You don t need a lawyer to go to family court. Contact the clerk of courts in your county to find out the procedures.
You can go to court without an attorney. Depends on the reason you are filing for custody and why you don t already have it. If the other party has an attorney, you will probably lose unless there is abuse or drugs (provable) involved.
Yes there are forms such as this. I know here where I live a local business store sold them they were right along with the home wills, divorce kits, etc. I would call around to a couple places and ask. I know they are there because a family with a student in my class used one to give custody to the grandparents. I do however think they are time sensitive, like only good for a year at a time! ******Why in the world would I get a thumbs down when I simply answered the question that was asked? She did not ask how I felt about it she simply asked if it is possible. So why to I get a negative for answering the question.?.?.?.?
No, you in fact did not say you didn t want opinions, but when one is talking about babies, which is highly emotional for sane, caring adults..that s what you ll get. You are messed up and disgusting. A quot;kitquot; for an adoption? You exceed the definition of a complete moron idiot. Report Abuse
you absolutely need a lawyer. and if for some reason you live in a state that allows you to sign away your rights to your children without a lawyer, you should still use a lawyer. this is a huge deal and you need to be sure it is handled correctly. You don t need to spend lots of money using a lawyer, especially if you ahve worked out all the details but, this kind of thing should never be done among friends without legal advice and the proper channels.
Are you wanting to give another legal custody/guardianship of your child or let them adopt your child? Because there is a difference. Legal custody is reversible, adoption is not. Either way, you will need to have a lawyer and a court get involved. This is not only to protect you, the other couple, but most importantly your child. I agree that you should seek counseling before making such a decision. I wish you the best.
You do not always need a lawyer to go about this process. Your first phone call should be to your counties Family Court. They can advice you as to what petitions need to be filed. Also ask them if there is a mediation agency in your county. If so, you may be able to use the mediation center and not have to even go in front of a judge (your mediation advocate does that for you). Things to consider: do you want to terminate your rights so that they can adopt your child? Do you want to give them temporary custody? Do you still want visitation rights to your child? If all you want is them to have temporary custody with you being able to regain custody at a later point, then depending on the laws in your state it can be as simple as signing a notarized agreement that they will have custody until such a date. You will be responsible to pay them child support. If you want to give them full custody (or share joint custody) and have visitation with the child then you will need to file a voluntary custody petition. You may be able to request the paperwork and complete it yourself, or look in to the mediation center that I mentioned before. Again, you may be responsible for child support payments. But, you do have the option of filing to regain custody in the future (though this may be difficult depending on the length of time...you would need a lawyer for this). If you want to terminate your rights so that they can adopt your child, you have two options. Your local child services or social services typically can assist you in filing to terminate your rights when you have a suitable family for the child to go to. You can also request the petition from your local Family Court and complete it yourself or look at mediation or a court appointed attorney. It will then be the responsibility of the other family to file a custody and adoption petition. They made wish to secure their own lawyer to do that. They can also be the ones to petition for your righs to be removed. You would simply need to agree to their terms. Best of luck
Contact a lawyer.....Have this couple pay for the attorney to handle everything. You need proper counseling on your rights and their rights in regards to something this big. Your baby is not a pet or a house that can just transfer hands with a few signatures(I am sure this can be done, but not advisable)....There are things they will have to do to be considered good enough to care for your baby. Just you trusting them is not enough.
No you need to go through an attorney because your rights have to be terminated in Court, and so do the birthfather s. It is NOT a legal adoption until both of these terminations have taken place. It is then risky to all concerned. If done properly, the child will know security. Otherwise, it may be a temporary thing, which is not what you are obviously wanting for your child. You can also contact an adoption agency, who can do what is called an quot;identified adoptionquot;, which means that you as the birthmother already have the couple for your baby. But then they can do all the paperwork and the couple can pay them for the termination hearings, birthfather work, etc.
You need an attorney at least to ensure you file every thing correctly, follow all state requirements, and will have to go before a judge as well, I believe. They will want to make sure you are not being coerced or paid. Also, some states may require criminal background checks on the new guardians even if they aren t adopting. You don t have to relinquish all parental rights as in an adoption to have them named legal guardians, so an agency wouldn t be necessary. If you want them to adopt the child, then you have to have an attorney. Transferring all parental rights, permanently, is serious business and can t be left up to whims and legal forms bought online!
You really need to go through the proper channels. I know of a number of couples who have adopted children through all the proper channels and were still concerned the mother could change her mind. Or the father could come into it and decide to change his mind. If you were to sign a paper and get the father to sign a paper and get it notarized, maybe that would work, too. On the paper you would have to swear to give up all rights from this time forward. That could be a way. Just thinking of ways that might help. The best of everything to you.
dont do it that way. because in order for someone to get custody of your child you have to pretty much abandon the child and also it makes you look like a loser. you will regret this whole mess. it messes you up for the rest of your life!!!! you will be depressed and crazy and it changes you!!! if you dont want to be the same person as you are now then go ahead and give the child up. but remember my words. REGRET SUX
Don t know where you live. Boy, what a big decision to make without any proper counselling or help. Do you really know the couple properly? How do you know that these people are not going to sell on the child in the illegal adoption/selling trade? Where will it end up? Are there any Community Centres you could go to to get proper help. Counselling. Legal advice. I hope these people are not nuts or crazies for your childs sake. If you want to give the child up just contact a doctor who will be able to refer you to the right people to help you through the process. Much safer.
You don t have to pay for an attorney in the case of adoption. If the couple isn t willing to foot the bill, SOMETHING IS WRONG AND YOU DON T KNOW THEM AS WELL AS YOU THINK YOU DO. If you care for this child in the very, very, least.... get away from those people. They may seem very nice, but you could get in A WHOLE LOT OF TROUBLE FOR DOING THAT. They could be pedophiles or sell your baby to who knows what. WHY DON T YOU WANT TO USE AN AGENCY? THIS MAKES NO SENSE.
Your state bar association has a lawyer referral service. For instance, in Texas it is www.texasbar.com. There are plenty of civilian lawyers with appropriate experience. Ask for a contingency contract. That means that the only way the lawyer gets paid is for him to win your case and collect money, from which he will take a percentage (30% or more). If no longer will take it on contingency, they are telling you that winning and collecting are unlikely.
Take it to a lawyer and see. Most offer a free initial consultation. It sounds like confidentiality laws have been broken.
Yes you have a legitimate gripe. Teachers are bound by their profession to keep this kind of info private. Since you are not a part of a union, I would see a lawyer.
No... you have absolutely no case. The information was available by common means. Get over it, the drugs have made you paranoid. Nobody is out to get you.
You would have a he said she said case. Very hard to prove. Just keep clean and move on.
You were under no obligation to tell your teacher why you dropped out. You chose to do so. The fact that she chose to discuss your situation with her coworkers is unfortunate, but not actionable. You would have been fielding questions about why you quit regardless of whether or not she told anyone. Your instructor was not legally bound to keep your secret.
A personal injury attorney would be who you would need to contact, they can be found in the phone book under personal injury or you can contact the local state bar association. What you describe sounds to me like someone leaked personal information protected by the privacy act, in order to successfully present this type of case you would have to prove that the info was leaked, what leaked and by whom and that you were damaged as a result. If it just embarrassed you, it won t fly but if you can prove that you have been attempting to gain employment and have been denied and so have lost wages as a result then that might fly, if you ve been a couch potato and haven t even applied for work, probably won t win or even get anyone to take your case. The only thing you might do is get an injunction from the court to make sure the conduct is stopped. Go in and speak to an attorney, initial consultations are free and he is the best one to advise you after he knows the whole situation.
You can form a Delaware LLC, and do it online. They can also assist in setting up the trust. I used them to form a LLC, and was very happy. Plus, it saved me the cost of a lawyer.
If your bank handles letter of credit, that s the best place to start. However, some banks charge more than others, so it would be a good idea to check around.
Contact the state bar association.
I am SO sorry this happen to you. The people ahead of me gave the answer. I just want to encourage you to FOLLOW through. I hope things worked out for you in court. I am sure the Judge allowed for the issue. Good Luck
yes call the bar association ,and mention your problem .the office of the district attorney will help you w/ phone number .
Write your question Click on Politics amp; Government This will bring bring up a new catagory to the right of your screen. Click Law amp; Ethics! If you think he s to much, call a few different firms. Maybe some of them will be up front with you about how much they charge for something simular. Wouldn t hurt to try, Yah know? Good Luck! SmileyCat : )
Lawyers usually charge approximately 30-40% of all earnings he gets for you
Look under snakes under animals. My lawyer charged $300 an hour I think, By the time I paid him I lost everything I was trying to save.
legal counsul can only charge 33.3% on any jugdement.such as workers comp or a lawsiut.
How about Businesss amp; Finance? Your lawyer is running a business and it s dealing with your finances! But seriously, why not look in the phone book for your local Bar Association or Lawyer Referral. They usually have help desks that can give you local rates.
You may want to press charges. It is his job to inform you of the court dates whether or not you call for the updates. He is required to tell you about those dates. If you had not called when you usually did (if you call him on a basis) then he should ve called YOU! It would be his fault. YOu should do your best to press charges becauseo f this affair. I hope this helps.
Legally, you are obligated to keep track of your own court dates. Your attorney cannot be held responsible. Although, it is pretty unethical that your lawyer wouldn t give you extra notice!
How often do you communicate with him ? Do you call him or does he call you? This really depends on what kind of case you have
Umm the lawyer forgot to inform you? Doesnt sound likely to me as the courts mail you dates and they also inform you of the upcoming date at your previous hearing, booking etc. IF you really feel you are in the right (which I am sorry to say you likely aren t) contact the Judge and also contact your states BAR association and file a complaint against him.
