The hardest legal choices usually involve the ones you love
Ok, here’s the situation. You are in a car accident and the person at fault is a good friend or a family member. Do you call the police? Do you notify your car insurance?
What about a Will that leaves something to you that you know another family member. Do you give it to the family member?? What if the item is something you always wanted but your family member has always said they wanted it? If they fight it in court, are you going to fight it in court??
What about a family member that gets arrested and wants to use you as an alibi? Do you cover for them if the alibi is not true??
I wish I could give you the ‘CLEAN LEGAL’ answer for all of the scenarios but unfortunately, I can’t. I can tell you that you may need to investigate the damages for your car and speak to a Personal Injury Attorney. I can tell you that you may need to speak to an Estate Attorney regarding challenges to wills. I can tell you that you need to speak to a Criminal Defense attorney so you can appreciate the ramifications of your actions for covering (i.e. lying for a family).
Those responses are the “Legal” responses. Unfortunately, they are not necessarily the CLEAN responses. The reason I say they are not the CLEAN responses is because any time you are dealing with family members or loved ones and THE LAW, things are never as clean as we would like them to be.
It’s easy to deal with someone who is not a relative or a friend. However, when you find yourself in a situation where you are trying to separate your personal emotions and feelings about a legal situation, it can be come increasingly difficult based on the person you’re dealing.
Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. The phrase “The LAW is Blind” is also applicable to family members and friends. When you find yourself in a situation where you are forced to avail yourself of the legal system, you have to keep in mind that your relationship with that person will be affected by the legal process. The impact of that affection depends on you and your loved one.
Anthony Reeves
www.reevesfirm.com
Dedicated to Representing the Disabled and Discriminated
The Points and Pitfalls of Paying for Legal Services
I know you’ve the seen the commercials:
“We won’t get a DIME unless we win the case for you!”
You see it all the time and you know what it means. If you are injured in an accident or are injured on the job, you probably will have seen some commercial on the TV that talks about “NO FEES” unless the attorney wins the case.
In most situations, this payment arrangement for a personal injury or workers compensation case is correct. The PROBLEM is that most people THINK that this mechanism for payment is applicable to ALL types of legal cases! Sorry, folks, that simply is NOT true!
Here’s a few POINTS for you who are trying to figure out how to find out if you are going to have to pay for legal services:
1) PRO BONO – i.e. FREE!! Most states have either a requirement or a courtesy requirement that attorneys provide pro bono work. Pro Bono work is usually dictated by the type of case and the financial situation of the client. This situation is best becausd literally, it costs you nothing!
2) CONTINGENCY – these cases are those that are taken based on the notion that you attorneys getting paid their fees are CONTINGENT on their ability to win the case. States vary but these cases are typically common for Personal Injury, Products Liability, Social Security, Workers’ Compensation, and Medical Malpractice, to name a few. The reason these type of case are typically CONTINGENT FEE cases is that these case usually take a while to develop and they usually offer a large payout at the end. In addition, the attorneys who take these cases are taking a RISK that they will win the case. As such, the attorneys typically put money in the case on the front end of the case to develop it with the hope they will get their payment (usually based on some statutorily or legally defined percentage arrangement).
3) BILLABLE HOURS / RETAINER FEE – Most cases usually fall into these categories. When an attorney is asking you to pay a retainer fee, she knows that she’s going to be spending time to adequately your case so this fee will allow her to have a pot of money to POOL from when she’s doing the work. The attorney typically recognizes that they may need you to pay additional monies along the way to ensure that they are working at their billable hour rates. Put simply, these cases are cases where you are asking the attorney to do something for you and the attorney wants payment for the work you’re wanting them to do.
Now, there are variations of these different situations (i.e. partial retainer, partial contingency) and each state differs but these are some things that may be useful to you before you shop for an attorney.
Now, here’s some PITFALLS that tend to throw people off:
1) There are SOME cases that CAN NOT be a contingency fee. In Florida, Criminal Cases and Family Cases can NOT be contingency. For one, courts don’t want attorneys jacking up the monies that can be obtained in Family law cases in order to increase their fees. In Criminal, quite frankly, you’re fighting to preserve the liberties of an individual so there is no FEE to obtained.
2) If you call, the clock runs! People, if you are paying a retainer fee, anytime you call, you will be charged! So many times, people think that attorneys give COURTESY services and get offended when they see that they have been charged for the calls. Listen, you don’t call your doctor to shoot the breeze and if you talk about medicals, they are GOING To make you come in to the office. Well, legal services are the same way. You didn’t HIRE a friend. You HIRED an attorney!
3) You can’t expect to fight a forest fire and only pay for a shot glass of water! So many times, people find themselves FIRED up to want to fight someone based on some injustice. Now, outside of the contingency fee arrangement, you may have to pay for legal services to accomplish this goal. Now, if you have a really complicated case that is going to take a lot of time and energy, you can’t expect a law firm to provide you services just because this is a great opportunity to take down a giant. Attorneys are fighting giants every day so if you want to go ‘toe to toe’ with a big dog, you better be prepared to pay ‘BIG DOG” money to hire them if they require it.
4) Attorneys love a good fight but they gotta feed their family, too! I can’t tell you how many times people pause when I tell them what I charge. Here they are with this lengthy break down of how they have been tried and all this injustice and how they want to drag the other person or company into court and make them fight for every dollar! Then, when you tell them the charge, you hear “I have to pay?” or “I have to pay now?” or “Can you get the case started and I’ll get you on a payment plan?”. Trust me, attorneys can tell you stories about the number of clients who have “stopped paying” or “walked away” or “switched out” in the middle of their case because they didn’t have the money or never intended to pay the money. Attorneys are business people, too. Don’t get me wrong. Most attorneys don’t mind a good fight but let’s be real! You can catch a beat down on the street corner for free. Why go into court and get beat up for free.
5) There is nothing wrong with searching for different attorneys but still be prepared to PAY!! The ultimate issue most people face is that they don’t understand that in the long run, it’s better to come prepared to pay SOMETHING than it is to ‘roll the dice’ and hope that the attorney will take the case on faith. Even if it’s a certain amount of money as down payment, the attorney you’re dealing with will look at you infinitely more favorably if they know that money is going to come as opposed to looking for a hook up.
Paying for legal services is just like anything else. Every state is different but just remember, you get what you pay for and it’s important to know in the beginning what you MAY have to pay so if you need to walk away, you can do so before you waste anyone’s time.
