Practical Advice in Choosing the Right PA Divorce Lawyer

Posted on by Barbara J. Shah

Choosing the right lawyer to handle your divorce is not an easy one, and it certainly isn’t a decision one should make lightly.  But with the thousands of lawyers that are currently practicing law in Pennsylvania, how do you make the right choice?  Read on for some practical advice in choosing the right PA divorce lawyer for you:

Beware of Lawyer Rating Services

Many younger PA divorce-seekers do a lot of divorce research on-line, or they assist older divorce-seekers in finding information online.

Most of the online lawyer rating services are unreliable, IMHO. We don’t know all of the lawyers in our area of Southwestern, PA who do divorces, but we pretty much know who the good ones are.  We see that some lawyers have high ratings that we believe are totally unjustified in terms of our knowledge of their expertise in handling divorce matters.  It seems old fashioned, but word-of mouth referrals are usually your best bet.  Ask people you know who’ve been through a divorce for a referral!

Insist on Meeting your PA Divorce Lawyer in person

Many divorce seekers (or seekers of divorce information) don’t know what to expect from lawyers during their consultation appointment, or thereafter.

It is virtually impossible to conduct an effective consultation appointment over the telephone, or in an internet chat; we need to look each other in the eye and gauge whether we are getting accurate information or whether the information we are giving the potential client is getting through. Some clients lie…

You Get What You Pay For

If a divorce lawyer is offering you a “free consultation,” they must not be busy enough; there may be a reason for this…

If the divorce lawyer has no support staff, or works out of his or her basement, maybe they are building up a practice (hey, I started by sharing law office space with an established lawyer), but bear in mind that it is likely they may not be available to you when needed, as they have to go to court, write pleadings, answer telephone messages, etc. all by themselves. Yes, voice mail and text messaging is handy, but if you have a burning question, it may be cold comfort to you.

As a corollary to the above, then, bear in mind that a lawyer whose fees appear to be “cheap” or much less expensive than others, may have insufficient support staff. Personnel and offices and computer systems cost money, but they make the lawyer much more available to answer important client questions and take action in emergencies.  If you don’t get a response within 24 hours to an urgent question, (it should be the same day), it brings a level of anxiety into the process which experienced lawyers want to avoid.

Just because a lawyer is expensive, however, it doesn’t mean that they are the lawyer for you. Ask around, find out how satisfied friends or relatives or co-workers have been with their divorce attorneys (or how impressed they were with the skill level of their spouse’s attorney).

Real, practical advice = Good Advice

The right lawyer for you will take in a great deal of information about you and your marriage, your children, and your spouse, and they will educate you on the divorce, support, and custody laws of Pennsylvania. They will tell you hard truths, truths you may not want to hear but need to know.

The right lawyer will have a sense of humor, be able to relate, but will not feel sorry for you. We must analyze the situation as the court would and work to develop a strategy to reach an outcome that is acceptable, in the long run. As changes occur, they will keep you informed and will modify the strategy, with your approval.

Communication is Key

The right lawyer will keep you informed and will communicate with you regularly, usually by email, and will want your input and response to actions and communications in your case.

Your lawyer will charge you for all communications, telephone, email, written, etc., because he or she has nothing to “sell” but his or her time. Don’t expect them to work for free, particularly when they have an office, staff, and other overhead expenses.

Divorce Lawyers should be Tough, but Professional (even if you secretly hope they beat your ex into a pulp on the courtroom floor)

Your lawyer will very likely know and hopefully have a cordial relationship with your spouse’s lawyer. Our job is not to hate or scorn the other side; our job is to get the best result for our client, and we have learned that cooperation, not flame-throwing, is the best way to achieve this with a minimum of expense.

Few Surprises

It is possible but unlikely that you will be unhappily surprised by developments in your case, if you have been listening to your lawyer and following their instructions. Most experienced divorce lawyers are fairly good predictors of outcomes and are trying to save you attorney fees and anxiety by attempting to settle your case, along lines you have already discussed and are prepared for.

Choose Wisely

 

If you hear someone complaining that divorce lawyers are money-grubbing thieves, it is possible that they have had a bad experience with their lawyer.  We have met many of those people, and we have performed case “rescue missions” more times that we can count.  Or it is possible that they had unreasonable expectations or are trying to get something for nothing.  Choose wisely.  Your future may depend on it.

 

 

Free Internet Child Support Calculators – Worth the Cost?

