[Disclaimer: this is not and is not intended to be an advertisement for legal services. I do not take cases online, ever, due to jurisdictional and ethical concerns. Should you require legal assistance, please contact a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction].
It appears I am owed $87,298.50 from non paying clients last year (includes some comparatively minor court costs), and that is after significant discounts, because I don't charge anywhere near what lots of other attorneys do.... That's on about between 60 or 70 cases.... It's really hard to say how many of those cases I "won" because sometimes winning means different things. Sometimes you've just got no damn defense and your only option is a plea or a settlement in a civil case, but it's better than what you would've surely gotten if you went to trial. Other times, you're just screwed and the question is how much can we reduce the sentence and avoid jail time (I seem strangely good at that for some reason). All of this is done in my lovely 60-80 hour weeks so yeah.... Keep in mind you can buy a nice little house for that here and in this market, you could buy two or three foreclosed ones here, but that's still not all of my student loan debt....
I really do hate people trying to apply numbers to legal representation, because it doesn't show anything, meh. Moreover each case is a different damn snowflake with different facts and angles so "win percentages" mean absolutely nothing, because they can't be reproduced next year or ever with any reliability. [shrugs], Keeping in mind that this only applies to the unpaid cases here, I'm gonna say on the side of pessimistic-against-myself-caution it's a 32% loss ratio with 11% of those badly lost. Keep in mind that sometimes the guy just freaking did it.... We'll say this means 68% won, which, given that one side always wins and the other always loses, plus the fact that it isn't my conduct on trial (client's is), makes me wonder why the hell these people aren't paying at all. The doctor still gets paid whether or not you make it through the surgery; he operated.... I get not being able to pay, but that's different from the implied or all too often express, "Screw you for not doing anything." That part about them being out of jail seems to have happened only after I showed up, coincidence?
Especially if I decide corporate accounting makes more sense/is easier for me, I'm suing pretty much all of 'em. And, I'll do it exactly 1 year after the last date of services rendered for SOL purposes.
Who are we kidding, the money is a large part of it, but it's the way they respond too. If they really, honestly don't have it, then that's one thing. I've actually had them say "I don't know you," and hang up on me in addition to lots of other things. Imagine my joy and expression thereof, especially given that I certainly remember. That's simply not going to fly and I'm amazed they think it will....
[/rant]
Stay away from law school kids....
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Topic: Things that made you sad today thread. (Read 9431861 times)