Sue the lawyer.
have you kept all your contact information up to date. I see so many clients that contact us few and far between and they move and change their numbers constantly. It is the attorneys ethical duty to inform their clients of court dates by sending them a letter. Whether or not you receive your mail is not the attorneys fault. If in fact you have a shady lawyer that isn t notifying you of court dates, you can file a bar complaint, if however this is simply a case that you forgot to appear for a date, your attorney can not be held responsible. Make sure you have proof for everything before you bring up a complaint because I guarantee you, your attorney will have written and ever tape recorded proof to back them up just for these purposes.
let the da know
I don t know about tax lawyer, but I want to become a corporate lawyer partly because (in the cases that actually go to court) for the thrill of the court room. I also want to be a corporate lawyer to ensure that companies are ethical with their products, employees, etc. And in general, I want to be a lawyer because I know I will be helping others and upholding the law- which is the foundation of the U.S. and its morals system. (This would apply to both corporate and tax law). Hope this helps!!
the women - women flock to tax lawyers!
Lawyer does not get to choose presiding court or judge. You file in the county you reside and the court decides who has jurisdiction. They may contact the judge s office over procedural issues but not on the substance of the case. Contact on substance of the case is only allowed when a representative for the other side is present.
The above answer is correct. When an attorney for one party contacts a judge and discusses a substantive issue of a case without opposing counsel present it is known as ex parte infraction and is grounds for a mistrial.
I googled my lawyer and found a lot of info on him.
Oliver Wendel Holmes could not get him legal as long as he s in the United States. First, you need to get married. There s nothing you can do as his girlfriend. Second, he needs to go back to whatever country he came from. Third, you need to file an I-130 immigration petition for him along with an I-864 (Affidavit of Support) and G-325A (Biographic Information). He ll be called for his interview at the US embassy or a US consulate in his own country. After the initial interview he ll be rejected and banned from the United States for 10 years. This is the law. After this he ll file an I-601 (Waiver of Inadmissibility) request based on hardship. If he has not had any legal problems in the United States there s good chance he ll get the waiver and a visa to come back legally. You can find the forms here..... http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/m... Your best bet on finding an immigration lawyer is to use one that s a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Associaton.... http://www.aila.org/
Marrying him WON T help as has been stated. He needs to return to his country and apply. If he s never been caught here or at the border they don t have a record of him here but you ll have to LIE and say you met him in his home country to apply for a fiance visa unless you can prove you DID in FACT meet in his country. I don t suggest lying to authorities since you could trip yourself up and get in hot water. Do things right so you won t have to fear the law. He goes home you go visit and take things from there. Good luck
My recommendation is to find a man who is not using you, he needs to return to where he belongs and apply. Or you and it will be looking over your shoulder always, and sooner or later he will be deported and a 10 year ban placed on him. You can always move with him! Report and Deport
Yes, I recommend you not marrying him. If he is illegal,he can t become legal through marriage,he must return home to apply.
First thing you need to do is to make sure that he is not married in his country. A lot of them have families in their countries and they try to find an American wife to get a green card
He is using you to get a ticket in the country. As soon as he gets that you will be history. Find someone that will love you for you. Not, what you can do for them.
Have him call immigration or you can make the call. Just explain the situation, where you live, and they will be glad to help you out.
My profession recommendation would be to send your law breaking illegal boyfriend home where he belongs. Can t you find a responsible non-illegal person to hook up with?
I need a little more details but I would be glad to help you. Did he enter legally and overstay his visa or did he enter without any papers at all. That s the determining question.
he needs to go home and reapply - from OUTSIDE of USA - no matter who he is married to.
he have go out the country for 10 years sorry
There is no such thing as a quot;pro bonoquot; lawyer any more than there are quot;pro bonoquot; cab drivers, accountants, or grocery clerks. There are lawyers who for good reasons of their own may assist people or institutions without charge. You haven t stated any reason why you think you are entitled to a free lawyer.
Call the County Bar Association s referral service. If you qualify as a pro bono client, they will link you up with a participant in their program.
I visited the IRS web site and searched for careers . One of the results was http://jobs.irs.gov/home.html. That sounds like a good place to start.
you are kidding, please tell me that you are kiddin!!
You have to ask us????
Get some accounting background if you wanna be a tax lawyer.
Did you go to the IRS website, or, call the main office?
Try www.usajobs.gov first.
Entirely depends on the clauses therein contained. My advice is go thru a lawyer. DON T ever try doing it on your own. If there is a Donor, a Trustee and Beneficiaries, all parties involved in the existing trust deed have to sign (consent to the revocation of the deed). Once it is revoked you may want to or not , enter into another trust deed. It becomes Irrevocable only if one or more of the parties are not available to sign the revocation. In the event of any revocation it could also become an issue as to who will become the beneficiary. The persons involved can object that the original donor may not be allowed to become the sole beneficiary as a result of the revocation. The reason for this works on the principle that once the donor creates an irrevocable trust deed, even he has no power to undo it as it (e.g. property) is not his anymore.
I think a lawyer who specializes in wills and trusts needs to be consulted. I thought an irrevocable...means you cannot change it but what do I know?
most likely you have to go to a lawyer who deals in this and maybe have to go to a judge to have it finalized if there is any disputes as to the changes
A devorce procedure is just a sector of Civil law, and a lawyer specialized in civil law can handle any case related to family law. Penal law is a completely different sector and being a penal lawyer demands some additional skills as eloquence and ability of quick and flexible reactions. In general lines one cannot practice both civil and penal law, but an experienced in penal cases lawyer can easier handle civil cases than the oposite. My personal practice: Initially I specialized in maritime law but soon penal cases started to interest me more, while I did not exclude civil cases which I considered challenging. Getting enough experience through the years, I keep for myself the cases I like, or the cases that the clients believe that my personal presence is indispensable, mostly penal ones, while my assistants handle the rest of the cases, mostly civil ones, under my supervision. In Mediterranean countries like Greece and Italy (I practice law in both countries) the model of a Lawyers Company is not popular because the factor quot;personalityquot; has always a certain gravity in choosing a Lawyer. So there are Law Offices which combine the personal professional esteme that a lawyer has been granted by his cliency and the services of a Company, as cases of different law sectors are handled by the same office, under the experienced supervision of the director lawyer, while a number of experts in various sectors, like notaries, civil engeneers, even psychologists, support the activities of the office with their advice and services. As to the fees of a lawyer, they depend on the fame, the territory, the importance of the case, and many other factors.
It depends on a lot of things. Many of the Divorce and Criminal attorneys I deal with are solo practices and small firms. I have seen some that make as little as $60,000 a year (in Nebraska or Kansas) and some that make a good salary. The two can have a similar environment. If you work in a small firm, you will have more control. If you work in a large firm, there is less control, but often higher income.
They are similar. Both are consumer types of law. Both criminal and divorce lawyers usually work in solo offices or in small law firms. Some barely make a living wage; others do quite well, $200,000 or more.
There are plenty of good lawyers there. Ask around word of mouth is the best way to find a lawyer. If you can t afford a lawyer check with Case s law school they run a free clinic. You can also try the martindale listings.
You can research attorneys at Martindale.com. Do your online research as well and educate yourself regarding custody laws. The case isn t really over until the child turns 18.
Having been down the path you are taking I can tell you that it is a tough one. There are several referral agencies in Cleveland. Ask the lawyers for references and check them all. Many divorce and child custody lawyers are scum sucking bottom feeders, be careful. Lastly while you have to protect your access to your son, think of what a protracted custody battle will do to him. It sounds like you are thinking about yourself and YOUR hurt and YOUR pride and YOUR need for revenge. Try thinking about his reaction when he see his mom and dad tear into each other. Sometimes the most loving and difficult thing you can do is walk away. Good Luck.
I was in your spot, only in the Chicago area, 1993. I did not want to go with a temporary agency, because I detest any hint of corporate life. So, I became an independant contractor attorney. I paid for my own insurance, and my own benefits. I drew up brochures saying that I wanted to get my foot in the door and would do just about anything to learn how to be a lawyer. I mass mailed these to firms in Chicago and suburbs. I got lots of responses. Small firms that did not want to deal with temp agencies liked my idea. I drafted a contract for each job. Each job had a negotiated price per hour or per project. For me the importance was not getting tied down because my goal was opening up my own firm. I would contract on a per month, per week, or per project basis. Either party could stop me working there with very little notice. I received offers to stay with some of the firms. I think the reason was because I would literally do any task in the office. One firm I worked at had this major trial going on and just before the first day the executive secretary - who had done all the typing - got real sick. I pitched in and did her work. I wasn t asked to do that, I saw a need and made an offer. Yes, it was kind of strange to do secretarial work, but the firm needed things done. I delivered things to judges, I filed pleadings/motions with courts, I called courts to get information. I looked for those things that needed to be done, but that no one wanted to do --and did them with a smile. I once was assigned to key in initial pleadings for a PI firm -- hundreds of auto accidents. I created a template on the computer that held the entire pleading. All the person had to do was enter names, and take out clauses that were not applicable. I will tell you it is not easy to not blurt out that is not what I went to law school for or to smile and be pleasant when you feel taken advantage of. In 1999 I took on a long term contract with a firm that did the type of law I enjoyed. They considered me an employee, all my extra efforts became expected and unappreciated. In 2001 I opened up my own law firm. It is better than anything I could have dreamed of. My advice is to decide what you want to do. Pick an area of law that you love. Then work as hard as you can. Do more and more than what is expected. Be eager to take on any task, do any job just to learn. Work to impress the bosses with 100% accuracy, a great attitude, and hard work. If those bosses do not hire you maybe they will pass your name around -- that is how I get most of my clients even today, from those who saw my work ethic. Good luck
Thanks for the answer CatLaw. I m feeling inspired, time to stop feeling distraught about my situation and get in the trenches. All the best, Ben Report Abuse
asap go to (careerbuilders.com) get your paralegal degree and then become the lawyer you want to be!goodluck!
i don t know i think that it is just a try to not get him in office. i don t agree with obama but what is done is done. he was born in Hawaii
While you re probably sick of hearing about Barack the Kenyan, it is crucial that you read this letter. You see, I definitely believe that the majority of bleeding-heart scalawags probably agree that when Barack the Kenyan repeated over and over the rumor that his blessing is the equivalent of a papal imprimatur, his idolators, never too difficult to fool, swallowed it. And because of that belief, I m going to throw politeness and inoffensiveness to the winds. In this letter, I m going to be as rude and crude as I know how, to reinforce the point that he doesn t use words for communication or for exchanging information. He uses them to disarm, to hypnotize, to mislead, and to deceive. Now that this letter has come to an end, let me remind you that it was intended to provide an accurate, even-handed, and balanced discussion of Barack the Kenyan and his goals. Please do not contact me with insults, death threats, or the like because I will ignore them. If you disagree with my arguments or can provide further information about Barack the Kenyan, please contact me and I will endeavor to make any necessary corrections to this letter.