Posted on by Kristen Anders Bojarski

The internet offers a wealth of information that is easily accessible, literally at our fingertips.  If you don’t know something, just pull up Google on your smart phone, type in a question and receive an instant answer.

So when a client comes into my office for the first time, I’m not surprised when they tell me that they already know what they will receive/pay in child support because they calculated it themselves using a free child support calculator they found online.  Unfortunately, many are surprised when I tell them that the child support calculator did not give them accurate numbers.  This happens for a lot of different reasons.

First, an internet child support calculator arrives at numbers based on the figures and information that you input into it.   If you don’t know child support rules, chances are that you will be inputting wrong information.  For instance, the calculation of one’s net income.  Many people do not know that bonuses, overtime pay, vested stock options, etc., are considered income for purposes of calculating support.  Many people also miscalculate the amount of custody time they have; they think they have primary custody when they actually have shared custody meaning that a shared custody deviation likely applies.  The incorrect calculation of a person’s income or amount of custody time they have can make a huge impact on the child support calculation.

Second, there are a lot of legal issues to consider when calculating child support.  Perhaps the most common is earning capacity.  When a party is not working outside of the home, or they left one job for a lower paying job, it might be appropriate to calculate the child support not on what they are currently earning (or not earning), but by what they could potentially earn based on their education and experience. A free internet child support calculator cannot make this kind of determination.

Third, deviations from the child support guidelines are sometimes warranted when there are extraordinary expenses or needs.  For instance, perhaps a child has a substantial amount of medical expenses due to a medical condition; an upward deviation from the guidelines may be warranted.  Internet child support calculators cannot calculate this.

The lesson here is not to completely avoid free child support calculators you find on the web– I have no problem with clients doing their own research – but don’t depend on them as a source of free legal advice.  Hiring and consulting with a lawyer may be an expense that some people want to avoid, but ignorance can be much more expensive, particularly over the months or years the child support obligation may run.  You just might find that the “free” internet calculator was not worth the cost.

 

A Lesson About Honesty

Posted on by Kristen Anders Bojarski

Yesterday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from any investigations into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election after it was discovered that he failed to disclose two meetings he had with the Russian ambassador during the campaign at his senate confirmation hearing.  Sessions maintains that he didn’t intend to mislead the committee, and promised to issue a statement clarifying his testimony.  President Trump stated on his Facebook page that while Sessions’ responses could have been more accurate, it was clearly not intentional.

As one who spends a lot of time preparing witnesses for trial, I find it hard to believe that Sessions did not intentionally omit this information.  Russian interference in the election is a hot button issue – Sessions and his lawyers had to have expected that he would be asked questions about his ties with Russia, and thus prepared to answer those questions.  By not disclosing the information, Sessions made a terrible mistake that will likely haunt him, and the President, for years to come.   Let this be an important lesson to all of us: always be honest.

In almost every Family Law case that I handle, one or both parties have behaved badly at one point.  We are human after all.  When we are hurt, we want to get revenge.  When we are angry, we lash out.  Some of us even have skeletons in the closet.   Sometimes a party has an asset or a source of income they want to hide.

I always instruct my clients to tell the truth.  Don’t lie about your income, and disclose everything.  If you did something bad, be honest about it.  The bad stuff always comes out eventually, so disclose it on your own terms and not opposing counsel’s.   You and your lawyer can come up with a strategy for disclosing the information in a way that will have as little impact as possible on your case.

I can guarantee that the extra source of income or bad behavior will have less of an impact on your case than lying will.  If you are caught lying in court, you will lose all credibility with the judge on your case, and there may be other consequences, such as having to pay the other side’s attorney fees as sanctions, or in severe cases, imprisonment.

Sessions should have been upfront with the committee.  Maybe they were totally innocent meetings and he did nothing wrong.  But because Sessions chose not to disclose the meetings, he now looks like he was trying to hide something, and thus loses credibility.  Issuing a clarifying statement after the fact will not restore Sessions’ reputation.  The damage has been done.

So let this be a lesson to you: always be honest.

How to Take Those First Steps Towards Leaving an Unhappy Marriage

Posted on by Kristen Anders Bojarski

It is January, which is affectionately known by family law lawyers as divorce season. More than any other month, internet search engines experience a surge of people searching for information relating to divorce.  Divorce is a life changing and often traumatic event in one’s life; the very thought of leaving behind the life you’ve known can be overwhelming.  How are you supposed to make a decision that will substantially impact you, your spouse, children and even extended family members without first consulting the internet?  As a compulsive googler myself, I understand the lure of a free and anonymous internet search, especially when you are desperate for answers about something.  But I can tell you that the internet does not have all of the answers you need to make informed decisions.  Only an experienced and capable family law lawyer can do that after meeting with you and learning the facts of your unique circumstances.

