Strictly speaking, the stated job of an attorney is to navigate clients through the murky and diagonal thoroughfares and byways of civic law. And, like a taxi cab driver, they are bound to subsequently run over some toes and cut off some paths (albeit with tremendously less honking). Could this be where the rumors and stereotypes started? Do lawyers bear the blame their clients shirk? Or is it simply the phrase, “billable hours,” that pigeonholes attorneys into a societal anathema?
However you feel about the morals and ethics surrounding attorneys, the plain and simples are that, sometimes, you simply need one. Whether being sued by an old patron, employee, or associate, lawyers and attorneys unequivocally watch your back. And attorneys conduct this due process with interminable ruthlessness and cunning, making spectators revile the morals and ethics involved, yet the participants cheer the outcome. Let us face facts: lawyers and attorneys must sometimes use tricks to get their clients out of messy situations—and when phrased in this manner, attorneys hardly seem the epitome of evil and greed they are reputed to be.
Attorneys, while not participating in the aforementioned social work, have been known to bilk clients out of lunches, cocktail parties, sports cars, and hundreds of thousands of dollars. The aphorism to remember when mingling with attorneys is: Caveat Emptor. And, knowing which attorneys provide legal loyalty and which surreptitiously rifle through your valuables in a tricky fashion, proves to be the trick.
Generally, customers should abide by the rule: not to implicitly trust companies that solicit them. In fact, the solicitation should, ordinarily, be the other way round—if you want to entertain the services of a company or individual, you should seek them out based on a variety of factors. Therefore, in the specific realm of attorneys, customers and patrons should be intrinsically wary of lawyers and attorneys that show up beside their hospital bed. Ambulance chasers and a large amount of similarly-minded attorneys deal with clients in bulk, making interactions limited, garbled, and ultimately a waste of money. Despite the televised “no-money down” offers tendered by today’s legal eagles, customers should exercise a bit more discretion—researching and examining the various merits of potential attorneys. Hidden fees, shady practices, and evasive maneuvers tend to abound in the larger, strictly personal injury side of law practicing. Read up on potential sharkish and dodgy tactics at the Better Business Bureau’s website (www.bbb.com).
Picking attorneys and lawyers to represent you either in a criminal or civil case or just in day to day business is a decision of importance and largesse. Ultimately, you want shysters that are less than shy when it comes to watching your back during your day in court. You want mean men and women with a penchant for ruthlessness that will dissuade others from petitioning our court system with frivolous lawsuits against you and your company that could wind up costing you your business. And, in the end, we rejoice in the fact that attorneys can be hired to doggedly protect our investments, navigating treacherous waters that earn them a reputation akin to sharks, so we don’t have to be the butt of terrible jokes.
By Jean-Pierre Lacrampe