No need for one. You can t fight the condo association!
Depends on the nature of the dispute. If you think he is slandering you, that s one kind of lawyer. If you think that he is breaching his duty to the condo association, that s another. If this is regarding an action the association is taking against you, that might be another kind.
ask him hes a lawyer and know the law
No. Furthermore, no law prohibits a doctor from treating a relative. Both lawyers and doctors customarily decline to do so because they recognize that the lack of objectivity can make their services worthless, but there is no law. I know a lawyer who represented his own brother in a murder trial. The brother was convicted but then got the conviction reversed, and a new trial, by demonstrating that the lawyer/brother was incompetent.
No law against it. Most do not represent family members simply because of appearances. If he is a good lawyer hire him. Edit: Where is it illegal for a doctor to treat family? Unwise maybe.
There is no laws or ethic violations for an attorney to represent a family member or friend. Plus, I do not believe there is any laws prohibiting doctors and therapists from treating their family either.
I m sure you have made a good choice. There is no legal reason why you can t hire him.
It might be a good idea for you to contact Legal Aid services and see if they can help you. Legal Aid organizations are very experienced with SS cases: http://www.ptla.org/links/services.htm You can look for an attorney on line or in yellow pages. You can also contact the State Bar and ask for referrals. You can also ask your friends or acquaintances for referrals. http://www.gabar.org/ You can use these website in order to find a lawyer: http://www.findlaw.com/ http://www.searchlaw.com/ http://www.martindale.com/
We work with Prepaid Legal which is a very affordable way to get legal services and uses only the top law firms. You can email me through Yahoo answers for more info. SS Disability can be very frustrating since the turn most ppl down 2-3 times at a minimum and it does seem that you get no action till you have a lawyer.
Ummm ... have you ever tried seeing him in person? Simply saying you cannot reach him on the phone is a not an adequate reason for jumping to this type of a conclusion, and I can guarantee you if you tell the Bar Association that is all you have done to try and contact him they ll dismiss your complaint. Sure, its annoying not to be able to get someone on the phone, but it just simply isn t enough to prove the conclusion you lawyer has done something wrong. Try writing him emails, and go to his office and ask to see him. If you can prove you have repeatedly tried several direct means of communication with your lawyer and he is unjustly ignoring you then you would have a legitimate reason to complain to the Bar Association in your state. You are also jumping a little too quickly to judge the situation ... lots of conjecture and speculation. You can call the insurance company and ask them about the second settlement. If you can prove it has been sent and your lawyer is unduly keeping payment from you then you certainly have an ethics violation. However, if the settlement has not be sent (as is completely possible) then the only problem here is you jumping to conclusions. Its easy to form a hypothesis but if you actually want to resolve this situation you need proof.
Go to the BAR associations website for your State there should be a section you can report him.
just go to his office. why didn t you manage this more closely over the years? it may be that the 2nd settlement will go to the 1st insurance company anyway (subrogation, the same principle discussed here ad nauseum 2 weeks ago re: walmart/brain damaged woman)
Because lawyers can be sued too.
Depending on the specific of what the lawyer had done (or not done) the penalties can range from a private reprimand, public reprimand, suspension of license to practice law, loss of license to practice law forever, monetary damages/fines, jail-time. Those offenses that would lead to jail time would have to be extremely egregious.
Contact your local bar association office. Try www.findlaw.com Good luck!
the yellow pages. call each one of them ,and explain your situation. Ask the lawyers for contacts.
you won t, that s not what they are in business for. You might find a lawyer to do your case pro bono, but you will still have to pay the associated costs. unless you have a case that will get them some free publicity they may underwrite the whole thing.
Yellow pages are one option. Another is to contact your local county or state bar associate. Most have a referral hotline, and will help you find an attorney that meets your needs and price range. You can also try looking for legal aid clinics. Many counties and states have public or non-profit groups that provide free or low-cost legal advice for certain matters, often including family law issues.
Contact your state s bar association. They have a directory of lawyers willing to do low- or no-cost work (though you have to convince any lawyer you talk with to take your case). I did that for something I needed. The first three attorneys said no but good luck. The fourth guy was starting his own practice and needed the clients - and he did fantastic work for me. Just keep plugging to find one. Of course, you DO have to have a reasonable case, especially for a civil matter like yours.
Since I do not know what state you live in, you could contact your state s bar association. Each bar association has a list of lawyers who do pro bono work. Also, you can look up Martindale-Hubbell (www.martindale.com). Martindale-Hubbell is a nationwide database of attorney and it provides an online listing of all lawyers and areas of practice. So you can search your state and city as well as a particular area of practice such as custody.
Contact your local chapter of Legal Aid. (I do hope there is one in your area.) Mine is simply listed in the Yellow Pages under Attorneys. ...We don t have family law specialists who volunteer in my little town - but there are some areas where some do. Good luck. Peace. --De
Why do you want a lawyer with a b0ner?
Try the sites below and watch the online movie presentations. This is very affordable and effective. You will get access to a TOP Law Firm in your State. It will cover the entire family and can be used nationwide.
I don t know where you are from but in the United States their are many activist groups that are for the legal rights of grandparents, I would google grandparents rights activist groups, and see what shows up, many of these groups could help you find a pro bono lawyer that specializes in this type of law.
Look for the U2 CDs in his collection.
quot;How do you fire your lawyer and get your money back?quot; The quick answer to your question is quot;You tell him he s off the case and that you want your unused retainer deposit returned.quot; As with all things legal, it s best to write your attorney a letter saying that you no longer require his services and that you want your unused retainer deposit returned, but it isn t necessary to put it in writing. Upon receipt of the letter, or after you ve had that conversation, the attorney is obligated to file, within a reasonable time, a motion to withdraw. Please keep some things in mind: 1) Your attorney might already have used up your retainer and could still send you a bill after he s been fired. 2) You will only have a limited amount of time to hire a new attorney once your old attorney withdraws from the case. 3) Family law in most states encourages quot;dealsquot;-- agreements made outside of court that settle the contentious issues without using the court s resources. Judges even get annoyed with attorneys who haven t tried to work out a solution before they appear. While an attorney should know your objectives and make his negotiations with opposing council conform to them, sometimes the deals two attorneys come up with aren t in your favor. It isn t necessarily that the lawyer is a crook or doesn t care: It might be that, when everything is considered, you have a weaker legal position than the opposition and that s the best deal your attorney could get. (It might also be that your attorney is not very effective.) You always have the option of turning down any deal you don t like. But that means the judge will need to hear evidence and make a decision-- a decision that might not go your way.
