I'm working half-days from now until I fly back to Seattle in mid-January. Didn't tell the firm that I'm going to be working remotely for 3-4 weeks in Mexico. YOLO
Thank god I’m not the only one feeling this. I just dgaf right now and am getting little accomplished.
Partner: "BamaNug I need you to handle something in the office in the next few hours." What is your response?
Giving up on the solo dream for now and taking a job at a plaintiff's firm doing workers' comp and ssdi. Still need to wrap up my current cases, but looking forward to a steady check again.
Left my last job earlier this year in April and drew unemployment for a bit. Started "working" around October, but I only had a couple of comp/ssdi cases, and a couple of dust mask cases I referred out/ "partnered." Everything was pre-lit, so not too much to do other than setting up doc visits and getting updates on records. Did the occasional stuff like deeds/wills/title searches, but wasn't really earning any income at all. The firm I referred the dust mask cases to actually ended up hiring me lol. I was in the process of opening a physical office, and would have been ready there in early January, but the firm made me an offer I couldn't turn down.
And getting taxed on income received this year that won't actually go to your pocket but will instead go to January payroll.
we got hit hard on phantom income a few years ago, sucks. Put a bunch of money in our war chest , so it never went in our pockets, and we paid a shit ton in taxes on it.
I've been to the office maybe 2-3x since March, there's zero expectation I'm supposed to be there. Half of Washington counties just suspended all trials until March 1. I have 2 hearings, a deposition, and a mediation scheduled for while I'm down there--all on Zoom. I'm staying in one place, and the owner tells me the internet is great but ... we'll see. I have some back up plans if needed. Worst case scenario would be if there's a big 18-wheeler accident in the Seattle vicinity that we need to respond to immediately. It's happened 4x in my 9+ years of practice, so that's a risk I'm willing to take. And that's what IAs are for, anyways. If my internet connection is solid, I have little concern. But that's not a guarantee, so I may have to buy a couple Mexican sim cards and just churn some data via hotspots or something. Una mas cerveza, por favor
WA and OR require 45 hours every 3 years, and 2020 was supposed to be the end of 3-year compliance. Due to COVID they extended it to the end of 2021 Which means I'll push it into December again.
This reminded me to check, and apparently I need 2 hours. It looks like I have until March to get them in though. Yikes.
Ohio allows up to 12 hours as self study online. I did not know that limit until this morning, but the 11.5 I need fits nicely. I’m feeling kind of fortunate that I did 11.5 hours live in a two day program back in 2019 before the world started burning.
I normally teach a CLE that knocks out my yearly requirement. Fortunately, I had enough to roll over into this year and just watched a 1 hour ethics webinar to fulfill what wouldn't roll over.
I have never done an online CLE before. I always knock out CLE at two day conferences with clients, then couple it with dinner, drinks, etc. This way kind of sucks.
I swear to God, half my day at this point is listening and explaining to my clients that their weekly workers' compensation check is not arriving because the post office is a fucking train wreck right now, and that there's not a single fucking thing that I can do about it. I've gotten fired by three clients over the issue because they think it's my fault. You know, because I fucking love listening to hour long bitch fests about how hard it is to pay bills when the check arrives on Thursday instead of Monday. FUCK
A free beach trip for wife and kids? I go to 3-4 hours of classes in morning then get on beach in afternoon and get fresh seafood? It’s awesome.
rookie, my paralegals and legal assistant deal with that. But seriously, the mail has been running so slow that my comp clients have been going ballistic. I've filed motions to compel timely payments just so i can tell them I'm doing something.
Between state trial lawyer seminars, AAJ, and southern trial lawyer stuff, and Keenan Trial Institute stuff.....I always end up getting way more CLE than I could ever use and spending a fuck ton of money.
My office itself usually hosts at least two CLE events a week over lunch. You have to be attempting a hunger strike not to whack them all for the year within a couple months. WFH is a bitch sometimes
Do you guys even MCLE or use other virtual tech like TRT? A 30-hour bundle costs like $100 and you just play it in the background on mute while you work on other shit.
Please let me know where you hire these paralegals and legal assistants from because mine do not appear to be capable of keeping my clients under control right now, and I end up having to swoop in and save the fucking day every damn time.
wes tegg , you see that huge verdict ($5 mil) out of Choctaw County? Couldn’t believe defense went to that venue with no local counsel on a paralysis case. I’d have hired every local lawyer down there place is so corrupt.
Gallant Knight did you say TX AG's office is tough on enforcing child support liens? I have a MVA that will probably settle for $28k but have a $22k child support lien out of TX.
Yes they will generally let your client have between $500-1000 if you tell them that they won’t sign off on the release if they don’t get anything you’ll get your full fee and expenses tho
Damn that is brutal. This is not going to end well with this client. He's expecting 10 x that in his pocket
I wonder if it is unethical or considered circumventing or subverting the child support lien to take part of your fee and give it to your client in that scenario