I would have given the attorney the copies and kept the originals, try a second opinion. Most attorney s don t change for the initial consultation.
Be like John Edwards, go into medical malpractice.
doctor-patient; attorney-client; husband-wife privileges only exceptions are when a person seems to be a danger to themselves or someone else. You can even tell your friend to check with the Bar Admissions office of their state to double check it wouldn t risk the attorney client privilege. If someone shows tendencies of being a danger to themselves or others, yes, it should absolutely be reported for their safety and well-being.
I do not think this is a huge ethical problem. Your friend s privilege obligations focus more upon not disclosing her client s conduct or legal dealings. It is more of a problem if you think they may commit an offence - I have been faced with this a few times and never had a satisfactory answer. You obviously have an obligation to keep matters disclosed to you confidential, however you have a right to disclose in your client s interests as well. If you know who their physician is I would call him / her to see if the client can be assessed professionally. If the problem is acute a referral to a third party mental health assessment team may be necessary. Depending upon the jurisdiction this may be made anonymously. Check this with the state bar / law society as exact rules will vary from state to state. Good luck, this is never easy.
its all about looking after the clients best interests. If the client kills themself and the lawyer knew he or she was suicidal and did nothing to intervene that would be a damn shame! Yes please do something contact the local authorities and get help for this poor person asap!
recommend a good psychiatrist to the client
Yes, and it is against the rules of each and every state bar association. That attorney has committed a serious violation and is subject to discipline if not disbarrment. The ONLY costs an attorney is allowed to front for a client are suit-related; such as filing fees, deposition fees, etc. An attorney is NOT allowed to give a client money for living expenses. Edit: to those giving me thumbs down, I sincerely hope you are not attorneys. If you are, then I suggest you take another look at ABA model rule 1.8(e) and the corresponding state versions: quot;(e) A lawyer shall not provide financial assistance to a client in connection with pending or contemplated litigation, except that: (1) a lawyer may advance court costs and expenses of litigation, the repayment of which may be contingent on the outcome of the matter; and (2) a lawyer representing an indigent client may pay court costs and expenses of litigation on behalf of the client.quot; There are also a variety of opinions dealing with this subject where lawyers have been disciplined and disbarred. You may not agree with it or like it, but it is what it is.
yes I have seen similar situations. While technically this is not illegal, it might be viewed as unethical if the lawyer s motives are solely to encourage and enable a party to proceed with a law suit.
No, I have never heard of such a thing. It s possible, unlikely, but possible that he cares. He will more than likely be repaid handsomely.
No - he must be pretty sure he will win. And he will charge them double out of the settlement.
no, haven t heard, and it s not the lawyers job but he certainly could do it if he wants to. For all we know, the lawyer could also be a relative or a close friend.
Here s a list of law firms in California that can help. http://www.lawfirmoffices.com/California...
Craigslist. Seriously. There are tons of jobs for lawyers there, so I guess legal employers find it worthwhile.
I would post in Yahoo HotJobs, local newspaper and craigslist.com
YOu can in some states; better to just go into the probate clerk s office and talk to them first. You can get a blank one here http://www.dapldenver.org/MembOnlyPages/... but they are somewhat state specific
A universal requirement of a patent attorney is having a law degree from an accredited law school anywhere in the world. A patent examiner can get by with a mere engineering degree with some courses in patents as needed.
Go with a lawyer you can even have him appear for you in your place.
If you already had good results once, why can t you do it again? A lawyer will just take your money.
If you show up they will knock it down and if you go before the judge and have a clean driving record I have found they take that into consideration and have knocked it down even more. Sometimes I think they wan to see if you ll bother showing up and if you do your chances are better:o) Good luck from someone who s been there...... You where going way too fast, I think you should just own it and pay the ticket....
Dont you think it would be cheaper and easier and way less hassle to just go to court and pay your ticket??
You could probably just pay the ticket for less than a lawyer would cost - but if you are trying to keep the points off your license, maybe show up, plead no contest and see if they will let you take a driver improvement class.
Just pay the ticket.
If it s ticketed as speeding, I d just show. If it is ticketed as negligent, or reckless, I d get a lawyer to work things out.
Its so not worth getting a lawyer over a speeding ticket. It won t make any difference wither there is a lawyer or not.
I m in the trucking field of work and have a lot of drivers that get cited for speeding. It is a waste of money to take a lawyer to a simple violation. If you have not gone to traffic school in the past 18 months you can go. You will still have to pay for the ticket and for the school, but it will not go on your driving record. Chances are the the Officer issuing the citation won t show up and if that is the case then you can deny the accusation by saying that you were traveling at quot;the safe speed of trafficquot;. And if the Judge asks you what is that speed, then tell him the safe speed of the posted limit. Good luck my friend.
dont bother with a lawyer coz you re gonna get points and a fine anyway.it happened to me.i was doin 77 on the motorway
depending on your location, you should be able to find a lawyer for around $150-200 to fight the ticket for you. most of the time the lawyer will go to court on your behalf, see if the cop is there, if the cop is there, ask for a continuance (spelling?), come back again another day and repeat as often as needed until the cop doesn t show... when the cop doesn t show, they will then get the judge to throw out the ticket for non-appearance... I have a friend who has done this with over 20 tickets and has never paid one nor has had one on his record. he swears by it... only on rare occassion will he have to actually attend court when the judge asks for his presence...
GO TO COURT YOURSELF AND SEE IF YOU CAN TAKE DEFENSIVE DRIVING.
I think you do or you d already know what to do. Go here http://legal.solutionsarticles.com/easie... let them know what happened and if they get back to you then yeah you need a lawyer.
Whoa.Are you serious? You always need a lawyer in any automobile accidents. To be perfectly honest, an accident attorney should be contacting you soon.Especially if the police was at the scene.A record of the incident is on file.Do you have insurance?Have you went to the ER?Going to the ER will help your case tremendously.Never second guess this again. YOU ALWAYS NEED A LAWYER WHEN YOU RE A VICTIM.
Although there are a lot of people who will tell you to get one to be on the safe side (of course a lot of those people are out for a quick buck). I ve been involved in a couple of incidents involving traffic accidents. In the first one I was rear-ended. I didn t hire a lawyer because frankly the car was totaled but it was old so that wasn t much of an issue. I wasn t injured at all - and didn t want to join the crowd of people who get one in order to milk the system. In the other accident. I was broadsided. The car was totaled and I was injured. This time I did get a lawyer and it was completely worth it. Aside from getting my own insurance company to payoff the car, they eventually settled with the other insurance company to pay for my medical expenses. That said, the entire experience was not fun and the amount that I received did little more than help me catch up on bills that I hadn t paid because I was out of work. With these incidents in mind. Aside from whether or not you re injured (which it sounds like you re not), a lot of it depends on how you feel about how the insurance companies are dealing with you. Although your ins. company is supposed to be working in your favor, remember they re prime motivator is to pay out as little in claims as possible. And the same is true of the other motorist s ins. co. The jest is, if you think something isn t right then you might want to at least set up a consult. Most will give you an initial meeting free of charge.
It s unfortunate to hear about your situation. I was injured once in Nebraska when a delivery truck backed over my left foot at work. My company tried to settle with me fast because I knew they were try to get me to sign some papers to release them from responsibility. I called a nearby lawyer in my area who gave me useful advice and I was able to get a justifiable settlement to cover my medical bills that weren t covered by my primary insurance. I d find a personal injury in your city. http://www.accidentlawyerlocator.com My personal injury lawyer was help me because they expect to make some money at the same time. Try visiting a injury lawyer to see if they can help. Heop everything works out.
Were you injured? Did you recieve any medical care due to the accident? Will you need medical treatment in the future from it? Is your car damaged or totalled? Are you going to have to pay out of pocket for car repairs? If yes to any of those questions, get an attorney.
The only reason you would need a lawyer would be if you were hoping to hit the jackpot with an injury case, and nowadays you have to be pretty seriously injured to cash in.
i got rear ended and lost a lot of money and got bad whip lash for the rest of my life . consalt a lawyer aneyway it would be better in the long run
Unless your neighbors violate any local housing or code rules, you put up with it or move.
An attorney that handles civil cases can help you...just make sure he or she has experience with landlord/tenant issues. You will have to make sure you CAN sue for excessive noise...look at your local noise laws and make sure your neighbor is in violation of those laws to begin with. Put your complaints to the landlord in writing, if you haven t already. Consider your damages...what are you suing for? Specific performance or do you want compensation? Good luck!
You don t need an attorney, all you need to do is call the police. They will charge them with disturbing the peace. Keep in mind that people have different standards of quot;quietquot;...just b/c they are making too much noise for you doesn t mean it s an illegal amount of noise. When I was in college, I once had to move because I had two neighbors that were both bartenders at clubs....and when they got off work at night, they brought friends with them. Enough to wake me up every other night, but not enough to get something legally done. I finally moved.