You may just be out that money. Unless you can prove your allegations. As to firing him just say quot;You are firedquot;. Could also see if the better business bureau could help you. Good luck, hope what is good for the children is how this will all end up.
you more than likely won t get your money back. i am finding out that lawyers only want money they don t care about your kids he s just been paid in full. then if you don t pay lawyers you end up with the same outcome. no ethics. they are the down fall of our country. sorry to hit you with reality. i know i am fighting for my life and i have to bug my lawyer constantly and still am not getting things i need done, done. good luck!!!!!
You fire your lawyer by telling him or her you no longer want their representation. As to getting your money back, if there is an unexpended balance in your retainer, it should be returned to you on request. However, fees you ve paid for services rendered are unlikely to be returned.
Why don t you have custody? If you love your kids straighten out the problems that took the kids away from you.and don t go back to that life ...Prove that you are a fit mother , forget about the father..thats old news , get on with your life and get your kids back.......
Strictly speaking, there are no math prerequisites. However, the following math skills are very helpful, though not technically required: - Arithmetic and algebra (so that you can calculate the damages you want in a lawsuit, or prove that the other side s calculation of damages is wrong) - Probability and Game Theory (So that you can calculate risk, either in calculating damages for a lawsuit, or in giving legal advice to your clients). For example: if your client is a company designing pajamas for babies, he/she asks if they should use Material X, which is a very breathable material that increases babies comfort and health, and prevents suffocation. However, Material X is also highly flammable, and if there is a fire in the house, a baby wearing pajames made of Material X is more likely to burn up and die. So, what should your client do? As the lawyer, you would ask for the statistics/probability, and calculate the probability of these events, and the losses the victim (and your client, if sued) would sustain in each case. Then, you tell your client what material to use, based on the probabilities. -College math. This is because you need a college degree to apply to law school, and so if the college you attend requires some math courses (many do require some kind of math), you will need to take those. -Math for science/engineering (trigonometry, calculus, etc.)--ONLY important if you want to be a patent lawyer in the science/engineering field, so that you can understand the inventions you are helping to patent. Otherwise, you do not need advanced math.
For many areas of the law, there are no mathematical prerequisites, other than whatever your undergraduate college requires of all students. However, there are areas of the law in which more quantitative skills are needed. For example, some patent lawyers need to have an understanding of properties of the products they represent, which may include engineering and architectural renderings. Also, in areas like family law and probate law, valuations of property are important. In personal injury law, probabilities of certain outcomes must be assessed (statistics).
There are none. You have to obviously be able to get through your undergraduate math requirements to graduate and get into law school(at least in the US), but there are no math classes in law school. You have to be able to do simple math, but you can always use a calculator. Edit: We lawyers always joke about how bad in math we are!!
None. But you do need an undergrad degree. All I am aware of in the US require you to do some. Other countries such as Australia are different - you can get an undergrad degree with zero math. Thanks Bill
You don t need an attorney. Just contact the Department of Immigration in Canada and ask for the permission papers. If you have gramatical errors or mispelled words, it will not lessen your chances of being accepted to Canada. They will only want to know why you want to become a citizen. That s all. Just official stuff and they don t care about your grammar. Good Luck! Canada is a beautiful country!
there are plenty of immigration scammers who prey on people coming to this country. they collect large fees and do practically nothing or even cheat their clients. if you know the rules and such you can double check them at the Canadian government website at gt;gt; www.canada.gc.ca there are plenty of people here that can help you and you do not need to hire a lawyer (they will cost a lot and are not necessary.) try to contact some members of your community here or an international center. they can help you just as much if not more.
It is up to your attorney to object when a question is not relevant. Yes they can ask. There is very little likely hood of you getting in trouble after the fact.
uh...if you were driving without a license, in most states you will assume some if not all of the guilt for the accident. yes he has the right to ask.
IN America you don t have to answer with out your attorney present. Not illegal or unlawful question .....just tell him if he wants to talk to you he needs to speak to your attorney.
Yes and yes. In this situation the lawyer is trying to discredit the victim.
They can ask if you were wearing quot;pink pantiesquot; if they want.
If it does not have anything to do with the case then why would a lawyer ask the question? If you are part of a legal action and you take the stand then the opposing lawyer can ask virtually question that is pertinent to the case. If it isn t pertinent then your lawyer (or you) should object to the question as being irrelevant.
Yes, they can ask you anything, but if this truly has NOTHING to do with the case, your own lawyer should object. Yes, you could get into trouble immediately, but you might not, depending on the judge.
Is it lawful? Of course, it is. The lawyer can ask anything. It is an objectionable question? Maybe. If you were the victim in an accident and this is a civil case where you are seeking damages, such a question might be relevant to show you were really the one at fault. If you were driving without a license, does that mean you are a bad driver and so you may likely have caused the accident partially? Maybe. It s sort of relevant, but it also seems sort of irrelevant. On the other hand, just because you don t have a license doesn t mean you were driving negligently. Maybe you were driving perfectly. However, it puts an inference in the juries mind that you were a irresponsible in either not getting or losing your license. The inference may be objectionable and I would object to it if I were going against that attorney. I might even discuss the issue with the court before the trial began to make it so the other attorney can t even ask the question let alone get the answer. So my answer is that it may be a proper question, but it would depend on the circumstances. If the authorities find out, you might be charged with driving without a license. There is a statute of limitations. In California, the limitations is period is 1 year. If they don t charge you within that 1 year, you can t be convicted.
If you were driving without a license and involved in an accident it s your fault. You re not supposed to be driving.