When I first meet with a client who is considering leaving an unhappy marriage, they often don’t know where to start for fear of unknown consequences. This is especially true of the financially dependent spouse. They don’t know if they can afford to go out on their own, especially with young children. They fear giving up their rights, or financial or custody-related retaliation by their spouse.  When I’m feeling overwhelmed, nothing eases my anxiety better than coming up with a well-thought out plan to attack the problems I’m facing, and that is what I help my clients do.   If you are in an unhappy marriage, but have no idea where to start, this quick and general guide to taking those first steps is for you:

Divorce – to file or not to file? In some cases, however, it does make sense to file for divorce right away. It depends on the circumstances. Make sure to talk to your lawyer about your options.

When I meet with a client for the first time, one of the first things I decide is whether to file for divorce right away. For a financially dependent spouse, it is generally better not to file for divorce right away, and this can be for several reasons. For instance, once you are divorced, you cannot be covered under your spouse’s health insurance any longer. Finding affordable healthcare, even through employment, is a common problem. In those cases, if makes sense to delay the divorce for as long as possible to keep health insurance coverage.

Money – If you are not working outside of the home, do you have education or skills that will enable you to get a self-supporting job? If not, will child and spousal support (if applicable) be enough for you to live on, maybe with a part or full-time minimum wage job, on a temporary basis? Come up with a budget and stick with it as best you can. If you do not have the skills or education to support yourself, now is the time to come up with a plan to become self-supporting. Child support doesn’t last forever, and alimony usually doesn’t either. Think about what you are interested in. Look into the programs offered at the local community college. See what job training is available in your area, or even look into that graduate program you put on the backburner to start a family.The next thing I talk to my clients about is their income situation. If you want to leave your marriage, you must first take a long and hard look at your finances as this will determine where you (and your children if you have any) will be able to live when you and your spouse separate. Do you want to stay in the marital residence? Can you afford the mortgage, taxes, insurances, rent, etc. based on what you earn? If not, will you be able to afford to live in the house, with spousal and child support (if you are entitled to receive them) to supplement your income or lack thereof? In many cases, both incomes of the parties are needed to make the monthly mortgage payment.

Decide where to live – If remaining in the marital residence is not an option, either financially or legally, you should strongly consider staying with family or friends. Moving out of the marital residence does not mean you give up your legal rights to the marital residence. Whether you live there or not, you still have an interest in the property meaning any equity will be distributed in some way once the marital assets are divided later on through the divorce process. This is a question I get asked all of the time.

The children’s school district is also a major factor to take into consideration for most cases where shared custody is going to be an issue. If you can’t afford to live anywhere else but with family, and your family lives so far away that it would be difficult for your spouse to exercise custody rights, do not make any moves without consulting a lawyer first.

Once I help my client analyze their income and budget, I help them decide where they should live. Once you’ve done the same analysis, can you afford to reside in the marital residence? If so, is your spouse willing to leave? If not and the deed to the house is in both names, you can’t just kick your spouse out. There are ways to gain exclusive possession of the marital residence (a topic for another day), but it is usually easier and cheaper to move out of the marital residence yourself.

The move If this is not an amicable separation, or domestic violence is an issue, then I suggest moving out without telling the other spouse. You should still schedule the moving date, and have people to help you, but wait to move until your spouse is at work or out of town. Take whatever furniture, household goods, Christmas decorations, heirlooms, etc. that is important to you and/or will be necessary to set up a new home for yourself and/or your children. You may feel guilty pulling a surprise move like this, but if it will avoid a major conflict, or someone getting hurt, it’s worth it. If reaching an amicable custody agreement is not possible, and you are the primary caretaker of the children, take them with you when you leave.

This may induce your spouse to file a complaint for custody, but don’t be alarmed by that. If that happens, the courts won’t automatically hand your children over to your spouse, assuming that the children are not in danger in your custody. It just means that you and your spouse will go through the court process to establish a custody order, whether by agreement or court order, that is hopefully best for your children.

Once you figured out your finances, and have decided where you are going to live, the next step is to plan the move. Schedule a move-in date and enlist family and friends to help you. Is this an amicable, mutually-agreed upon separation? If so, try to reach an agreement with your spouse ahead of time as far as how the furniture and household goods are going to be divided. If you have children, it would be ideal if you and your spouse could come up with a custody arrangement prior to moving.