You need a landlord tenant attorney. But be fore warn. If you say you don t have any money. They don t like people that don t have money. They will brush you off. They d rather represent your landlord and kick you out. but take the landlord to small claims court. Keep a record and call the police and try to get a police report for each incident if you can of some sort of evidence. Most police are nasty with you when it comes to writing reports! Take your evidence to court with you and tell the judge that you wish to move, because of this, this, this and slam dunk this! You may get up to the limit of your court $5000-$7500 and your deposit back.......(try to through in emotional distress for fun) small claims judges sometimes don t like this) but if it s so slam dunk, he may flow your way. You have the right to a peaceful enjoyment, because you pay rent too. Tell him you have no money to move. If there is one around go to a legal-aid, but they are picky sometimes too.......(they like poor people though) Make sure you do nothing wrong. Keep your nose clean! And you will win the entire barrel of apples and a better place!
yeah you can t really do anything about loud noise except call the cops on them to have them quiet it down or talk to your landlord.
dont waste your time. it will cost you more money you are willing to spend... dMz
Check out the sites listed below, the first is for immigration attorneys in the Boston area, the second is a page for forums that may help. Best wishes! http://www.google.com/search?hl=enamp;clien... http://www.immihelp.com/forum/archive/in...
Go to www.avvo.com, enter quot;immigration in the subject field, and MA (or NH) in the location field. They rank lawyers from 1 to 10 with links to their websites etc. I m not sur they cover NH but they definitely cover MA.
try this http://www.2findlocal-boston.com/lawyers...
check www.nolo.com
The lawyer will pursue whatever his client pays him to pursue. Also, the lawyer might send another lawyer that lives closer than 6 hours away to attend the hearing. Bottom line--you d better be at the hearing with proof of your income. EDIT - the question was not whether SS is exempt or not. The question was whether a lawyer will pursue the case. If this hearing is about garnishment, the lawyer is investigating whether this asker is telling the truth about being quot;judgment proofquot;. This hearing may be a quot;debtor s examinationquot; where the asker will be required to state, under penalty of perjury, what his/her income sources are, what assets he/she has, etc. If the lawyer is satisfied that there is nothing that can be obtained for the client, it may all end there--with an in-court statement, under oath. It is very bad advice to tell anyone to blow off a court hearing. If this is a court ordered debtor s examination, the asker can be found in contempt of court for failing to attend and a bench warrant might be issued for his/her arrest.
What is wrong with these people answering this question? Social Security income is EXEMPT from garnishment. If he does try to levy your bank account you can file a Claim of Exemption and get it back. Any lawyer who would even try to collect from you is a total idiot and wasting the money of his client. Either don t show up for court and let them get a worthless judgment or go to court and show your bank records that prove your social security direct deposit. You are judgment-proof.
If he is being paid, he has to. Contact your SS office for info. I believe a creditor cannot legally garnish SS benefits. Those payments are not wages.
He knows he cannot get your SS checks, but he will file liens on all of the property you own. He will attempt to make you sell anything he can to get the money.
probably depending on the amount...
lawers in general have no souls, so sadly i am sure thet they will try to squeeze every nickel out of you
Why did you show him your bank account info? Now he knows your account number amp; he will most likely tie it up by placing a lien on it amp; your bank will be powerless to release funds to you if you have direct deposit. I suggest that you call the SSA IMMEDIATELY amp; have them start sending you your checks to a safe mailing address (a US Post Office Box is the best), then when you receive your check, just take it to the Post Office Window amp; show the clerk your photo ID amp; they will cash your check or convert it into convenient money orders to pay your monthly bills. I also have a LOT of judgements amp; liens from long ago amp; I will never get credit again amp; I also live in govt rent assisted housing. These butt heads legally cannot garnish your monthly benefits checks from the SSA, but they CAN, WILL amp; DO tie up your money if they find out that you have a current open bank or savings account. Once that money goes into the account, then you have to prove where you got it before they believe you, amp; until then, they put your cash in limbo for years amp; you can end up in the streets if your landlord isn t an understanding or patient person! Be sure to have your awards benefit letter on file with your banking institution amp; start to NOT USE THIS ACCOUNT for a few months until you find out what these legal jerks are planning to do to you. IF you are working to supplement your SS, then they might be able to garnish some of those wages, but I d still ask SSA to send the checks to YOU, rather than deirect deposit to the bank, so that you KNOW where your $$$ is amp; who has it! I feel for you on this one. I d like to have a checking account again, but I don t want to take that chance after hearing about all the horror stories from people with direct deposit! Good luck 2 U!
Oh! This sounds so familiar in the independent contractor consulting world. I would suggest going through a collection agency because of the way they operate. A CA would try to recover the money on your behalf but you pay them only when they recover money. They usually would deduct a pre negotiated agreed upon % from the recovery. A lawyer would probably charge you no matter whether the money is recovered or not. A lawyer would also need all sorts of proof of your work there. Would you be able to produce them. In future keep a few things in mind. Always have a written contract of the work you are doing at a clients place. Have all the financials in there too. Better still have part payments at various stages of the project so that it does not accumulate to a big sum. You can always stop work if the payments are not made in time. Then the only risk would be the last payment. Good Luck!
I would think a collection service would be more affordable. People usually pay no more attention to a lawyer than anything else. And the lawyer will cost you a lot more. You can file a suit on your own against them for the money, and ask that they be responsible for the court fees and all that. But, if they file bankrupt and you have already spent money to collet, you may never see it. I would consider selling the Receivable to an agency. There are agencies that will buy hard to collect receivables from you and then try to collect it themselves. They are more experianced and have the tools to best handle it. Mind you, they may only pay you about 60% of the value, because they have to make a profit too. But how much would it cost you to pursue it on your own? Then, if you don t collect, the only option you have is to write it off to bad debt and use that loss for a small tax credit.
It really depends on how long your client has failed to pay. Typically one would start collection preceedings after 90 days. A letter from your lawyer really does not hold any more weight than a letter from your office. Legally the collections process is a better route. There are two basic ways of accomplishing this. Sue or subcontract with a collections agency.
Why don t you call the owner directly and simply ask what you can do to work it out? Suggest a payment plan. If you get the collection agency involved, they will take a big chunk of the money.
Depends, if they have assets that can be liened get a laywer and slap a lien on them. No quarantee you ll get the money but, that client will be unable to do any conventional financing in the future without paying you. You might be able to do it without a lawyer, and let s face it nobody likes lawyers, but one might be useful here.
You might be able to go through a magistrate court for a portion of the amount also and try to seek some of the money back. I did that while serving on a condo board, but that was only a few thousand dollars. You can check with your local city government and find out what the limit is there. Basically you just file your information as to why you are doing this, a court date will be scheduled where you both appear, and as long as you have evidence to back up your claim, you should win (unless they have a doozy of an answer). I ve noticed a lot of the defendants do not show up though and in that case, you are automatically awarded the judgment. Good luck!
Same thing, bro.
Both are the same thing, some people call them lawyers and some attorneys. From Wikipedia A lawyer, according to Black s Law Dictionary, is quot;a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person taught to practice law.quot;[1] Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain stability, and deliver justice. Working as a lawyer involves the practical application of abstract legal theories and knowledge to solve specific individualized problems, or to advance the interests of those who retain (i.e., hire) lawyers to perform legal services.
Nothing is different except the word. You will need a personal injury attorney/lawyer.
They re synonyms. It s not like the difference between barrister and solicitor.
A rose by any other name is still a rose... the terms are interchangeable, like cat and kitty.
Same thing.
The only thing a lawyer has to sell is his/her time and expertise. If you needed surgery, would you expect the physician not to charge you? (ok, bad example, perhaps you would) If you go to the grocery store, do you expect to pay for the food you buy? If you go into a restaurant, do you pay for your meal? These people are providing you goods and/or services, and you pay the fees that they charge. A lawyer is no different. I m not licensed in Oregon, and therefore, I can t represent you anyway. But, I can give you some suggestions: If you are truly indigent..i.e. have no job and no money, then consider looking for your local legal aid society. In addition, law schools usually have a legal clinic where law students, under the supervision of licensed attorneys, will represent people for free. Divorces, especially if there is a dispute about children and property, can be ugly and time consuming. An attorney charges a retainer to work against with the idea that they want to be paid for their time and expertise. If you don t qualify for a free attorney through legal aid or a law school, then you should consider finding the funds to hire an attorney. You are wise though, by realizing you need an attorney to handle this for you, and for that I commend you. For more information or a further referral, contact your local or state bar association.
Is there a lawyer anywhere that wouldn t take your eyes out... I think you are out of luck..they are highway men without the masks...
how would a lawyer make money with out charging a fee??,.....you had better find the money, or your soon to be ex is going to take you to the cleaners,.....
If this is only your second moving violation in 2 years you should not be concerned about points as you are not near the number of points needs for an administrative license suspension. It is usually 12 point for suspension and speeding is usually 2. A lawyer will cost more than the ticket itself but it is worth going to court to see if the prosecutor will reduce the charges to something less or let you pay the ticket but get no points. They should be pretty flexible if you have a good driving record which it sounds like you do.
go to court and plea guilty but till the judge not to put this violation on your record but you still have to pay the ticket, I don t think a lawyer is necessary in this case it s a waste of money.
Yes, they are much more able to lower the penalty, but good luck getting one! Also, it will cost you a LOT more money than the fine you ll have to pay. I suggest you just pay the ticket.
yes, it is a good idea...very often prosecutors will not talk to people who represent themselves but will welcome discussion from a lawyer willing to deal...a lawyer will probably be able to get you a reduced charge, thus reduced points in exchange for a higher fine(ie 250 -gt; 500 and 3 pts -gt;1
probably not worth it
You can submit your issue in the following website and a good lawyer will contact you within 24hrs. Don t worry about their charges, Its only $1/day. I think this you can afford. Here is the link http://www.usalegalcare.com/auto_acciden... Good luck
The judge is the only one who has the capability to lower your penalty. Go to court, admit ownership and responsibility for your actions, and take your thumping.