What a question! If the lawyer didn t ask you every question he could think of that the opposition might, he could not represent you properly. Everything has to do with the case. Remember that the other party/ies are the victims and you are the criminal -or that is what they ll be trying to persuade the court. What you tell your lawyer is privileged information and no, you cannot get in trouble for telling him the truth. You can get in all sorts of trouble if you lie and the opposition lawyer unearths something. They ask you in court and you can get into real deep sh*t there.
Maybe you could try the yellow pages..
You can consult an immigration lawyer in Georgia through the family legal plan at www.bestimmigrationlawyers.com. For only $16 per month you would get unlimited attorney consultations and documents review. Then, if you are satisfied with the attorneys service, you can hire them to represent you at a 25% discount from their attorney rate. I did consult with their legal firm in the state of Texas and could prepare my adjustment of status application just by using the consultations. I think you should take advantage of the consultations and decide for yourself if hiring a lawyer is what you really need. Good luck
iowa2az, It s unfortunate to hear about your situation. I was injured once in Illinois when a delivery truck backed over my left foot at work. My employer tried to settle with me fast because they knew it wasn t my fault. I called a local accident lawyer in my area who provided me great advice and I was able to get a decent settlement to cover my medical bills that weren t covered by my primary insurance. I d suggest you find a lawyer in your area. http://www.accidentlawyerlocator.com My personal injury lawyer was help me because they hope to make some money at the same time. Try visiting a accident lawyer to see if they can help. Heop everything works out.
Dude, lawyers lie to their own mothers -- he/she/it is probably lying to you just to make it look like he/she/it is actually doing some work...
You start with the California Public Defender office. You may have one in your county, START there. It is likely a regional or state office within that division that would handle the case. A public defender is routinely appointed for (at least) first level appeals, where there was a public defender at the trial level. In this case, you must notify that office that you need their assistance. Remember, it is the assets of the client, not the family, which are calculated to ensure that he is indigent. Since he has no job (in prison), has no assets, it should be easy. Also, you and your son should be aware of something very important. In most appeals, there will not be much contact between the attorney and the client. The reason ... the client cannot help much for an appeal. What really happened, his version of the crime, etc., are irrelevant. What is important is whether or not the client received a fair trial. And THAT is determined by the record (pleadings, filings, and transcripts). If it is not in the record, you cannot base your appeal on that issue. So, the question is really ... what does the record show, and how can that equate to a new trial. Also, as indicated above, the effort of the appellate attorney will be to get a new trial, NOT to get a reversal (acquittal). What the appellate lawyer tries to show is that, as a result of the errors OF THE JUDGE, the defendant did not receive a fair trial. Finally, the last bastion ... ineffective assistance of counsel. Here, client assistance can help. If you can show that the attorney feiled to provide the minimum (very low standard) representation required at law, you can sometimes get a new trial. Unfortnunately, almost EVER appeal argues ineffective assistance of counsel. I say unfortunately, because it is so common that judges really do not pay it much attention. So many frivolous claims of ineffective assistance of counsel are raised that judges really do not take them seriously any more. There have been some very good ineffective assistance of counsel cases rendered (in death penalty) cases recently, but the fact is, when attorneys cannot find an error by the judge, they blame the trial lawyer. Even if you truly believe the defense attorney was bad, the burden (Strickland case) is to show that BUT FOR the errors by counsel, the result WOULD HAVE been different. Now, if you look at the strickland case (Strickland v. Washington), the supreme court seems to set a lower standard. Later cases, however, have made it clear that even if the attorney made serious professional errors, the case will not be reversed EXCEPT for the aggregious case where the jury verdict would probably have been different (burden shifts to defendant to show a differnt result would have occurerd). As examples, appellate and US Supreme court have found harmless errors despite attorney being drunk at trial, attorney sleeping through trial, and attorney showing up late for trial while the most important witnesse was testifying. So what? So ... the strongest arguments are usually that the Judge made a mistake of law, which mandates a new trial. The strongest arguments for reversal are the mundane -- using the wrong jury instruction (so the jury did not properly consider the law) can result in nearly automatic reversal. My point is that, unlike trial preparation, where the client can expect to actively participate, a defendant cannot really help his attorney much (except on the ineffective counsel allegations), and not much contact can reasonably be expected. Finally, it is very (VERY) important that you act very quickly. The deadlines for appeal can be JURISDICTIONAL. IN other words, if an appeal is not started on time, it is waived forever. Good luck
Robert _d Thank you for your detailed answer,your input will help me with the long road ahead ,for my son and I. sincerely Debbie. Report Abuse
Robert _d Thank you for your detailed answer,your input will help me with the long road ahead ,for my son and I. sincerely Debbie. Report Abuse
Pick up teh phone book and look at the listings. Many will consult with you on a general topic very inexpensivly or even free in the hope of developing you as a customer. You are under no obligation beyond that
Well, you normally need to talk to one in person in the place where you live. Abraham Lincoln said, the only thing a lawyer has to sell is his time and knowledge. So you can expect to pay for that. It s not like buying a tangible object, but buying legal advice. Oftentimes, people think, quot;well I could have done...quot; whatever the lawyer suggests. But that is really a mistake. You can take advantage of some free legal advice. Most state bars or local bar associations run pro bono programs, but there are strict limitations on the program. There may be law fairs where you live. If there is a criminal case, and it is a felony, and you qualify, you may be entitled to an attorney under the law. ** Note: This is a general discussion of the subject matter of your question and not legal advice. Local laws or your particular situation may change the general rules. For a specific answer to your question you should consult legal counsel with whom you can discuss all the facts of your case. **
when someone suggests you talk to a lawyer you need to find a lawyer who specialized in your issue. Best to call the state bar or local bar in your area and they will refer you to the correct type of lawyer you might need. Next, you call the lawyer to set up a consultation...many will do those for free without making you sign a retainer agreement.
Not dumb. Depending on your situation, look thru the phonebook and find an attorney that is suited for your problem. If you can find one that offers free consultations, that is best for you. At your appointment, bring all relative documents, pictures, whatever, and explain -BRIEFLY- the situation. The attorney should be able to take it from there. Good Luck! (And they dont represent you until you pay them, which is called a retainer.)
