Do the big firms pause their ad spending on holiday weekends? I don’t really spend much at all on ads right now but since 3 I’ve had three new clients call including a lady who was a passenger in an Uber that hit a median and the Uber driver made her get out of the car and left her on the side of a highway
woohoo sounds like my associate is about to get a grievance filed against her by a client we just released because the client was yelling and cursing at my staff
there should be a portal where lawyers can give clients a 1 star review. Or some sort of governing body for clients. They can raise hell and wreck havoc without merit and the attorney has no recourse.
I had an Indian truck driver make one against me a while back. Rear-end accident that was clear liability, but driver swears he did nothing wrong. Settled pretty soon after suit was filed. He wanted a lawyer to sue the Plaintiff for the stress caused by the lawsuit. After I told him I don't think that sort of recovery is allowed, he cussed me, hung up, and apparently called the state bar immediately.
just asking hypotheticals but if i for whatever reason wanted to do this to buy_dont_lease how could i do it
One thing I've learned early is the value of a quick turndown on clients who display any red flags. Just went through one today, and at the end of the conversation it just validated my gut feeling that she was going to be an asshole client who would not have been happy no matter what. It was a case I wasn't thrilled with in the first place because it wasn't big damages, but initially sounded like easy liability. Had to do with laser treatments to the face causing burns, and I had just wrapped up a similar case for a really good early settlement amount. The difference was that the other client was awesome and likable, and this lady was insufferable from the first conversation. She wouldn't stop talking, wouldn't listen and committed the cardinal sin os asking me on the first conversation how much her case was worth. Again, I had the perfect expert already lined up so it was easy to work up. I talked to the expert who basically told me there isn't a case there and just from looking at the records says, "I bet she's a pain in the ass." So the client gets back from overseas today to ask about the status of her case and I told her it was a turndown. She proceeds to berate me for "wasting her time," but then asks if I'd consider taking the case if she got her treating dermatologist to testify for her. I had to cut her off several times to tell her thank you, but no thank you. Peace out. I could have gotten her $10 million and she would have complained and then asked me to cut my fee.
It’s not grounds for you to file a bar complaint that I laughed at you during our consultation when you explained to me what you were doing at the that truck stop glory hole.
Are law school kids willing to do free summer clerkships if they don't already have a job somewhere. I.e. just for experience? Not sure what the going rate for clerks is. Obviously the kids that did well in OCIs are getting $$$ but we've gotten resumes from kids that don't currently have any summer stuff lined up. Wondering if it is a dick move to say it is unpaid but you'll get some good experience. They would want to do it remotely as well. I would think the experience is worth it.
Go ahead and agree to the rate, then channel your inner claims adjuster and cut all their time after they submit their bills. It will provide them with valuable real world experience of the practice of law.
Should always pay your interns. Also should do everything to make it in person if y’all are in the office so they can actually tag along and learn from you.
the kid that sent his resume is 3 hours north of here so guessing he doesn't want to move down for the summer. But I agree with everything you are saying.
I was an attorney for 3 years and moving to a new firm in March 2020 that became remote due to covid was rough. Ended up leaving after a few months.
In 2016, I interned at the EPA for free. For an entire summer. I even moved out to Denver to do it. Such a dumb financial decision but it did lead me to moving out here.
Pay people for their work. Especially since you are all over the world, anyone who works for you is going to have to figure out most things on their own. Not like he's going to be sitting by your side at trial soaking up a bunch of knowledge.
Students performing public interest internships can usually get stipends from their school. At least that was the case at mine.
just found out the other trial set for our week, a 2-day trial with a complaint filed in 2019, is definitely going. Our PTCF is tomorrow. So this whole issue is probably about to get mooted and Plaintiff's counsel will be bailed out for dropping the ball
"no prejudice if you continue the case" is the bullshit argument I will hear until I retire or switch professions. Yes, if you ignore the rules and move the trial date, then sure, there is no prejudice. rinse + repeat baby
the level of scrutiny seems to be unbalanced. Judges feel much more squeamish about limiting the evidence a Plaintiff can put forward, allowing them to get away with quite a bit in my admittedly limited experience here in Colorado.
In theory, I get it. The injured party should get the benefit of the doubt and get "their day in court." In reality, PI lawyers use this to their advantage and know that, more often than not, they'll be granted leeway if they miss a deadline by a few days or don't timely disclose experts, etc. But I'm also cynical AF, so that's just my experience.
I generally agree. Fine with missing deadlines by a few days. Just don't try to turn your rebuttal experts into affirmative experts 19 days before trial because you realize I don't have to call any expert witnesses. The response to our motion to strike filed by Plaintiff's counsel had so many misrepresentations and disingenuous statements in there. You can tell she just went with the muddy the water technique of briefing in lieu of having the case law on her side. And now she gets a get out of jail free card
Here they will find any reason to throw the plaintiff out and we definitely don't get the benefit of the doubt.
Here you just end up with defense lawyers disclosing experts the Friday before trial and our courts say the remedy is just to continue the case absent a scheduling order, which the majority of courts don’t even entertain. It’s fucking dumb.
In state court in Florida they'll just tell you to go take the expert's depo over the weekend. In federal court, you're super fucked for even the most minor of infractions.
Same here. Except it’s usually a billing expert or someone else you need to daubert so the whole thing just gets pushed back months. Everywhere should have strict scheduling orders.
There’s a movement under way to change the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure to make it more the federal system. This would really suck. I think it’s largely a reaction to the Covid backlog of cases and they think this is how they’ll force cases to either get tried or settled expeditiously.
each district court judge in harris county has 2500-2700 active cases on their docket. it's insane rn
PTCF went great. Unfortunately, the case on June 13th is going and so we got continued. However, the Court held argument on the rebuttal expert issue. Plaintiff spewed her bullshit for 6-7 minutes. Court came back with a "I don't see experts the same way you've described," "if these rebuttal experts were vital to your case, you should have retained them as affirmative experts," and "you don't get to call defendant's expert and then put forward your rebuttal experts ... that is opening your own door for rebuttal. That isn't how trial works." Despite a continuance to January 2023, he is reserving ruling on the issue until after we file a reply. But he noted that if trial was not continued, he would have ruled in our favor and prohibited from allowing her rebuttal experts to testify in her case-in-chief. I am sure he will just allow us to rebut and depose her experts, but a nice moral victory. Shame we got continued. Case would have either settled or gone to trial heavily in our favor without a continuance.
Honestly, she was ridiculous. Calling our conferral a month before trial re: not calling our own experts gamesmanship, improper, and unlawful. She said she had never seen this in 16 years of trying cases. Luckily I hate the cites to case law saying you don't have to call a "may call" witness, even a retained expert. Seems like pretty basic shit. She was mad that she spent money on rebuttal experts and then she may not get to use them. But those are the rules. If anything, we could have just hid this from her until the day of trial, but we were up front with her 30 days ahead of trial about our potential strategy. And then she tries to redesignate her rebuttal experts as affirmative experts and calls us out for gamesmanship? lol, ok
So this is a first: Former client threatens to sue me over something dumb /without merit and files a complaint against me with the Better Business Bureau . Got all her issues resolved years ago and never thought about her again. She just referred a nice MVA to me LOL. Didn't see that coming.
If someone got into a hit and run with clear video outlining it wasn't their fault, would you guys advise that person to get an attorney to help navigate the insurance game? No medical injuries, approximately $8k in damage to the car.
Personally, not if the insurance company is paying for all of the damage. But I don’t litigate so others may have different opinions.
Appreciate the responses. Basically this person feels like they're getting jerked around by their insurance company and is wondering what they can do about it. Figured I'd ask.