. Lawyer cost me his $500 fee plus $125 for the adjusted fine.
Second was a routine living will to set up my daughter with all of our assets.

Opinion: Passing the bar gives you guys the right to lie to judge and juries -- on the record -- while everybody else is charged with perjury. I know that from watching lawyers interviewed on the news and the TV lawyer shows.

 

Once, because I was dumb enough to get a DUI 20 years ago. Because I was on the line between extreme and regular DUI (a HUGE difference in Arizona, as far as punishment goes), I hired one to get me on the regular side of it. One day in jail and a 30-day license suspension versus 10 days with an interlock device and a much longer suspension was totally worth it. I can't believe that was 20 years ago...have not repeated the mistake since, thankfully.

 

I have a great newspaper lawyer legal story.

We had a kid photographer who used to hang out at the junior college near his home. He took photos for the coaches and gave them away. He was always around and everybody knew him. Before the Montreal Olympics, USA Volleyball set up training camp at this same junior college. Kid was there taking photos. Just before the Games, the director of USA Volleyball told him they get to bring a photographer in their official entourage and they invited him.
He sent a few photos to the local paper. The paper told him that after the Games, they would run a 4-page tab of his photos, the sports he shot and random photos from the Olympic experience.
One of the photos was a guy outside Olympic stadium, holding bunches of tickets above his head. The caption said something like: "Scalpers were very busy at the Olympic Games."
Oddity of all oddities: The guy could have been from anywhere in the world, but he lived in our city, 3,000 miles away. More: He worked at a bar called Sweeney Todd's Pub. So in our paper, we called this guy who worked at Sweeney Todd's a "scalper." He filed a lawsuit, claiming he was suffering mental distress and it was affecting his work.
We're shitting bricks over this, but then someone asked the publisher if the lawyers were pissed over this issue. He said, no, they are laughing their asses off. This is unusual and exciting for them.
I think it was settled by a followup story clarifying the situation, and gave everybody a good laugh.

 

I'm a little confused. Did you take the day in jail and the 30-day license suspension, or the 10 days with the interlock device and the much longer license suspension? How long was the other license suspension?

 

More times than a generally law-abiding person should have had to:

- Getting contempt-of-court charges brought against wife's former husband
- Trying to unravel the part of the inheritance from my mother's estate that was in a tax-protected status
- Representation, paid for by my auto insurance company, when a professional victim sued me for tapping her bumper
- Getting wills drawn up
- Buying a home

When I've had to evict bat-shit-crazy tenants from my rental home, I've been able to file the necessary documents on my own and have only needed to hire a process server.

Like with any profession, there are tiers of performance and ability among lawyers, I've found. One time, an attorney for the wife's ex demanded all sorts of information. She (really, it was me) responded with a rejection of the demands that Mutombo would have been jealous of.

My father-in-law was once served with a demand letter from a lawyer. I assume the lawyer assumed the transcriber of his dictation would do some polishing, because the letter read like an unedited rant of a 13-year-old. Embarrassing.

 

As for me, I used a lawyer when I was in a car crash and sued the other driver. My wife also used a lawyer for her car crash and subsequent lawsuit that she sued the other driver for. Both lawyers took the case on a percentage basis, and we both got settlements.

My wife also, when we were in our 20s, bought a used car from a really crappy place that I had warned her already had a bad reputation. Car started having engine problems right off the bat, and every week, she was bringing it back to the dealer to fix. Then she went on a long drive to visit me when I worked at the Bumfuck News, and the car conked out again. Dealer said that, since that trip put the miles past the warranty, that he wasn't responsible. My wife called a lawyer, who agreed to write a letter to the dealer for a small sum (Something like $50 or so; it really wasn't much). Dealer, upon receipt of the letter, agreed to pay for a rebuilt engine to be done by the mechanic of my wife's choosing.

Had a real-estate lawyer when we bought our house. He sucked. We kept asking him to explain stuff, because we had little clue, and he'd actually yell at us. I still think we got screwed out of a few thousand in closing costs because of that jackass.

On the other hand, we also used a lawyer who specialized in special education rights for our kids to fight against our school district. She was funded by the state, I think, so it didn't cost us anything. We used her multiple times against our district, and twice, when we didn't agree with the district's placement and services for our kids, filed to take the district to a hearing, where, likely, we would have won because our district's special ed department was cheap and lazy. District folded both times and gave us what we wanted. The district really loved us. A couple of our CSE meetings actually turned into shouting matches. One of our kid's therapists came over to us after one meeting and, in a low voice, said that she had never been in a meeting in all her years as a therapist that was so hostile and asked me if it was actually personal between us and the school district. I nodded my head. Our lawyer was damn good, and the district provided us with a list of education lawyers (I think they were required to by law), with our lawyer not being on the list. My wife and I merely laughed at the list.

 

Yes, thanks to an unscrupulous developer who repeatedly tried to illegally evict tenants. After years of drama, he walked into the big meeting and announced, "It's good to be on the winning side for a change!"

I know enough doctors, lawyers, and accounting types to get decent referrals if the need arises. But finding a certified financial planner has been on my to do list for years.

 

I’m a lawyer and I’ve used lawyers for things outside my specialty. When I got an IRS assessment, I handled it myself. I hired someone to draft my will/trust. When I had some concerns about work layoffs and then when our department was outsourced, I consulted an employment lawyer to make sure I understood my rights and wasn’t missing anything in the severance package paperwork.