To talk to a lawyer, look in the yellow pages for your area (available online) and find one in the category for your problem. For example, if you have a divorce or child custody question, find a family law attorney. You can also find one by calling the local bar association referral service. While many lawyers offer a free initial consultation, most do not. This is a common misperception people have. The lawyer may charge a flat fee for a consultation, provide a reduced rate for the first consultatation, or limit the quot;freequot; session to only a few minutes or half an hour. When you are calling attorneys to find one to talk to, ask them about their initial consultation policy. Many times, the assistant gives you this information and then sets up an appointment for you with the lawyer. (This might even be over the phone.) In a lot of cases, one call or meeting with a lawyer may be all you need to have your questions answered. For example, it s a great idea to have new lease or unsigned contract reviewed by a lawyer before you sign it. It doesn t take long, doesn t cost a lot, but can save you time, headaches and money down the road. You can also ask the lawyer questions about whether you should sue someone or what you should do if you are being sued. But that doesn t mean you have to hire that lawyer for the lawsuit. In fact, you might want to talk to 2 or 3 lawyers to find the one you feel most comfortable with and that you think will do the best job. This is not a dumb question. It s a very good question and I m glad you asked it.
Hiring a lawyer for minor legal problems can be expensive, but there are websites like LawGuru, FindLaw and other places where you can get free legal advice. I found this website useful - http://www.uelp.org/freelegal.html
He doesn t need to have one, but Iwould definetely recommend him getting one.
Best to have a lawyer from the beginning.
I think that your friend do not needed a lawyer becasue at the arraignment is telling him his charges, but should have one present at his court day.
At the arraignment he will be called upon to plead. If he pleads not guilty, the cause will be set for trial at a later date. He can certainly do that himself. However, in some courts the arraignment is also the only time one gets offered a plea bargain. He should have counsel to help decide how to plead, whether to accept any offer. Usually, however, DUI does not result in a plea bargain other than an agreement to recommend the sentence that he would probably get after a trial. So, the short answer is that he will probably want to plead not guilty and can do that himself.
No, but it might be a good idea. Tell him to only say not guilty amp; no more.
yes and no. 2 points please
See one asap
He can wait until his court date. But, the judge will act like he should have had one tomorrow.
i would never go to court without a lawyer but he could say not guilty without one get a lawyer who knows the DA it helps alot
yes he does .he can plead not guilty ,and tell the judge he is retaining an attorney
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That is quot;Battle Without Honor Or Humanityquot; by Tomoyasu Hotei.
Get creative. Learn all the facts of the case and read any deposition material or other statements they may have made. Then, at the mock trial, if they haven t prepared properly, you ll be able to pick them apart based on prior testimony. That s what cross-examination really is. It s the opportunity to embarrass them and crush their credibility in front of the judge or jury. So, learn the facts and learn all the prior testimony and statements (including ones to the Fire Dept s, Police, internal, etc.). You ll also be able to ask them about other possibilities. quot;Did the police or your investigators look at anyone else?quot; quot;Couldn t x,y or z also have caused this firequot; (since it s a mock trial you should be able to ask those- I don t imagine there will be any expert witnesses there). It s not an easy process, but spend the time. You ll have fun!
I d start with: why would the insurance company continue to insure them if the defendants allegedly had a history of setting fire to their buildings for the insurance money? No insurance company is going to provide fire insurance for people who are arsonists. So, either the insurance company is stupid or the defendants are just unlucky (and not malicious).
You will need to get an attorney from out of town and perhaps even out of state. Allstate probably paid your attorney off. You can not get a local attorney to file suit, they just won t do it. What you should have done is contact the state Insurance Commissioner in your state. They can make them get off their *** and give you your money. You have nothing to lose by contacting them now. The worse that can happen is they will tell you you waited too long. But your complaint will be on file and could help someone else fighting Allstate.
Allstate has the biggest complaint list next to farmers for not paying out next time pick your insurance company better even if it costs more. sue a lawyer oh my i cant stop laughing. hold him in contempt of court for not handling your case properly you use the same case number and charge that his respect of the court is obvious by his attitude and work.don t ask for money ask for scations and ask that it be donated to law help for low income families say 25,000 judges perk right up and listen when you don t ask for money all you want is for it not to happen to some one Else
If he delayed your ability to file and made it so you could not recover from the insurance company, you can sue your lawyer for malpractice. Because of his improperly handling your case... you should win the amount you MIGHT HAVE WON plus damages for the delay. Don t forget to get the new lawyer to write it up that you want quot;plus all legal feesquot; in the settlement. That way, if he s working on a percentage (normal)... you get to keep the amount you get awarded... and then the first lawyer has to pay your new lawyer too.
your friend is right about malpractice he is right about fearing revenge there are no good lawyers, after all they just practice law
The other two posters, especially the one that said your lawyer was quot;paid offquot;, are idiots. Why do people answer questions on Yahoo when they don t know the REAL answer? Anyway, there are lawyers who, believe it or not, specialize in legal malpractice cases. The first thing you should do is file a grievance with the local bar association. They will investigate and if the matter is made public, they may do a lot of the heavy lifting for you to make your lawsuit faster and less expensive (because records they keep may be usable by your lawyer in your case against your old lawyer eventually). If nothing else, you ll get the matter on a record somewhere. Then, call your local bar association, they should have a lawyer referral service that can point you to an attorney who will take a legal malpractice case for you.
Attorneys sue each other all the time. It s all about the benjamins! lol As far as asking if you can trust any attorney, well your guess is as good as mine.
If it s anything other than a traffic ticket, no.
Yes. Some people are acquitted without a lawyer. It is usually despite their efforts, not because of it, but it happens. The biggest problem with having a lawyer is that the lawyer cannot knowingly present perjured testimony. So, if you plan on testifying, and testifying falsely, you would not want a lawyer involved. In the u.s., the accused has the right to defend without a lawyer (if the accused is competent) but the court will first inquire to ensure that the accused knows just how stupid the decision would be.