File for child and spousal support Right before you move out of the marital residence, see if you can withdraw funds from joint bank accounts, CD’s investments, etc. Don’t feel bad about it; you have to support yourself, you are entitled to joint funds; besides, and any funds you take will just be considered as an advance to you later. While anyone can file a complaint for support at the Domestic Relations Section of the court in their county, you should not go to the support conference/hearing alone. Hire an attorney to represent you.

Immediately after you move out of the house, file for child and spousal support if you are entitled to it. In Allegheny and Washington counties of PA where I practice, it generally takes 4-6 weeks after a complaint in support is filed for a support conference/hearing to be scheduled, and then up to another 30 days after the court date for the wage attachment to take effect. For that reason, plan to not have any support monies for about 2 months.

Help your childrenIf your children are struggling, seek counseling for them or reach out to the guidance counselor at school for support. Be patient. While the adjustment to their changed lives may take some time, it’s worth it for the children to come home from school to a happy, tension-free home each day.

Once you separate from your spouse, help your children with the transition. Talk to your children, help them understand what is happening and encourage them to confide in you about their feelings. Never speak badly about your spouse to the children; it will make them feel awful. Instead, assure them that they are loved by both parents and that the separation is not their fault. It is true that children are resilient, but the transition will be a lot easier for them if their parents can be civil.

Decisions on when to file for divorce (if you and your attorney decide to wait), how to split assets/debts, permanent custody arrangements, etc., will come later. For now, I hope this general guide helps you to come up with a sound, logical plan towards making that huge decision to leave an unhappy marriage.  When you are ready, or you are feeling overwhelmed, meet with a family law attorney.  He or she will help you come up with a plan so that you can be prepared to take those first steps.

What happens when you lose your job and can no longer afford your child support order

Posted on by Kristen Anders Bojarski

Lately I have been seeing and hearing about a lot of cases where a parent who pays child support has a sudden loss of income due to an involuntary termination, job lay off, cannot work because of a medical issue, etc., and as a result, is unable to afford their monthly child support obligation.  Some of these people believe that if they are not bringing any income in, then they don’t have to pay their child support obligation and then just stop paying.  These people are then shocked when they receive papers in the mail ordering them to appear in court for a contempt proceeding for failure to pay child support.  How can they be in trouble for not paying child support when they no longer have the income to pay it, right?  Wrong!

If you stop paying child support per the terms of your child support order, domestic relations of your county will automatically begin contempt proceedings against you.  The first step is usually to order you to appear at a contempt conference/hearing where you have to show why you shouldn’t be held in contempt of your child support order.

Once this first contempt proceeding is scheduled, people often believe that they just have to appear at the proceeding, show that their income was reduced, and the court will reduce/terminate their child support obligation and drop the contempt.  Unfortunately, those people would be wrong again.  The contempt proceedings are generally about the contempt only.  Even if it is clear that your income has been reduced, the conference officer who is handling the contempt proceeding will not reduce your child support at that time; they will only address the contempt issue.  Since you failed to pay the support as ordered, you could be found in contempt and ordered to purge yourself of contempt by continuing to pay the full support order, making a lump sum payment towards the child support arrears, pay the payee’s attorney’s fees if he/she hired an attorney for the contempt proceeding, or worse.

So what SHOULD you do you do if you have a sudden loss of income and can no longer afford to pay your child support obligation?  You must immediately file a petition for modification of the child support order in the county your child support order is through, and schedule a conference/hearing date to determine whether the support should be reduced.  That way if domestic relations does schedule a contempt proceeding, the contempt and modification proceedings can probably be heard together, and you will be able to produce evidence of your reduced income, request that your support be lowered all the way back to the date you filed, and greatly help your chances of not being held in contempt for failure to pay child support.

Of course, it is not guaranteed that child support will be lowered because you lost your job, such as if you quit on purpose or were fired for cause.  Anyone who finds them in this situation should seek the advice of a competent family law attorney immediately so they can be advised according to their particular circumstances.