NO!! Although if you do not mind the cost, I am sure a lawyer is apt to handle a speeding ticket. If the officer does not show up and you do, you can plead not guilty and I believe the case would be dropped. Good Luck to you -
No. It s pretty cut and dried if the officer had a radar gun on you. Take the fine and be a model driver henceforth or you may be without a license all together.
Only the judge has the power to lower your penalty. I have a ga drivers liscence and i was summoned to court with the threat of a suspended liscence for speeding because i was under 21. The judge put my liscence under probation for six months and if I got another ticket within that period it would be suspended. of course I stupidly got another ticket but in FL. Apparently states don t communicate because there is no national database and nothing happened to my licsence and I am driving today.
Did you do the crime? Then pay the fine. Accept responsibility for your actions. Be an adult. quot;To true to yourself.quot;
JERK! Y DID U SPEED! Yes lawyers work!
Just pay the fine. Lawyer fees will be more than the fine, which you will probably have to pay anyway.
do u know the price 4 a good lawyer? ( like a really good lawyer)? more than ull make in a couple of years.... no its not worth it. but still fight the power!
this will depend on how long it takes to create the document. Most lawyers charge by the hour for everything. You need to speak to an attorney that deal with intellectual property to get a clear answer.
I m not sure, but I would think a medical malpractice attorney. It s going to be very, expensive. Ask your friend to call the Law School at the University in your city. They may be able to assist your friend.
A good one!
On that wins, but they do have lawyers with specialties such as that!
*Excel in English *Excel in Math *Read - LOTS. It doesn t really matter where you go to undergrad, since education at that level is basically the same (even in Ivy League). Becoming a lawyer is nothing but endurance. Tough schooling, tons of reading/comprehension, etc. Lawyering can also be very tedious, as paperwork takes up the majority of an employees time. Contrary to popular opinion, most lawyers do not spend most of their time dancing in front of a jury. Education: 6-7 years depending on how quickly you go through undergrad/J.D. After that, it s all about personality. If you re emotional and morally driven, I recommend perusing other methods of employment.
Just go to college and then to law school...not that hard to figure out. Graduate and take the bar exam.
deeep pockets it will cost you plenty ,,, mj
Where do you live? It matters as the rules differ by country (and, less by state). In CA there is even a way to sit for the Bar exam without ever going to law school...although I don t recommend it. As stated above, it really doesn t matter what you take in high school, except as it would apply to what college/university you want to attend. Entrance into law school is judged by a combination of your GPA in your undergrad major (different weight may be given to different majors), your LSAT scores and recommendation letters. Find out what is required at the law schools you might want to attend and then plan your undergrad studies accordingly. For example, some school might not admit anyone with a LSAT score lower than 165-170. Others will admit with a 150. Still others might let you in with a LSAT lower than 150 if you had a high GPA in a tough major. Generally speaking in the US, you ll need to obtain a Bachelor s degree (however long that takes you) and attend law school which is usually 3-4 years, although there are schools which also offer a 5 year program for working students, etc.
You include everything except the JD and nothing for the pharmacist either
You are inviting them as friends, not in their professional capacities. Only use Dr. for those who are medical doctors, vet, dentist. No letters after the names, just not appropriate. One of our friends is a vet, a university professor. I keep forgetting that he s a Dr. and never use that form of address...
A-level: AAA along with another subject taken at AS at grade A/B Its wise to do A-level in LAW, HISTORY, GOVTamp;POLITIC and ENGLISH its a very very competetive feild. you have to be prepared for hardwork. good luck.
Enough good A levels (preferably at least one in law) to get you to university to study law.
There are 2 sorts of lawyers in the UK - solicitors and barristers. There are several different routes to each profession. To become a solicitor: Route 1: 1. A levels - the subjects are not important. 2. Law degree. 3. Legal Practice Course (LPC). This takes 1 year if studied full time and is college based. You may be able to do it at the same university you took your law degree. 4. Training Contract. This is working for a solicitor s firm as a trainee. There are some formal training courses, but much of it is doing basic legal donkey work. This takes 2 years. Provided you pass the exams you are now a qualified solicitor. Route 2: 1. A-Levels. 2. Any non-law degree. 3. Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL). This takes 1 year if studied full time and is college based. It is basically a quot;conversionquot; course to give you the academic legal knowledge you need. 4. LPC - as above. 5. Training contract - as above. Route 3: No formal qualifications. Work as a legal secretary or similar and work through legal training with the Institute of Legal Executives. Eventually you become a legal executive and then a Fellow of the Institute. At this stage you can do the LPC and you then qualify as a solicitor without the need for a training contract. This route can take many years, however you are gaining legal experience all the time, and legal executives are respected professionals in their own right. To become a Barrister: There are two routes similar to routes 1 and 2 above. Once you have your law degree or GDL you then take: 1. Bar Vocational Course (BVC). This is the barrister s equivalent of the LPC. It takes 1 year if studied full time and is college based. 2. Pupillage. This is basically working as a dogsbody for a senior barrister. It takes 1 year then you are qualified. In all cases there is tough competition for places, so your academic results for A-Levels, Degree, GDL, LPC/BVC need to be excellent.
In the US, the qualifications vary from state-to-state. Working backwards: - At the end of the day all states require you to pass some written bar examination and set qualifications for who can take the bar exam. - The qualifications generally (but not always) require graduation from an ABA accredited law school (California has California accredited law schools for example) - Attending an ABA accredited law school generally requires a bachelor s degree from a four year college So summarizing, graduate college, graduate an ABA law school and then pass your state s bar exam.
In the UK we have Solicitors or Barristers not attorneys. You will need excellent A levels and a Law degree. When you join a firm it could be another 5 years before you qualify, so you are in for a lot of hard work.
You must not have a father and a stranger to morality.
I like what you wrote Steve, but you have some duplicate articles within your post. To address the question, don t go to law school. See it from the financial end. Do you really want to pay a mortgage ranging from $300 to $1000 a month for the next 30 years? Don t be naive into thinking that your quot;salary that you will make as a lawyer will cover it.quot; You must subtract your loan payments per year from your net salary each year to determine what you are really making. It would be better to put that money into a CD or IRA than into the money guzzler that is law school. If you are in the top 5 percent of your class, attend a top ten law school or are the descendant of a prominent lawyer or judge, ignore my advice.
Here is the real deal, law sucks, and no we are not referred to as doctors. Actually, with the proliferation of law schools and lowering of standards the degree will be as esteemed as a truck driving school certificate. Look at Massachusetts School of Law and Appalachian Law School in Virginia for examples, it is a joke, they should have truck driving academies right next to their schools. You would not see those low standards at a dental or medical school. I am an attorney. However, I went to a top 15 school and had mediocre grades. I found the job market to be depressing. So much time, planning, and money went into undergraduate school, I had a 4.0 GPA, and scored above the 95th percentile on the LSAT, 171. I naively thought going to a top school their would be plenty of lucrative and exciting jobs waiting for me and I would be set to have a good quality of life. I remember sending out 300 letters one time and getting no positive response, either they said some nonsense about you are great, you have good accomplishments, but at this time we cannot offer you a position, we will keep your resume on file. I took the Bar Exam in two states wasting time studying and not earning any money. I had to move back in with my parents, fun. Meanwhile many of my friends and people that I knew from High School and College were establishing themselves in their careers and making money, gettng promotions, etc. I worked post-law school as a car salesman and a mortgage broker. Finally a family friend had a friend who was a solo attorney, I worked for him basically for free, actually it was negative because I spent money on travel, long distance phone calls, etc., still living at home with mom and dad, saddled with law school debts, the student loan people started calling wanting $$$. Eventually I left that attorney. I struggled to find another attorney job. Eventually, I got a job in 2003 at firm paying the princely sum of $25,000 per year. I moved out of my parent s house but was still subsidized by them. Dad kept threatening to cut me off, but I lived in an expensive state the cheapest place to stay I found was $1,500 a month all inclusive. My paycheck was like $430.00 a week take home. Eventually, I did go solo, it was hard, but I did make some money in real estate closings for 3 1/2 years. Now the real estate market stinks and I have no income, and I am trying to plan my next move, which may be back to my parents temporarily. I have interviewed for some associate positions and the salary range was 38k-55k, this is pretty low for somone with 5 yrs experience and a doctorate degree. My wife works at a nail salon, as a manicurist, she took a three month course and makes 50K a year. It has been an exquisitely painful road for me. In my family I am the most educated and the least financially secure. My dad makes like $350,000K engineering+MBA degree, my younger sister makes $165,000K a year psyche degree and an MBA. My conclusion, LAW SUCKS!!!!!!!!!! Too many law schools fighting for tuition $$$, night programs, weekend programs, low academic standards, too many attorneys, lowering wages and limiting opportunities, compare to the AMA and ADA that insure a shortage of dentists and doctors. When I was solo it seemed like everyone was an attorney, or their cousin was an attorney, or their sister s friend was an attorney, or their brother was an attorney and so and so on, I lost a lot of business because of this. I do not think doctors and dentists face such client poaching. If you are in the top 5%, law review, and went to a good school, yes, you will probably get a good job right from the start. I would have been better off not going to College and instead picking up a trade like being an electrician. Heck, if I had all the money I wasted on education, worked at a gas station during all my non-earning years and put the money into a CD I could probably be able to retire. Looking back, if I had to do it again, if you want to through the hard work and invest the $$$ for education so it pays off you should go into healthcare. Heck their is a shortage of pharmacists and their median wage is $98,000K well above lawyers. Dentists 180,000K median and their is a shortage. Oh well this sucks but this is my life and I will deal with it, I spent my educational time and $$$, and the dye is cast. From US News, Poor careers for 2006 By Marty Nemko Posted 1/5/06 Attorney. If starting over, 75 percent of lawyers would choose to do something else. A similar percentage would advise their children not to become lawyers. The work is often contentious, and there s pressure to be unethical. And despite the drama portrayed on TV, real lawyers spend much of their time on painstakingly detailed research. In addition, those fat-salaried law jobs go to only the top few percent of an already high-powered