Sure it s possible (it s called appearing pro se), but it is so unlikely that it could work out well for you that the Supreme Court ruled that if you risk incarceration and can t afford an attorney, that one will be appointed to you free of charge. They didn t decide to provide free lawyers just to be nice--they decided that you need to have a lawyer to get justice out of the courts, and didn t want to do injustice to people who can t afford a lawyer. There are dozens of little rules of procedure for filing documents in the court--you aren t going to get them right just by looking them up. A judge may be lenient because he knows you aren t a lawyer. Or he may keep hassling you over every stupid thing until you get one. In addition, you may not understand what your options are to challenge the charges before you well enough to plan an effective defense. Perhaps most importantly, the state s attorney will be so sure he can beat you, that you won t be able to get a decent plea bargain. He won t make you the same deal he d make for your lawyer because he can win without a deal.
yes you can defend yourself in an court of law but i suggest you get a lawyers opinion before you continue to do it yourself/ and it also depends on how serious the crime, if its serious you should consult a lawyer
It is possible, but your chances of success are very low. It is often said that any man who represents himself in court has a fool for a lawyer.
Heather Mills (skank) did it, so it s possible but very,very risky!
HIGHLY unlikely. Try Legal aid.
Possible? Yes. Advisable? No!!!
Get a lawyer! The bank is ONLY looking out for their own interests and that CAN conflict with YOUR interests. Cashiers checks can be phonied and look completely legit. ALWAYS insist on a check from a LOCAL bank ONLY and ALWAYS call to verify its authenticity! Don t waste your time with a Realtor! The will be insisting on a full commission if you involve one and that will likely cost you MORE than an attorney would. They can t give you legal advice either so would be a complete waste of time and $$$ in your case.
Smart move. TFTP Report Abuse
You do not need a lawyer. However, I would ask a realtor to look over the contract to make sure everything looks good. The bank is only concerned about their money and could care less about the rest of the contract.
Prudence should tell you to have an attorney review the documents, especially if they are prepared by the buyer. They are looking to protect their best interests and not yours. The small cost for review will pay long term dividends in peace of mind.
Generally you would have a realtor to sell your home. Its not necessary though, just recommended. The buyer is the one who requires a lawyer to investigate liens on the property or other such problems, not the seller.
I think you answered your own question. If you and the bank believe that all the paperwork is filled out correctly and that you have a certified check that has all the numbers right. If the bank with the loan is happy, you should be happy. Save the $500 for an attorney and treat yourself.
goodness i sure hope not.
It s not mandatory but I d get a real estate attorney becuase of all the rules and regulations that need to be followed. Also, you ll be paying taxes and fees as well to your state and you don t want anything to come back to haunt you later. Call a few lawyers and get an estimate as to what they d charge. The bank will be watching for it s interest (money) but they won t care about you. Get a lawyer.
Pay attorney to protect your interest and yourself it is the best investment that you can make beside to make money from your real estate. I don t pay attorney to sue somebody, that is miss use of legal service.
You will need a good title company to handle the closing. If you understand the process and the forms, you may not need an attorney. If you examine the costs versus the possible detriment it may be worthwhile though.
You do not need an attorney. Contact the Clerk Recorder s Office where you were convicted, or the State Attorney General s office for the state in which you were convicted for further details.
criminal lawyer
You dont need a lawyer. Just go to the courthouse and pull your file in the county or city you created the offense in and pay about $60.00 to have it expunged. but if its a dui, that will alwayse stay on dmv records.
Any Attorney who advertised that he or she practices criminal law should be able to do this. You could also call the Local Bar Association and ask for the names of some attorneys that do this sort of thing. Good Luck!
Try the links below and watch the online movie presentations. This will give you access to a TOP Law Firm in your State, which will cover every issue. This can be used Nationwide with 24hour access. Hope this helps.
Two issues. First, he should be disqualified in the action against you. This must be done in the court where the action is pending. Second, you should contact the Virginia State Bar to file an ethics complaint. Go to http://www.vsb.org/site/regulation/inqui... to get the form.
Check with the American Bar Association and the Virginia equivalent (Virginia Bar Association?)
NASA hires lots of different kinds of people, just like any other large corporation. Yes, we have attorneys here. Take a look at www.nasa.gov and go to the Careers page. I don t know that a background in earth science will help at all - we hire attorneys to be attorneys in most cases. That said, there are lots of folks here who work in an area very different from what they studied in school. In that case, a diverse education will likely get you into a position that isn t particularly related to law.
WARNING: Jobs in the field of Law are drying up FAST!!! This is NOT a good field to invest in right now. Reasons: bad economy, thanks to the WWWeb people think they can do their own legal work, law schools (including those that train legal support staff) are churning out WAY TOO MANY graduates to be supported in this country (USA). Under this administration, support for NASA is declining. Suggestion: Go into the field of healthcare lt;lt;lt; LOTS of jobs there!!!
You need to get your law degree and apply at NASA as counsel. If your undergrad degree is in earth science, physics, or some other natural science, you should have a nice shot at getting in because that combination of a BS in Natural Sciences and a JD are an odd combination.
With NASA closing up in about 2 years, why would you want to pursue this?
Call your local courthouse and ask the same question. I d be willing to bet the answer to your question differs by state or even county, so that might explain why there haven t been any answers yet. On another note, is it absolutely necessary for your current husband to adopt your child? If it s not absolutely necessary, it s probably not a good idea. People who are adopted lose basic human rights, like the right to their own family history, medical information, birth certificate. Things can be more difficult for them later on, like it might be harder for them to get a passport or medical insurance. Unless adoption is an absolute necessity it would be in your child s best interests to go for a guardianship instead.
I would think one would definitely need a lawyer. Every state is different in how they handle step parent adoption. did your ex have his parental rights completely terminated or did he just allow you to have full custody? There is a big difference.
Go to www.adoptionattorneys.org this is the site that we used to find our attorney. Most attorneys will not charge you for the initial consultation. Don t use one that does charge.
The best thing you can do, if you want to save is the above, make sure it is signed and dated, and agree with whoever is counter signing the document on 2 witness, who would also have to sign. This way if any legal problems do unfold, at least you have 2 witnesses. Ideally you should be able to get 2 witnesses for nothing, but there are people who consider themselves proffesional witnesses. Take a little look on google for more info.
