Avoid attorneys in ER

You would think I would have saved a bunch of money
here since I frequently do my own (routine) legal
work/documents. Some of my best friends have benn
lawyers, and one of them gave me some excellent
advice "If you can stay out of court (as plaintiff or defendent) you are almost always better off because
even when you win you often lose". This is because
of the financial cost, mental strain, your time, and........... let's
say you win and get a monetary judgement...........you
still have to collect. Once again my example is to be avoided as my ER stash has been depleted significantly
by legal clashes. AT $150 to $250 per hour, it adds up fast. I live 2 miles from the county court house and like
to joke that when you know almost every judge and
attorney you see there, you have spent way too much time in court. Black humor for sure

Just passing along my friend's advice. If you can settle a
dispute out of court, do it! I have gone into battle
way too many times and have the scars (financial and
emotional) to show for it.

JG

[chris2008]

Being a lawyer / inhouse counsel I can fully support your advice, even though I work in a legal environment where the losing party has to pay for the winner's lawyer.
A reasonable compromise is almost always as good as a verdict that comes years later - cause with a compromise you can go on with your life whereas litigation keeps you entangled with brain and soul.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Being a lawyer / inhouse counsel I can fully support your advice, even though I work in a legal environment where the losing party has to pay for the winner's lawyer.

I wish it worked this way for the district attorneys office. We'd see a lot fewer "fishing expeditions" looking for a maybe conviction and most likely a lot more justice. I would suspect that someone who was innocent or felt that there was at least no case against them would quickly put on an expensive defense if they thought they'd get their money back with a "not guilty" decision.

Yeah, me too. A little over a year ago I was charged
with a misdemeanor. The case was eventually dropped,
but by then I had "dropped" a pile of money. All out of my pocket to defend against trumped up charges.
I have won more than I lost over my lifetime but it sure
was costly.

JG

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Like i've said before, I've dropped about 15-20k on legal fees and fines so far.

Not one person on the earth who can say I left them with so much as a hangnail or badly hurt feelings. let alone harm or property damage.

But why not, when you're a DA already drawing your salary and it doesnt cost you a penny to file a charge or lose a case?

I'm deeply disappointed that it IS possible to "buy all the justice you want". Even more disappointed that a lot of people without means end up sitting in jail when they simply didnt have any way to put up a defense.

Well, I have hurt some feelings

JG

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Yeah but you dont know me

[Shredder]

Quote:

. But why not, when you're a DA already drawing your salary and it doesnt cost you a penny to file a charge or lose a case?

In our community our prosecutor only makes $70,000 per year and if he had to pay after losing cases he would owe money. He loses over 50% of the cases that go to court. No good attorney wants the job though, with the politcal butt kisssing and the low salary and all. So we get stuck with real ya-hoos, and the chance that a real bad guy will walk because of his incompetence...Shredder

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Oh I dont mean pay for it out of their own salary, but out of a budget.

Clearly the DA who files and loses a lot of cases will run out of budget and/or get fired.

It would simply result in a DA not filing any charges unless surety of guilt was present.

In some cases this might result in the guilty getting away because there wasnt a preponderance of strong evidence.

To me, thats better than putting financial pressure on a broad range of non-guilty people just because theres no reason for the DA to not file charges on a whim.

The system in the local county is interesting...the DA's are frequently former cops. The judges are frequently former DA's.

Some system of checks and balances... :

[Bob_Smith]

Quote:

Oh I dont mean pay for it out of their own salary, but out of a budget... To me, thats better than putting financial pressure on a broad range of non-guilty people just because theres no reason for the DA to not file charges on a whim.

TH, a few months back my wife was broadsided at a stoplight. No personal injury was involved. One of our small-town cops charged her on a whim so she was forced to fight it; our concern about insurance rates being the primary motivator.

She went to court without an attorney. When she got there she realized that the city attorney (the rough equivalent of a DA in a small town) was there to fight her! Also lined up against her were the other driver and the cop. My wife has no legal training and had never seen the inside of a courtroom. She presented her case very competently. The cop lied about what occurred and my wife was able to back him into a corner. The judge saw right through it and dismissed the charges. The attorney and the cop walked away without any consequences whatsoever.

This is a long way of saying that I agree with you. There should be consequences for dragging innocent people through the system.

Slightly off topic. I noticed in our local paper that one
of the cops has been charged with four (4) counts of official misconduct. One interesting thing is that the police force consists of four (4) full time officers and
five (5) part time officers. This is a town of 2500
population, and that has been the population for over 100
years. When I was growing up there, they had one policeman, period. Now, if you extrapolate that across the country,
it is easy to see why there are more people arrested
and charged with questionable offenses. With the
explosion of new laws continuing apace, I see this
going on forever, certainly to our detriment.
Martha, what do you think ?

JG

[Martha]

Sounds like you have a lot of bad boys in your town.

Seems like overkill to me. However, I question whether the increase has anything to do with more laws. I'll bet it is the result of something else entirely.

Martha