lot. Many people go to law school hoping to do so-called public-interest law. (In fact, much work not officially labeled as such does serve the public interest.) What they don t teach in law school is that the competition for those jobs is intense. I know one graduate of a Top Three law school, for instance, who also edited a law journal. She applied for a low-paying job at the National Abortion Rights Action League and, despite interviewing very well, didn t get the job. From the Associated Press, MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A lawmaker who persuaded the Assembly to eliminate all state funding for the University of Wisconsin law school says his reasoning is simple: There s too many lawyers in Wisconsin. From an ABA study about malpractice claims, More Sole Practicioners: There appears to be an increasing trend toward sole practicioners, due partly to a lack of jobs for new lawyers, but also due to increasing dissatisfaction among experienced lawyers with traditional firms; leading to some claims which could have been avoided with better mentoring. New Lawyers: Most insurers have noticed that many young lawyers cannot find jobs with established firms, and so are starting their own practices without supervision or mentoring. This is likely to cause an increase in malpractice claims, although the claims may be relatively small in size due to the limited nature of a new lawyers “In a survey conducted back in 1972 by the American Bar Association, seventy percent of Americans not only didn’t have a lawyer, they didn’t know how to find one. That’s right, thirty years ago the vast majority of people didn’t have a clue on how to find a lawyer. Now it’s almost impossible not to see lawyers everywhere you turn. From a recent Wall Street Journal Article, Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers Growth of Legal Sector Lags Broader Economy; Law Schools Proliferate By AMIR EFRATI September 24, 2007; Page A1 A law degree isn t necessarily a license to print money these days. For graduates of elite law schools, prospects have never been better. Big law firms this year boosted their starting salaries to as high as $160,000. But the majority of law-school graduates are suffering from a supply-and-demand imbalance that s suppressing pay and job growth. The result: Graduates who don t score at the top of their class are struggling to find well-paying jobs to make payments on law-school debts that can exceed $100,000. Some are taking temporary contract work, reviewing documents for as little as $20 an hour, without benefits. And many are blaming their law schools for failing to warn them about the dark side of the job market. The law degree that Scott Bullock gained in 2005 from Seton Hall University -- where he says he ranked in the top third of his class -- is a quot;waste,quot; he says. Some former high-school friends are earning considerably more as plumbers and electricians than the $50,000-a-year Mr. Bullock is making as a personal-injury attorney in Manhattan. To boot, he is paying off $118,000 in law-school debt. quot;Unfortunately, some find the practice of law is not for them,quot; Seton Hall s associate dean, Kathleen Boozang, said through a spokeswoman. quot;However, it is our experience that a legal education is a tremendous asset for a variety of professional paths.quot; A slack in demand appears to be part of the problem. The legal sector, after more than tripling in inflation-adjusted growth between 1970 and 1987, has grown at an average annual inflation-adjusted rate of 1.2% since 1988, or less than half as fast as the broader economy, according to Commerce Department data. LAW BLOG Join a discussion on the state of the legal market.Some practice areas have declined in recent years: Personal-injury and medical-malpractice cases have been undercut by state laws limiting class-action suits, out-of-state plaintiffs and payouts on damages. Securities class-action litigation has declined in part because of a buoyant stock market. On the supply end, more lawyers are entering the work force, thanks in part to the accreditation of new law schools and an influx of applicants after the dot-com implosion earlier this decade. In the 2005-06 academic year, 43,883 Juris Doctor degrees were awarded, up from 37,909 for 2001-02, according to the American Bar Association. Universities are starting up more law schools in part for prestige but also because they are money makers. Costs are low compared with other graduate schools and classrooms can be large. Since 1995, the number of ABA-accredited schools increased by 11%, to 196. Evidence of a squeezed market among the majority of private lawyers in the U.S., who work as sole practitioners or at small firms, is growing. A survey of about 650 Chicago lawyers published in the 2005 book quot;Urban Lawyersquot; found that between 1975 and 1995 the inflation-adjusted average income of the top 25% of earners, generally big-firm lawyers, grew by 22% -- while income for the other 75% actually dropped. According to the Internal Revenue Service, the inflation-adjusted average income of sole practitioners has been flat since the mid-1980s. A recent survey showed that out of nearly 600 lawyers at firms of 10 lawyers or fewer in Indiana, wages for the majority only kept pace with inflation or dropped in real terms over the past five years. The news isn t any better for the 14% of new lawyers who go into government or join public-interest firms. Inflation-adjusted starting salaries for graduates who go to work for public-interest firms or the government rose 4% and 8.6%, respectively, between 1994 and 2006, according to the National Association for Law Placement, which aggregates graduate surveys from law schools. That compares with at least an 11% jump in the median family income during the same period, according to the Census Bureau. Graduates who become in-house company lawyers, about 9%, have fared better: Their salaries rose by nearly 14% during the same period. Many students quot;simply cannot earn enough income after graduation to support the debt they incur,quot; wrote Richard Matasar, dean of New York Law School, in 2005, concluding that, quot;We may be reaching the end of a golden era for law schools.quot; Meanwhile, the prospects for big-firm lawyers are growing richer. While offering robust minimum salaries, those firms are paying astronomical amounts to their stars. Now, debate is intensifying among law-school academics over the integrity of law schools marketing campaigns. Defenders argue that the legal profession always has been openly and proudly a meritocracy: Top entrance-exam scores help win admittance to top schools where top students win jobs at top firms. Even the system that is used to issue law-school grades -- a curve that pits student against student -- reflects the law profession s competitiveness. David Burcham, dean of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, considered second-tier, says the school makes no guarantees to students that they will obtain jobs. He says it is problematic that big firms only interview the top of the class, quot;but that s the nature of the employment market; it s never been different.quot; For the majority of students and alumni, he says, Loyola quot;turned out to be a good investment.quot; Yet economic data suggest that prospects have grown bleaker for all but the top students, and now a number of law-school professors are calling for the distribution of more-accurate employment information. Incoming students are quot;mesmerized by what s happening in big firms, but clueless about what s going on in the bottom half of the profession,quot; says Richard Sander, a law professor at the University of California-Los Angeles who has studied the legal job market. quot;Prospective students need solid comparative data on employment outcomes, [but] very few law schools provide such data,quot; adds Andrew Morriss, a law professor at the University of Illinois who has studied the market for new lawyers. Students entering law school have little way of knowing how tight a job market they might face. The only employment data that many prospective students see comes from school-promoted surveys that provide a far-from-complete portrait of graduate experiences. Tulane University, for example, reports to U.S. News amp; World Report magazine, which publishes widely watched annual law-school rankings, that its law-school graduates entering the job market in 2005 had a median salary of $135,000. But that is based on a survey that only 24% of that year s graduates completed, and those who did so likely represent the cream of the class, a Tulane official concedes. On its Web site, the school currently reports an average starting salary of $96,356 for graduates in private practice but doesn t include what percentage of graduates reported salaries for the survey. quot;It s within most individuals nature to keep that information private, unless it s a high amount,quot; says Carlos Dávila-Caballero, assistant dean for career development at Tulane, who adds that his office tells prospective students to use the median figure as a guide because starting salaries vary widely. Academics who have studied new-lawyer salaries say that the graduate surveys of many law schools are skewed by higher response rates from the most successful students. The National Association for Law Placement, which aggregates and publishes national data based on those surveys, concedes that it can t vouch for their accuracy. quot;We can t validate the figures; we have to rely on schools to report to us accurately,quot; says Judy Collins, NALP s director of research. A prospective student studying NALP data might conclude that the study of law is a sure path to financial security. For 2006 graduates who entered private practice, or nearly 60%, NALP shows a national median salary of $95,000, a rise of 40%, adjusted for inflation, from 1994 graduates. The NALP data also show that the percentage of graduates employed in private practice has been steady, fluctuating between 55% and 58% for more than a decade. But in law schools self-published employment data, quot;private practicequot; doesn t necessarily mean jobs that improve long-term career prospects, for that category can include lawyers working under contract without benefits, such as Israel Meth. A 2005 graduate of Brooklyn Law School, he earns about $30 an hour as a contract attorney reviewing legal documents for big firms. He says he uses 60% of his paycheck to pay off student loans -- $100,000 for law school on top of $100,000 for the bachelor s degree he received from Columbia University. A glossy admissions brochure for Brooklyn Law School, considered second-tier, reports a median salary for recent graduates at law firms of well above $100,000. But that figure doesn t reflect all incomes of graduates at firms; fewer than half of graduates at firms responded to the survey, the school reported to U.S. News. On its Web site, the school reports that 41% of last year s graduates work for firms of more than 100 lawyers, but it fails to mention that that percentage includes temporary attorneys, often working for hourly wages without benefits, Joan King, director of the school s career center, concedes. Ms. King says she believes the figures for her school accurately represent the broader graduating class. She says the number of contract attorneys is quot;minimalquot; but declined to give a number. The University of Richmond School of Law in the last couple of years started to be more open about its employment statistics; it now breaks out how many of its grads work as contract attorneys. Of 57 2006 graduates working in private practice, for example, seven were contract employees nine months after graduation. Schools quot;should be sharing more information than they are now,quot; says Joshua Burstein, associate dean for career services who put the changes in place. quot;Most people graduating from law school,quot; he says, quot;are not going to be earning big salaries.quot; Adding to the burden for young lawyers: Tuition growth at law schools has almost tripled the rate of inflation over the past 20 years, leading to higher debt for students and making starting salaries for most graduates less manageable, especially in expensive cities. Graduates in 2006 of public and private law schools had borrowed an average of $54,509 and $83,181, up 17% and 18.6%, respectively, from the amount borrowed by 2002 graduates, according to the American Bar Association. Students taking on such debt may feel reassured by incessant press reports of big firms scrambling to hire and keep associates. Making headlines this year was a bump up in big-firm starting