I have a custody hearing Wednesday where I represent the baby daddy against baby momma. Both have problems in their past and they share a child, where never married and now have gone their separate ways. This is not a problem for me. I do this day in and day out. I am a very aggressive attorney and take no prisoners. I love the battle that is an adversarial hearing. I have made a point of never apologizing for what I do in a courtroom – if I need to apologize then I should not do it.
That will not change but I am dreading Wednesday. I have gotten my hands on the baby momma’s journal. I spent the day reading it. At times I had to put it down and walk away. I have had several conversations with members of my firm about it. For a custody case it contains gold. I will have in her own words and handwriting enough evidence to bury her, to take her baby away from her and maybe even keep her from seeing the child without supervision.
That is the problem. I am certain my client has decided he can do better and has been an ass to her, even abusive to her in the past. He has traded up.
This girl has been given the short end of the stick and I am about to beat her with it. She has had a hard life, been taken advantage by the men in her life including my client. Three children by three men, her career goal now is to be a manager at Bumpers. At Christmas she wrote that she wanted to make sure that this was a wonderful Christmas for the two children she still has custody of since it will be the last one they spend together. The next entry is about hoping she has not scarred her children for life and that they can forget about her. It is clear she was thinking about killing herself.
I want to hug her and tell her the world is not that cold and evil, that things can get better. That even now, no matter how hard things are it can be better.
The only bright spot is that she has managed to hire an attorney that I consider to be one of the better ones around. He will do a good job. I have a call into him to settle this and have hinted at serious issues with her by asking just how stable she is and can she hold up under a serious cross-examination. I hope he takes the hint since in the cases we have had in the past I have never asked that.
What weighs on my mind is the suicide of a client of another attorney I blogged about in the past. I am not sure I could handle it is this girl decides life is not worth living because she lost this hearing.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Income
In response to an email I got based on my last blog I think maybe there is some misunderstanding about what I charge vs. what I make.
To use simple basic numbers, lets say for the sake of arguement I charge all o fmy clients $200 an hour across the board. ( I don’t -some case are billed hourly at various rates, some a flat fee, so based on a % of judgement). AND I can actually charge for 5 hours a day and everyone pays on time(if you want to see how hard it is - I challenge you to keep track of the time you actually work. Can’t count office chit chat, smoke/bathroom/walking around. And not every one pays, much less on time)
Out of that $200 an hour I pay/help pay:
1. the salary of 5-7 other attorneys if they do not cover thier own salary
2. the salary of 5-9 support staff
3. the debt service on the building
4. office expenses (the last copier cost us $22k on the 5 year lease plus per copy expense)
5. legal books/updates/web based research
6. advanced moneys on contengent fee cases
7. my law license fees
8. continuing education fees
9. diet coke/sprite my clients drink while meeting with me
10. malpractice insurance
11. debt service on $80k in student loans
My unpaid accounts recievable would give a true business man a stroke. I personally wrote off $150K in unpaid bills last year and still have about the same carried over.
Those who know me in person know I would not charge a dime if I could afford it. I love what I do, but I do have to eat, pay rent and child support. In fact i tend to give too much time away which is my own fault.
To the asshole who questioned my ethics and morals for wanting to charge $2000 for 4 criminal charges - go fuck yourself. Until you have done what I do you have no fucking clue about what it costs - money and emotion/stress.
Yeah I am rolling in money and getting rich - I never have had a debt collector call me about an unpaid bill. I live in a one bedroom apartment and wonder if I can afford to buy my little girl a bike to ride this summer or pay all the fees for her soccer/gym/karate.
To use simple basic numbers, lets say for the sake of arguement I charge all o fmy clients $200 an hour across the board. ( I don’t -some case are billed hourly at various rates, some a flat fee, so based on a % of judgement). AND I can actually charge for 5 hours a day and everyone pays on time(if you want to see how hard it is - I challenge you to keep track of the time you actually work. Can’t count office chit chat, smoke/bathroom/walking around. And not every one pays, much less on time)
Out of that $200 an hour I pay/help pay:
1. the salary of 5-7 other attorneys if they do not cover thier own salary
2. the salary of 5-9 support staff
3. the debt service on the building
4. office expenses (the last copier cost us $22k on the 5 year lease plus per copy expense)
5. legal books/updates/web based research
6. advanced moneys on contengent fee cases
7. my law license fees
8. continuing education fees
9. diet coke/sprite my clients drink while meeting with me
10. malpractice insurance
11. debt service on $80k in student loans
My unpaid accounts recievable would give a true business man a stroke. I personally wrote off $150K in unpaid bills last year and still have about the same carried over.
Those who know me in person know I would not charge a dime if I could afford it. I love what I do, but I do have to eat, pay rent and child support. In fact i tend to give too much time away which is my own fault.
To the asshole who questioned my ethics and morals for wanting to charge $2000 for 4 criminal charges - go fuck yourself. Until you have done what I do you have no fucking clue about what it costs - money and emotion/stress.
Yeah I am rolling in money and getting rich - I never have had a debt collector call me about an unpaid bill. I live in a one bedroom apartment and wonder if I can afford to buy my little girl a bike to ride this summer or pay all the fees for her soccer/gym/karate.
Money Money Money
Maybe I am just to expensive.
I just had a walk in wanting to hire me for 4 charges: simple possession (not his, his brother left it in his truck) switched tags, expired tags and revoked DL. I quoted $2000 in part because he could use a bath and was proud on having his DL revoked in 1994 and in part because it will be a long couple of days in city court.
Needless to say he did not hire me.
I just had a walk in wanting to hire me for 4 charges: simple possession (not his, his brother left it in his truck) switched tags, expired tags and revoked DL. I quoted $2000 in part because he could use a bath and was proud on having his DL revoked in 1994 and in part because it will be a long couple of days in city court.
Needless to say he did not hire me.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Baby drama
A lot of what "family/domestic" lawyers do anymore in this area is related to custody. It could be part of a divorce, contempt or modificaion of a prior order or just a flat out custody fight between people never married. It can be very interesting and you learn a lot about people and human nature during custody battles, but in the never married category I see to very different groups - men and women. A shock I know.
If it is the man who comes in it generally breaks down to this: a) I know I have to pay child support and I want to see my child; b) It ain't mine and I want a DNA test (it normally is his) and c) I want custody. (This is not all that rare) and d) I want nothing to do with the crazy bitch. I'll pay if I have too for now - catch me if you can later.
On the female side it is much easier to group: a) he is a fucking bastard and he will never see my child, but I want child support, b) he is a fucking bastard and he will never see my child, but I want child support, c)he is a fucking bastard and he will never see my child, but I want child support, and d) he is OK and I will let him see my child.
After I spend 30 minutes or so listening to how this guy is a worthless piece of crap and never was any good, and explaining why he has rights to see the child if not have actual custody and arguing of what is fair and what isn't fair I ALWAYS want to say "Well you fucked him, not me. he couldn't have been all that bad and evil if you decided to drop your panties for him" But I never do. Just know that is what I am thinking when I smile at you while nodding my head and say "I understand".
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