 

 

 

The Key to Success in any Divorce is Preparation

Posted on by Barbara J. Shah

If worst comes to worst and you cannot settle your case with what seems like a reasonable compromise, your lawyer should be calling and scheduling a meeting with you well before trial to prepare for the trial itself.  First of all, for most cases I am scheduled to try, a pretrial statement must be filed.   When the trial was originally scheduled, it is likely that trial judge entered what is called a “pretrial order” setting forth discovery deadlines and due dates for the parties’ pretrial statements to be filed with the judge or the court clerk.  Some jurisdictions have rules that set forth the due dates and contents of pretrial statements, so there are not individual orders for each case.  However, before the pretrial statement can be filed, the lawyer and the client should meet to discuss strategy and the identities of witnesses that they may want to call to testify, and to identify the documents which will need to be offered into evidence, to prove their case at the trial.

There are numerous rules that govern what evidence can be offered at trial; evidence cannot be “hearsay,” that is, the person who offers testimony or authenticates documents that they want to put into evidence must have FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE of the events or issues they want to testify about.  With limited exceptions, witnesses will not be allowed to testify to anything someone told them. I wish I had a dollar for every time a client offered to bring a letter from a proposed witness, (notarized or not), that lays out that person’s testimony.  Sorry, hearsay.  Not permitted.  Testimony must be given in person.

This is probably an appropriate time to explain what notarization of a document means.  Most people seem to think that if a document is notarized, that it has some official recognition as being true, or accurate.  Actually, all that a notary seal means is that the notary public is guaranteeing that the person whose name is signed to the document is that actual person; normally the notary is going to require that the person whose signature they are notarizing SIGN THE DOCUMENT IN FRONT OF THEM and that they produce I.D. to prove who they are.  Don’t bring a signed document to the notary and ask them to notarize it; it is against the law.

Unfortunately many lawyers don’t involve the client in the trial preparation process; if they did, the client would have a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of his or her case, and what evidence or witnesses the lawyer intends to call at trial to prove their case, or in the event they are the defendants in the case, what evidence they can put on to disprove the plaintiff’s case.  I have found that involving the client in the pretrial process is extremely valuable,   both to me and to the client, in preparing for trial.

Before the trial, the lawyer should plan to meet with everyone whom they intend to call as a witness in their case.  If they have expert witnesses, such as a real estate appraiser, a physician, pension expert, or whatever, it is unlikely that they will meet to review their testimony personally.  However, most expert witnesses are used to testifying, and usually the lawyer can go over their testimony with them by telephone.   In the case of lay witnesses, I have an ironclad rule.  If they cannot meet with me to go over their testimony so that I can know what questions I should be asking them and also to  prepare them for cross-examination by opposing counsel, I will not put them on the witness stand.  That doesn’t mean that I have to meet with everyone individually; many times I hold group witness preparation sessions with numbers of witnesses.  However, the key is preparation.  If I don’t know exactly what the witness will be testifying about, I would be foolish to call them to testify, and if they are not prepared for tough cross-examination by opposing counsel, all of their good intentions can come to naught.

In trials, as in most things in life, proper preparation is required to reach the desired result.  Thorough trial preparation doesn’t always mean you are going to win your case, but it sure as heck makes it more likely.  And frankly, it often intimidates the opposing counsel, who may not have his or her case as well prepared.  Many times I have settled cases on terms satisfactory to my client, on the way into the courtroom when my client and I are better prepared for trial, and opposing counsel is aware of the disparity in preparedness.

Why is My Divorce Lawyer So Friendly With my Ex’s Lawyer?

Posted on by Barbara J. Shah

 

Sometimes it is hard for clients to understand when I joke with or make small talk with opposing counsel.    Clients don’t really want to be in court anyway, and they are usually very stressed just to be there.  Something very important to them is in the process of being settled or litigated, and they may be filled with dread.  The last thing they want to do is laugh or joke, and often they see their lawyer doing just that, and often with the hated opposing counsel.

First of all, it seems to be pretty universal that since clients are in a battle with a hated enemy – the person on the other side of their case- they expect me to hate the opposing party too.  However, it is important that I do not adopt my client’s attitude towards their adversary.  If I did, it would rob me of my ability to make an independent analysis of the case.  This is what they trained us to do in law school.  If we can’t maintain our independence and independent thought about a case, we are of little value to our client.

In order to serve my clients’ actual best interests, I can’t get “invested” in their views of their case.  I have to coldly analyze it, coldly analyze the opposing party’s case, and make a learned prediction of the likely range of outcomes.   This gives me the ability of determine a range of settlement options and make recommendations to my client which are reasonable, given the situation and set of facts which look provable to me.  There are many factors to analyze, including my client’s ability to testify, negative factors which may affect the case, the skill of opposing counsel, and what I know about a judge’s predilections from past experience.  This is why I get paid the “big bucks.”  My analysis pulls no punches and takes no prisoners.  I have to look at everything with a cold, independent eye.   Would you prefer a lawyer who gives you an honest analysis of your chances or one who tells you what you want to hear?  If you choose the latter, might as well stop reading this article.