salaries to $160,000 from $145,000 in many cities. And indeed, some law graduates of lower-tier schools do find high-paying private-practice law jobs. In recent years big firms have boomed thanks in part to the globalization of business and Wall Street deal making; firms have been casting a wider net for new lawyers, though they still generally restrict their recruiting at lower-tier schools to students at the very top of the class or on the law review. Some students have leads on a job at a family member s or friend s practice. But just as common -- and much less publicized -- are experiences such as that of Sue Clark, who this year received her degree from second-tier Chicago-Kent College of Law, one of six law schools in the Chicago area. Despite graduating near the top half of her class, she has been unable to find a job and is doing temp work quot;essentially as a paralegal,quot; she says. quot;A lot of people, including myself, feel frustrated about the lack of jobs,quot; she says. Harold Krent, Chicago-Kent s dean, said it s not uncommon for new lawyers to wait a few months to more than a year to find a job that s a good fit. He added that there is a quot;small spikequot; in employment after his school s grads receive their bar-exam results, several months after graduation, because some firms wait until then before hiring. The market is particularly tough in big cities that boast numerous law schools. Mike Altmann, 29, a graduate of New York University who went to Brooklyn Law School, says he accumulated $130,000 in student-loan debt and graduated in 2002 with no meaningful employment opportunities -- one offer was a $33,000 job with no benefits. So Mr. Altmann became a contract attorney, reviewing electronic documents for big firms for around $20 to $30 an hour, and hasn t been able to find higher-paying work since. Some un- or underemployed grads are seeking consolation online, where blogs and discussion boards have created venues for shared commiseration that didn t exist before. An anonymous writer called Loyola 2L, purportedly a student at Loyola Law School, who claims the school wasn t straight about employment prospects, has been beating a drum of discontent around the Web in the past year that s sparked thousands of responses, and a fan base. (quot;2Lquot; stands for second-year law student.) Some thank quot;L2Lquot; for articulating their plight; others claim L2L should complain less and work more. Loyola s Dean Burcham says he wishes he knew who the student was so he could help the person. quot;It s expensive to go to law school, and there are times when you second-guess yourself as a student,quot; he says. Some new lawyers try to hang their own shingle. Matthew Fox Curl graduated in 2004 from second-tier University of Houston in the bottom quarter of his class. After months of job hunting, he took his first job working for a sole practitioner focused on personal injury in the Houston area and made $32,000 in his first year. He quickly found that tort-reform legislation has been quot;brutalquot; to Texas plaintiffs lawyers and last year left the firm to open up his own criminal-defense private practice. He s making less money than at his last job and has thought about moving back to his parents house. quot;I didn t think three years out I d be uninsured, thinking it s a great day when a crackhead brings me $500.quot; --Mark Whitehouse contributed to this article. Here is an example ad in Massachusetts for an experienced attorney, that mentions salary, it was posted this week. Most jobs don t state salary in the ad cause the pay is pretty low. Office of the District Attorney, criminal attorney, for the Bristol County District seeks staff attorney for the Appellate Division. Excellent writing skills and a passion for appellate advocacy are a must. Salary $37,500. Preference given to candidates who live in or will relocate to Bristol County. LOL, secretaries with no college can make more.Here is the real deal, law sucks, and no we are not referred to as doctors. Actually, with the proliferation of law schools and lowering of standards the degree will be as esteemed as a truck driving school certificate. Look at Massachusetts School of Law and Appalachian Law School in Virginia for examples, it is a joke, they should have truck driving academies right next to their schools. You would not see those low standards at a dental or medical school. I am an attorney. However, I went to a top 15 school and had mediocre grades. I found the job market to be depressing. So much time, planning, and money went into undergraduate school, I had a 4.0 GPA, and scored above the 95th percentile on the LSAT, 171. I naively thought going to a top school their would be plenty of lucrative and exciting jobs waiting for me and I would be set to have a good quality of life. I remember sending out 300 letters one time and getting no positive response, either they said some nonsense about you are great, you have good accomplishments, but at this time we cannot offer you a position, we will keep your resume on file. I took the Bar Exam in two states wasting time studying and not earning any money. I had to move back in with my parents, fun. Meanwhile many of my friends and people that I knew from High School and College were establishing themselves in their careers and making money, gettng promotions, etc. I worked post-law school as a car salesman and a mortgage broker. Finally a family friend had a friend who was a solo attorney, I worked for him basically for free, actually it was negative because I spent money on travel, long distance phone calls, etc., still living at home with mom and dad, saddled with law school debts, the student loan people started calling wanting $$$. Eventually I left that attorney. I struggled to find another attorney job. Eventually, I got a job in 2003 at firm paying the princely sum of $25,000 per year. I moved out of my parent s house but was still subsidized by them. Dad kept threatening to cut me off, but I lived in an expensive state the cheapest place to stay I found was $1,500 a month all inclusive. My paycheck was like $430.00 a week take home. Eventually, I did go solo, it was hard, but I did make some money in real estate closings for 3 1/2 years. Now the real estate market stinks and I have no income, and I am trying to plan my next move, which may be back to my parents temporarily. I have interviewed for some associate positions and the salary range was 38k-55k, this is pretty low for somone with 5 yrs experience and a doctorate degree. My wife works at a nail salon, as a manicurist, she took a three month course and makes 50K a year. It has been an exquisitely painful road for me. In my family I am the most educated and the least financially secure. My dad makes like $350,000K engineering+MBA degree, my younger sister makes $165,000K a year psyche degree and an MBA. My conclusion, LAW SUCKS!!!!!!!!!! Too many law schools fighting for tuition $$$, night programs, weekend programs, low academic standards, too many attorneys, lowering wages and limiting opportunities, compare to the AMA and ADA that insure a shortage of dentists and doctors. When I was solo it seemed like everyone was an attorney, or their cousin was an attorney, or their sister s friend was an attorney, or their brother was an attorney and so and so on, I lost a lot of business because of this. I do not think doctors and dentists face such client poaching. If you are in the top 5%, law review, and went to a good school, yes, you will probably get a good job right from the start. I would have been better off not going to College and instead picking up a trade like being an electrician. Heck, if I had all the money I wasted on education, worked at a gas station during all my non-earning years and put the money into a CD I could probably be able to retire. Looking back, if I had to do it again, if you want to through the hard work and invest the $$$ for education so it pays off you should go into healthcare. Heck their is a shortage of pharmacists and their median wage is $98,000K well above lawyers. Dentists 180,000K median and their is a shortage. Oh well this sucks but this is my life and I will deal with it, I spent my educational time and $$$, and the dye is cast. From US News, Poor careers for 2006 By Marty Nemko Posted 1/5/06 Attorney. If starting over, 75 percent of lawyers would choose to do something else. A similar percentage would advise their children not to become lawyers. The work is often contentious, and there s pressure to be unethical. And despite the drama portrayed on TV, real lawyers spend much of their time on painstakingly detailed research. In addition, those fat-salaried law jobs go to only the top few percent of an already high-powered lot. Many people go to law school hoping to do so-called public-interest law. (In fact, much work not officially labeled as such does serve the public interest.) What they don t teach in law school is that the competition for those jobs is intense. I know one graduate of a Top Three law school, for instance, who also edited a law journal. She applied for a low-paying job at the National Abortion Rights Action League and, despite interviewing very well, didn t get the job. From the Associated Press, MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A lawmaker who persuaded the Assembly to eliminate all state funding for the University of Wisconsin law school says his reasoning is simple: There s too many lawyers in Wisconsin. From an ABA study about malpractice claims, More Sole Practicioners: There appears to be an increasing trend toward sole practicioners, due partly to a lack of jobs for new lawyers, but also due to increasing dissatisfaction among experienced lawyers with traditional firms; leading to some claims which could have been avoided with better mentoring. New Lawyers: Most insurers have noticed that many young lawyers cannot find jobs with established firms, and so are starting their own practices without supervision or mentoring. This is likely to cause an increase in malpractice claims, although the claims may be relatively small in size due to the limited nature of a new lawyers “In a survey conducted back in 1972 by the American Bar Association, seventy percent of Americans not only didn’t have a lawyer, they didn’t know how to find one. That’s right, thirty years ago the vast majority of people didn’t have a clue on how to find a lawyer. Now it’s almost impossible not to see lawyers everywhere you turn. From a recent Wall Street Journal Article, Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers Growth of Legal Sector Lags Broader Economy; Law Schools Proliferate By AMIR EFRATI September 24, 2007; Page A1 A law degree isn t necessarily a license to print money these days. For graduates of elite law schools, prospects have never been better. Big law firms this year boosted their starting salaries to as high as $160,000. But the majority of law-school graduates are suffering from a supply-and-demand imbalance that s suppressing pay and job growth. The result: Graduates who don t score at the top of their class are struggling to find well-paying jobs to make payments on law-school debts that can exceed $100,000. Some are taking temporary contract work, reviewing documents for as little as $20 an hour, without benefits. And many are blaming their law schools for failing to warn them about the dark side of the job market. The law degree that Scott Bullock gained in 2005 from Seton Hall University -- where he says he ranked in the top third of his class -- is a quot;waste,quot; he says. Some former high-school friends are earning considerably more as plumbers and electricians than the $50,000-a-year Mr. Bullock is making as a personal-injury attorney in Manhattan. To boot, he is paying off $118,000 in law-school debt. quot;Unfortunately, some find the practice of law is not for them,quot; Seton Hall s associate dean, Kathleen Boozang, said through a spokeswoman. quot;However, it is our experience that a legal education is a tremendous asset for a variety of professional paths.quot; A slack in demand appears to be part of the problem. The legal sector, after more than tripling in inflation-adjusted growth between 1970 and 1987, has grown at an average annual inflation-adjusted rate of 1.2% since 1988, or less than half as fast as the broader economy, according to Commerce Department data. LAW BLOG Join a discussion on the state of the legal market.Some practice areas have declined in recent years: Personal-injury and medical-malpractice cases have been undercut by state laws limiting class-action suits, out-of-state plaintiffs and payouts on damages. Securities class-action litigation