It should stand up in court as long as it s professionally written, and very specific and clear what the document is intended to be stating. As the poster above said, additional witnesses would be a good choice as well. If you are talking about major money in this agreement, it really might be in your best interest to suck it up and pay to have it professionally put together by a lawyer. I would factor in to the equation as well-- do you think the other party(s) has the potential to go sour and try to twist things down the road? If so, even more reason to do this with a lawyer.
One doesn t eliminate the other one. My broker is a Lawyer and his experience/practice is in Real Estate. After 10 years of practicing law, he decided to be a Broker. Go ahead!
“The only exemption remaining for lawyers was that they could obtain broker registration without meeting the education requirements of the Mortgage Brokers Act,” says Steven Pearlstein, a Toronto real estate lawyer with the firm of Blustein amp; Pearlstein LLP. Report Abuse
I have read in the paper of cases with less merit prevailing. It of course depends a lot on how stupid the jury is. You will have to make the jury think you have been damaged financially. You should insist that your lawyer gets a percentage and nothing for time or expenses if you lose. A lot of people have had verbally abusive bosses and will think your suit frivolous. Suing your boss will probably mean that you will have to find another job.
YES, SUE THEM.
it s not slander if it s true, or even if he thought it was true when he said it. the bigger issue would be if your manager had access to your health care records, and then told everyone about your sad dilemma. if he was revealing your health records, that would be a really big issue. while you seem like a total douche, i would still recommend that you sue because your company is already writing off a bunch of money on your manager, so from their perspective, what s a little more? It seems likely they would be more willing than normal to settle quick, especially if your complaint makes firing/prosecuting your manager easier.
It definitely depends how dumb the jury is. You probably would want to think twice though since it ll be a problem area when the next place you work at calls the old one. You re just over reacting bottom line.
you bet ye, they destroyed your reputation, I smell big bugs.
If you can prove damages, it could be considered slander.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/02/busine... Lady this item was recalled back in 2006 HOW DID U GET ONE??? SUE whoever U got it from that is still selling this item!! CALL A LAWYER ASAP!!
Did you read the instructions? Try going to a Doctor first and then call the company first to get information on the product secondly before you get all lawyer happy.
Does the can have a warning label on it...... warning of any of these dangers? You may be out of luck if it does. If you wanted to contact a lawyer about the subject you could but be careful.... Some will take the case not because they think they will win they just want your money. There should be lawyers that give free consultations. Also some lawyers will not take the case if the product is from a big company...... Big companies have big lawyers and cost to much to fight. Big companies can drag the case on costing you so much you give up. If they did settle... The money you get would all go to pay your lawyer. Also you would need to prove you have damages....
I would try to research it more, so you can see what it contains and what the chemicals were that you drank. Also go to the local doctors and have him check you out first. Then if you can prove that it was very harmful to you I would definitely get a lawyer. I hope that the chemicals didn t do anything to you, and good luck!
Find their web site and make a major complaint. NEVER BUY IT AGAIN. But save it for evidence should you need it.
It couldn t hurt. . .
just phone one and see what they say....
Go to the doctor first. Tell them what happened and get tested. If anything is wrong, then contact a lawyer.
don′t hurt to call and find out :) look at all those fat people who sued McDonald s and won millions of dollars, and how about the woman who sued McDonald s for the hot coffee she ordered and spilled on her lap, she got a million for it...could not hurt to ask ;) you could be a million air...you won′t know unless you ask.
As for the hot part, you can t have any legal action against that because I m pretty sure that on the container somewhere it says quot;CAUTION: HOT.quot; As for the chemical problem, contacting someone about it (whether it be the company s customer service or even a lawyer), it is still a reasonable issue to complain about.
In my experience outside Maryland, lawyers charge one of two ways. They will charge an hourly rate for their work unless you are the plaintiff in a civil lawsuit. If you are the plaintiff in a civil lawsuit, they may give you a choice between an hourly rate and a percentage of your final award. Quoting an hourly rate or a percentage won t help you because I don t live in Maryland.
There is no such thing as an average case. What kind of lawyer are you talking about? Civil or Criminal? It will take a little more than what you put to get a good answer.
It will vary from case to case, lawyer to lawyer.
I have on two occasions gotten a lawyer for some work issues and it was $150/hour.
As a student in their final semester at a first tier law school, I can answer this question well. Getting into law school is hard. Getting good grades in law school is even harder. However, simply graduating from law school is not very difficult. Very few students ever get quot;flunkedquot; or asked not to return. If you are willing to do the work (I estimate I spend 40-50 hours on my studies), you should be fine. This being said, law school grades are extremely important to your career path. If you don t get good grades, your chances of being able to do what you want to do as a lawyer significantly decrease.
Just like your other schooling, if you work hard at it you will achieve academic success. Being a practicing attorney is difficult at times, but manageable. Don t be discouraged, but don t expect smooth sailing either. The work you put in will be proportionate to the results. Good luck.
VERY hard.
Be afraid...be VERY afraid. I got a criminal law degree and I JUST got out of that without paying for extra courses. Just barely. And that s just criminal law. I m guessing you re study all sorts of law from criminal to civil to family. Good luck.
I am a lawyer and states matter very much. Depends on where the victim resides and where Netbank is headquartered. You could file a complaint with the state you reside in, probably do it online, see where that takes you. Either with the Attorney General s Offiice or the state Dept of Banking, or the Dept that regulates banking.
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Compassion is dead, not I m not a lawyer, you will have to find a vampire the is reallly hungry for fame and blood. No one is going to feel sorry for you, they are all dead.
My dad s a lawyer but I don t know what for.
If you feel like you need one you can, but it isn t requried. If you feel uncertian about what you are signing it might be a good idea, but most of the paper work is pretty self explanatory, just make sure to read it and ask questions before you sign if something doesn t make sense. You can still back out at the closing if you change your mind.