In most jurisdictions, there is a relatively small circle of attorneys who are experienced in a particular area of law.  Pennsylvania does not allow lawyers to advertise “specialties” in law; we are all general practitioners in the eyes of the PA Supreme Court.  However, most lawyers, especially those in or near larger urban areas, have developed an area of concentration within the law.  Hopefully if your case is in such an urban area, you have been referred to a lawyer who mainly practices in the area of law your case relates to.  In any case, these lawyers get to know each other pretty well.  We belong to the same organizations, attend court on a regular basis, and attend meetings (and parties) which pretty much this same group of lawyers also do.

We have usually developed healthy professional relationships with these lawyers we see on a regular basis.  We may know about their family, health issues, and other information.  For the most part, they are just like us, struggling to maintain their professional independence while trying to advance their client’s interests, observing the rules of ethics which govern our profession, and making a living.  When you consider this, wouldn’t it be odd if we didn’t act cordially to one another?  It’s true that during court appearances, some attorneys act like bullies or make disparaging remarks about the opposing party or their case, but  generally this is just part of the “persona” that they adopt in public.  Sometimes they do it to impress their clients who are nearby and don’t understand that lawyers really don’t hate each other, or that they don’t really hate the opposing party. (Unfortunately, sometimes lawyers have lost their independence from a case, but that’s another story.)

So as a client you should feel good if your lawyer banters with opposing counsel in the hallway or outside of court; it is a good sign that their independence is intact, and that they are not uptight or worried about your case.  Smile and trust your lawyer!

 

 

 

The Truth about Divorce Lawyers Who Lie

Posted on by Barbara J. Shah

DO LAWYERS LIE IN COURT?

Before I became a lawyer, while I was in law school, it was confusing to me why lawyers had a reputation of not telling the truth.  To me it was pretty clear – as a lawyer I would be representing my clients and helping them explain their position of point of view in court.  Since I would not be a litigant, my  role was a very limited one, and since I was not personally a witness to anything, what was there for me to lie about?

Well, 32 years later I have seen a lot, and now I understand that “liar” reputation that tends to follow the legal profession around.  First of all, let me be clear that the ethics requirements of my profession require that I always tell the truth to the judge, and I am not allowed to permit my clients to commit perjury, if I am certain, or substantially certain, that their testimony is untruthful.  I am supposed to ask for a recess in the proceedings, “remonstrate” with my client – essentially insist that they tell the truth – and if they refuse to change their testimony, I am supposed to ask the court for permission to withdraw as that witness’s lawyer.

As a general practice, I have always advised my clients to tell the truth.  First of all, I need to know the truth, so I can work with them to make smart decisions as to how to go about best presenting their case.  Perjury is against the law, so I can’t be a good lawyer/citizen if I permit my clients to break the law. Second, my reputation is important to me; I want judges and other lawyers to respect me; it helps my clients in the long run if the judges of their cases can feel confident that I don’t allow my clients to perjure themselves in testifying.

Unfortunately, there are lawyers that appear to be a lot less scrupulous with the truth.  Do they just forget to get enough information from their client and feel the need to cover up their lack of knowledge?  Is “winning” so important that they forget their obligations to the court and to society?  Why do some lawyers make up excuses for their clients not complying with a deadline or an order of court which are clearly false?  I try to make it clear to my clients:  doing the right thing is always better (and usually cheaper) than trying to “game” the system or using the courts to “wound” the other party.

There are plenty of lawyers around like me, those who are interested in upholding the sanctity of the legal system, so that those who have to rely on it don’t feel that they are behind the 8-ball. It’s true that trying to negotiate the legal system without a lawyer is difficult, but that is because there are procedures and rules which the system operates under, which are difficult for the layperson to understand and follow.  There’s a reason lawyers spent all of that time and money to attend law school.  Like I tell clients, of course anyone is entitled to represent themselves, just like I am entitled to try to fix my car instead of hiring a mechanic.  However, the results of self-representation are often pretty unsatisfying, just as any feeble attempts I may try to make to fix my car.

If you believe that “lawyers are liars,” you just haven’t met the right lawyer.  And if you are looking for a lawyer to help you perpetrate a lie, I suspect you can find one.  However, count me out on that.  I’m not interested.