has declined in part because of a buoyant stock market. On the supply end, more lawyers are entering the work force, thanks in part to the accreditation of new law schools and an influx of applicants after the dot-com implosion earlier this decade. In the 2005-06 academic year, 43,883 Juris Doctor degrees were awarded, up from 37,909 for 2001-02, according to the American Bar Association. Universities are starting up more law schools in part for prestige but also because they are money makers. Costs are low compared with other graduate schools and classrooms can be large. Since 1995, the number of ABA-accredited schools increased by 11%, to 196. Evidence of a squeezed market among the majority of private lawyers in the U.S., who work as sole practitioners or at small firms, is growing. A survey of about 650 Chicago lawyers published in the 2005 book quot;Urban Lawyersquot; found that between 1975 and 1995 the inflation-adjusted average income of the top 25% of earners, generally big-firm lawyers, grew by 22% -- while income for the other 75% actually dropped. According to the Internal Revenue Service, the inflation-adjusted average income of sole practitioners has been flat since the mid-1980s. A recent survey showed that out of nearly 600 lawyers at firms of 10 lawyers or fewer in Indiana, wages for the majority only kept pace with inflation or dropped in real terms over the past five years. The news isn t any better for the 14% of new lawyers who go into government or join public-interest firms. Inflation-adjusted starting salaries for graduates who go to work for public-interest firms or the government rose 4% and 8.6%, respectively, between 1994 and 2006, according to the National Association for Law Placement, which aggregates graduate surveys from law schools. That compares with at least an 11% jump in the median family income during the same period, according to the Census Bureau. Graduates who become in-house company lawyers, about 9%, have fared better: Their salaries rose by nearly 14% during the same period. Many students quot;simply cannot earn enough income after graduation to support the debt they incur,quot; wrote Richard Matasar, dean of New York Law School, in 2005, concluding that, quot;We may be reaching the end of a golden era for law schools.quot; Meanwhile, the prospects for big-firm lawyers are growing richer. While offering robust minimum salaries, those firms are paying astronomical amounts to their stars. Now, debate is intensifying among law-school academics over the integrity of law schools marketing campaigns. Defenders argue that the legal profession always has been openly and proudly a meritocracy: Top entrance-exam scores help win admittance to top schools where top students win jobs at top firms. Even the system that is used to issue law-school grades -- a curve that pits student against student -- reflects the law profession s competitiveness. David Burcham, dean of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, considered second-tier, says the school makes no guarantees to students that they will obtain jobs. He says it is problematic that big firms only interview the top of the class, quot;but that s the nature of the employment market; it s never been different.quot; For the majority of students and alumni, he says, Loyola quot;turned out to be a good investment.quot; Yet economic data suggest that prospects have grown bleaker for all but the top students, and now a number of law-school professors are calling for the distribution of more-accurate employment information. Incoming students are quot;mesmerized by what s happening in big firms, but clueless about what s going on in the bottom half of the profession,quot; says Richard Sander, a law professor at the University of California-Los Angeles who has studied the legal job market. quot;Prospective students need solid comparative data on employment outcomes, [but] very few law schools provide such data,quot; adds Andrew Morriss, a law professor at the University of Illinois who has studied the market for new lawyers. Students entering law school have little way of knowing how tight a job market they might face. The only employment data that many prospective students see comes from school-promoted surveys that provide a far-from-complete portrait of graduate experiences. Tulane University, for example, reports to U.S. News amp; World Report magazine, which publishes widely watched annual law-school rankings, that its law-school graduates entering the job market in 2005 had a median salary of $135,000. But that is based on a survey that only 24% of that year s graduates completed, and those who did so likely represent the cream of the class, a Tulane official concedes. On its Web site, the school currently reports an average starting salary of $96,356 for graduates in private practice but doesn t include what percentage of graduates reported salaries for the survey. quot;It s within most individuals nature to keep that information private, unless it s a high amount,quot; says Carlos Dávila-Caballero, assistant dean for career development at Tulane, who adds that his office tells prospective students to use the median figure as a guide because starting salaries vary widely. Academics who have studied new-lawyer salaries say that the graduate surveys of many law schools are skewed by higher response rates from the most successful students. The National Association for Law Placement, which aggregates and publishes national data based on those surveys, concedes that it can t vouch for their accuracy. quot;We can t validate the figures; we have to rely on schools to report to us accurately,quot; says Judy Collins, NALP s director of research. A prospective student studying NALP data might conclude that the study of law is a sure path to financial security. For 2006 graduates who entered private practice, or nearly 60%, NALP shows a national median salary of $95,000, a rise of 40%, adjusted for inflation, from 1994 graduates. The NALP data also show that the percentage of graduates employed in private practice has been steady, fluctuating between 55% and 58% for more than a decade. But in law schools self-published employment data, quot;private practicequot; doesn t necessarily mean jobs that improve long-term career prospects, for that category can include lawyers working under contract without benefits, such as Israel Meth. A 2005 graduate of Brooklyn Law School, he earns about $30 an hour as a contract attorney reviewing legal documents for big firms. He says he uses 60% of his paycheck to pay off student loans -- $100,000 for law school on top of $100,000 for the bachelor s degree he received from Columbia University. A glossy admissions brochure for Brooklyn Law School, considered second-tier, reports a median salary for recent graduates at law firms of well above $100,000. But that figure doesn t reflect all incomes of graduates at firms; fewer than half of graduates at firms responded to the survey, the school reported to U.S. News. On its Web site, the school reports that 41% of last year s graduates work for firms of more than 100 lawyers, but it fails to mention that that percentage includes temporary attorneys, often working for hourly wages without benefits, Joan King, director of the school s career center, concedes. Ms. King says she believes the figures for her school accurately represent the broader graduating class. She says the number of contract attorneys is quot;minimalquot; but declined to give a number. The University of Richmond School of Law in the last couple of years started to be more open about its employment statistics; it now breaks out how many of its grads work as contract attorneys. Of 57 2006 graduates working in private practice, for example, seven were contract employees nine months after graduation. Schools quot;should be sharing more information than they are now,quot; says Joshua Burstein, associate dean for career services who put the changes in place. quot;Most people graduating from law school,quot; he says, quot;are not going to be earning big salaries.quot; Adding to the burden for young lawyers: Tuition growth at law schools has almost tripled the rate of inflation over the past 20 years, leading to higher debt for students and making starting salaries for most graduates less manageable, especially in expensive cities. Graduates in 2006 of public and private law schools had borrowed an average of $54,509 and $83,181, up 17% and 18.6%, respectively, from the amount borrowed by 2002 graduates, according to the American Bar Association. Students taking on such debt may feel reassured by incessant press reports of big firms scrambling to hire and keep associates. Making headlines this year was a bump up in big-firm starting salaries to $160,000 from $145,000 in many cities. And indeed, some law graduates of lower-tier schools do find high-paying private-practice law jobs. In recent years big firms have boomed thanks in part to the globalization of business and Wall Street deal making; firms have been casting a wider net for new lawyers, though they still generally restrict their recruiting at lower-tier schools to students at the very top of the class or on the law review. Some students have leads on a job at a family member s or friend s practice. But just as common -- and much less publicized -- are experiences such as that of Sue Clark, who this year received her degree from second-tier Chicago-Kent College of Law, one of six law schools in the Chicago area. Despite graduating near the top half of her class, she has been unable to find a job and is doing temp work quot;essentially as a paralegal,quot; she says. quot;A lot of people, including myself, feel frustrated about the lack of jobs,quot; she says. Harold Krent, Chicago-Kent s dean, said it s not uncommon for new lawyers to wait a few months to more than a year to find a job that s a good fit. He added that there is a quot;small spikequot; in employment after his school s grads receive their bar-exam results, several months after graduation, because some firms wait until then before hiring. The market is particularly tough in big cities that boast numerous law schools. Mike Altmann, 29, a graduate of New York University who went to Brooklyn Law School, says he accumulated $130,000 in student-loan debt and graduated in 2002 with no meaningful employment opportunities -- one offer was a $33,000 job with no benefits. So Mr. Altmann became a contract attorney, reviewing electronic documents for big firms for around $20 to $30 an hour, and hasn t been able to find higher-paying work since. Some un- or underemployed grads are seeking consolation online, where blogs and discussion boards have created venues for shared commiseration that didn t exist before. An anonymous writer called Loyola 2L, purportedly a student at Loyola Law School, who claims the school wasn t straight about employment prospects, has been beating a drum of discontent around the Web in the past year that s sparked thousands of responses, and a fan base. (quot;2Lquot; stands for second-year law student.) Some thank quot;L2Lquot; for articulating their plight; others claim L2L should complain less and work more. Loyola s Dean Burcham says he wishes he knew who the student was so he could help the person. quot;It s expensive to go to law school, and there are times when you second-guess yourself as a student,quot; he says. Some new lawyers try to hang their own shingle. Matthew Fox Curl graduated in 2004 from second-tier University of Houston in the bottom quarter of his class. After months of job hunting, he took his first job working for a sole practitioner focused on personal injury in the Houston area and made $32,000 in his first year. He quickly found that tort-reform legislation has been quot;brutalquot; to Texas plaintiffs lawyers and last year left the firm to open up his own criminal-defense private practice. He s making less money than at his last job and has thought about moving back to his parents house. quot;I didn t think three years out I d be uninsured, thinking it s a great day when a crackhead brings me $500.quot; --Mark Whitehouse contributed to this article. Here is an example ad in Massachusetts for an experienced attorney, that mentions salary, it was posted this week. Most jobs don t state salary in the ad cause the pay is pretty low. Office of the District Attorney, criminal attorney, for the Bristol County District seeks staff attorney for the Appellate Division. Excellent writing skills and a passion for appellate advocacy are a must. Salary $37,500. Preference given to candidates who live in or will relocate to Bristol County. LOL, secretaries with no college can make more.