Are we talking about the US? The process varies by state. In the west you would go to the title company and sign the paperwork there. No lawyer would be present most times. Not even a RE agent in many cases. The other side is not there either. In the east the process tends to be over a table with all parties including lawyers. Or the buyer is in one room and the seller in another. Part of the difference has to do with standardize contracts, market conventions and the history of the title. The west has a shorter history so the title documents are cleaner as a general rule. While I am not fan of paying a lawyer for services not needed you do need to make sure everything is in order. If you have a mistake it can be costly to fix later. If the lawyer can review everything (assuming again you are in a state that uses lawyers for real estate transfers) then they do not have to be present. Note I have bought or sold over 20 properties and they have been in different locations so the process does tend to vary based on where the property is. Are you getting title insurance as the buyer (not the policy a lender requires)? I strongly suggest a buyer always has title insurance. This is a specific policy that covers the buyer and is not the same as the policy you will need to buy to benefit the lender.
If you have never closed before, or even if you have, it is a good idea to have a lawyer present at closing. Depending on where you live it may cost a few hundred dollars, but just think of it as a kind of protection that might save you literally thousands of dollars in the long term.
If it is not customary or necessary to have an attorney present at the closing, I would definitely have one review the contract and conditions and be on call for questions and issues that may arise at the closing.
Criminal Justice and Psychology. You normally would have to take both anyway and other requirements, i.e. English Comp., English Lit., reading, health science or PE and algebra. Psychology is a great asset in the field of law. Good luck and work hard.
A law therapist? I would just put out a shingle since I don t think this job has any required qualifications.
I feel your pain. 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. 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.
Go to this site. you can look up these jobs and check their qualifications. Or if you change your mind you can research other jobs.
Nope...that s not a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest would be (for instance) if a previous attorney of yours was representing one of the parties.
I don t think so. The lawyer wants the same thing as his client, to get the both of them off the hook.
If you have a beneficial interest in an estate, you have a right to be either given a copy of the will or told where you can get a copy of a will. A lot of executors do a minimal amount of work. It is like they expect the attorneys to do all of the work tell them what papers to sign. In Pennsylvania, you should receive a notice of beneficial interest within a month after the will is probated. I do not know what the time table is in other states. For fast action, contact the attorney s office. They should be able to either mail or fax you a copy right away. Names and addresses are needed by attorneys for the state inheritance tax return, if there is an inheritance tax return in your state, and the Federal Estate Tax Return, if the estate is large enough to be required to file such a return.
It may depend on the laws in that state as to how long they have to file the will. In Texas the law is 2 years from date of death.
The executor can give a copy if the administrator agrees.
This link gives a good summary of areas of the law, but it is by no means complete and many lawyers specialise in small branches of those areas, where they see that there is a demand for their expertise. Some lawyers are versatile enough to move from one area to another as new prospects open up. Others combine their legal work with some other discipline -- eg. accountancy. It is a good thing not to think too early about specialising, but to leave the field wide open. It is indeed a vast field and could take you literally all over the world. http://www.lawcareers.net/Information/Fi...
Don t panic. It will be a while before you will have to choose any speciality as you will have to study general topics such as tort, contract, etc before that. I specialised in crime, which itself can be divided further into white collar crime, prison law, fraud, sexual offences, road traffic, etc. More general specialisations are too numerous to list, but include intellectual property/copyright law, company law, commercial law, employment law, health and safety, local government, government (ie drafting leglislation -see the Government Legal Service website), property law, landlord and tenant, welfare benefits, mental health, family law, etc and each of them has specialisations within. I would suggest at this point you just learn as much as you can about different aspects of the law but do not choose any speciality yet until you need to choose options for your law degree. Hope that helps. Good luck.
There s no definite list. Go to any law school website and look through the course catelogue and you will see a plethera of different areas of law one can study. Even those long lists aren t exhaustive. Most lawyers don t specialize like doctors do. They specialize in whatever they re doing, they don t pick a specialty during school and study that alone. At least in the US, other countries do it differently.
You can pick and specialize in basically anything you want. Medical Lawyers rake in the big dollars
Any type of person can be a successful attorney. Many of the extroverted and aggressive attorneys mess up their case by being bullies. One of the latest issues in law schools and in bar associations is being quot;polite and civilquot; while still advancing a case. Courses on civility are now a requirement for the ethics classes. I am quiet, that should not be confused with being a push over, and prefer to argue my cases by being totally prepared, stating the facts of the case and the actual laws. I recognize and respect the other side, while still working for my client. That serves me well in meditations where I listen to the other side and work to an agreement. I do many successful meditations for employees of the Federal Gov and private sectors. A lawyer can be fair, not aggressive, and still win -- the key is knowing your case not just from your clients side but from the other side also. As a lawyer you will run into bullies, sometimes it will be the opposing attorney and sadly sometimes it will be the judge. Law school will teach you how to handle this type of person without going down to their level. You are lucky that you are going to be in law school now that the profession has recognized how detrimental the aggressive bully mentality is. For more info on legal education go the American Bar Assoc website. http://www.abanet.org/legaled.html
Absolutely. Trial law is not the only branch of law that fights injustice. There s child welfare law, environmental law, etc. Our family business have been retaining lawyers for almost a century (yes 100 -- started with my grandfather). By experience we had better results with timid-looking lawyers who are not aggressive but know the letter of the law by heart. Our first lawyer was a frail elderly gentleman who didn t take elevators. Opposing counsel often underestimated him but they did not know that he was smart as a whip. His mind was as sharp up until his dying day (he died at 99). With us he had a success rate of 100%. Our next lawyer was a newbie from law school. His pre-law was philosophy in the seminary. He looked ridiculous bouncing on the balls of his feet while arguing our case. But he took down four lawyers (one of them an ex-judge) retained by the opposing side. If you do decide to go into law, make sure you make yourself as well-versed in it as you can. Lawyering is not about pushing through walls aggressively -- it s about finding loopholes and walking around walls.
No, the most respected lawyers by their peers are introverted, intuitive thinkers justifiers (INTJ in myers-briggs). Introverts go deeper into matters than extraverts. Law is not about shouting and carrying on, it s on finding the right point of law. There are lots of successful lawyers and judges who are introverts. Philosophy majors do the best on the LSAT. That s a good major for you.
You will be lucky to get a job at all. LOL, OK, the most important different types of lawyers are the employed, underemployed, and the unemployed. Actually, with the proliferation of law schools and lowering of standards the degree will be as esteemed as a truck driving school certificate. A lot of law schools admissions policy is if you got the dough, or are willing to take on debt, you can go. 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. Some people talk about doctors being sued and high malpractice insurance, do not let the medical profession fool you, doctors and dentists make the most money in our society even after paying for their malpractice insurance. If you eliminated med-mal suits it would have little or no impact on the affordability and accessibility of health care, the docs would just pocket the extra money. By the way I have sued lawyers for malpractice but never a doc/dentist, I look forward to it. 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. I got a job in 2003 at a 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 someone 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.quot; 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. Compare this to health care: * Health care. Almost half the 30 fastest growing occupations are concentrated in health services -- including medical assistants, physical therapists, physician assistants, home health aides, pharmacists, physicians, dentists and medical records and health information technicians -- according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 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; OK, I have to interject right here. Did a dean of a law school basically say you could go through all the nonsense of getting into law school, law school, ethics exam, bar exam and you should not expect some sort of gainful employment after you are through? You might as well go to Las Vegas and put your tuition money on the rouelette table and let it ride, you may have better odds of making money than going to his school and getting a decent paying law job. This guy is a jerk. 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; See the problem is that we have this huge, growing, out of control population of lawyers, not unlike an animal population that gets out of control, the end result is famine. --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. What is even more sad is there will probably be like 50-100 lawyers that send in their resume for this ad. Here is another attorney ad. They pay 35K-40K, yet they want someone with experience, multiple state admissions, and a writing sample. Oh, so sad.: Small insurance defense firm seeks associate with 1-3 years experience. Admission to RI or NH bar a plus. The ideal candidate will have deposition experience, familiarity with billing and reporting requirements, as well as an ability to research and draft dispositive motions. Salary in the $35,000 to $40,000 range, dependent on experience. Please submit resume and writing sample to: LWP Box #161, 10 Milk St., Suite 1000, Boston, MA 02108. Here is not an uncommon question posted on Yahoo Answers by someone that made the journey to find the harsh employment opportunities: I graduated last Spring, took and passed the Maryland Bar, and am currently clerking for a judge. I have excellent academics, but no law firm or journal experience. I do have several years of non-legal work experience. I ve been sending out a few cold call cover letter/resume packets a day, plus responding to ads calling for less than 2 years experience in the local papers, bar assoc website, and even craigslist. I still can t seem to get anywhere though. Any suggestions? Thanks for you time and thoughts! Here is another post: My bf just took the bar exam to become an attorney. He has posted resumes on yahoo, monster, craigs list, newspapers, etc. and just can t seem to find any work. Finally he decided to just apply for jobs like bank assistants etc. Interviewers would say he s too qualified for quot;rookiequot; positions, and he s quot;not qualifiedquot; enough for a lawyer position. Is there hope? Thanks.
NO!!!!!!!!!!Persue your dream as an attorney. I worked in a law firm for 8yrs. the only african american and I loved it. When you branch into college, get to know some of your class mates and go home and practice on yourself some of the aggressive behavior such as 1: knowing when to speek, 2: never let a person see you sweat or be nervous, that kind of gives people the incentive that you don t have a clue. But Good Luck
Don t listen to your friend the pipefitter. He most likely has a deadend career and is trying to keep you down. Alot of attorneys never see the inside of the courtroom. Some of that is because of the internet has allowed freedom for attorneys to file forms from their offices. Since most liability cases are settled, what is the need to go to court. It is probably more important to get into a good bar association and country club than to worry about being an extrovert. Most attorneys I know are introverted and are use to handling things without the help of others.
yes its great profession for introverts because introverts are implicitly favoured by judges because they seem good - know what i mean
Yes to all of the above. You should get as much experience in as many different legal settings as you can. The practical experience you ll get is something that you won t get in law school classes.
Get as many as you can, as often as you can. Even if its not necessarily with a law firm, if its somewhat related it will help immensely! What you ll find is that once you get one internship, it becomes much easier to get the next, and so on until you get a permanent job.
An internship is best after law school. It will help you get your foot in the door of a good company and also looks good on a resume.
Most people get suggestions from friends or family that have used a Lawyer. The ACLU may be able to help in a discrimination case, or will be able to refer you to an attorney. You can also contact your County or States quot;lawyer referralquot; service. I would try the ACLU first.
Step 1: Call Lawyer.
First step keep in mind that attorneys aren t recognized by quot;discrimination.quot; They are usually called quot;civil rightsquot; attorneys. Now you have a starting point. You can suggest looking online or in the hard copy of the yellow pages under quot;Civil Rights Attorneysquot;. You can also suggest calling either or both the state bar association or the local county bar association for referrals. You should tell this girl that she should have all her claims and/or issues documented so she can more easily and fully explain her situation to an attorney. Most attorneys will offer an initial 1/2 hour consultation for nothing, so that s an important question she should ask when she phones them. She should also ask if the attorney is willing to take it on a contingency basis (if she doesn t win, the attorney would take nothing). Sometimes people who are fighting for their civil rights aren t looking for money but rather an equitable or fair settlement from the other side which might include admission of discrimination and an action to make up for it. If that s the case, it s important that the girl know how much an attorney charges per hour. Good luck with your paper.
Open the Yellow Pages to quot;Attorneysquot;. You will find dozens of phone numbers and ads. Then call one.
Do as much research as you can before simply calling a lawyer. For instance, local city and county bar associations ofter offer free consultation to determine if you need a lawyer, and what kind. (By the way, your friend needs one specializing in employment law.) You can also do research by going to sites such as martindalehubbel.com and lawyers.com. when you have picked one, Google him/her. You can also contact the State Bar see see if any complaints have been made against that lawyer.
Contact your local county bar association, they can help direct you to a lawyer that can help you...even the bar association website here allows you to search for a lawyer.
decide what she needs the lawyer for look online or in the yellow pages call to make an appt. ask if there is a free consultation, or initial meeting to see if this lawyer can help. ask if there is any paperwork, and if there is a fee, how payment can be made. go to the appt. you might even go with her, for moral support.
go to the yellow pages of any phone book and go to Lawyers who specialize in that field.Then call and see what the cost of a first visit might be and go from there.
