Six Things Attorneys Wish You Knew - Lehto's Law Ep. 33

hello and welcome once again to Latos law I'm Steve Larry to turn in law in state of Michigan we're practicing on over 25 years in fields of consumer protection and lemon law I've heard about the stuff replacing Road and track comments they were talking about six things attorneys wish you knew I wrote an article about this a long time ago I even did a podcast on this in my previous so today is just a video not an audio I mean I know you can hear me talking but there is no accompanying podcast for this guy did a podcast episode 33 many years ago but six things attorneys wish you knew and every time I talk to attorneys we talk about this stuff and I often try to tell the stuff to clients as well because clients often come in with some notions about lawyers and the law and this is stuff if you understand this going into your law office to speak to your attorney you'll all get along better that is you and your attorney so number one be aware of the fact that lawyers don't write the laws I didn't write the law that you are accused of breaking I didn't write the law that we are trying to enforce with a lawsuit if you are unhappy with the way the law is written you and I can talk about it all day long we can debate the law just as an intellectual exercise but I get people when I explain the law to them they get mad at me and I like to tell myself they're not mad at me they're mad at the law but it often comes across like you're mad at me because they're often yelling at me about this stupid law and I explained and say I didn't write the law I'm simply here to tell you how the law works walk you through the system try to make the laws work for you try to you know help you work out the situation because of the law but I don't write the law the laws are written by legislators and those the people you elect every two four or six years depending on how often they run and if you don't like the laws call them up and complain to them the problem is most people don't care about the laws until they encounter them in a bad setting that has you've been arrested or you've been wronged you need to file a lawsuit number two attorneys are just as frustrated by the legal system as you are I've had people tell me they say Steve the legal system is slow the courts are slow and attorneys like it because they make more money away I actually had a guy argue with me and say Steve you're going into the wrong professionally because becoming an attorney you're becoming part of the problem nice what's what's the problem he said our legal system is a mess because attorneys like it that way I have news for you attorneys hate the system just as much as you do when it comes to the inefficiencies within the court system if a court is slow we don't like it if we're sitting in court for three hours waiting for a judge to hit the bench we don't like that either I'd much rather be back in my office working and accomplishing something than sitting in a courtroom waiting for something to happen and I know people say well Steve what about attorneys who charge by the hour I suppose if an attorney is being charged by the hour as charging by the hour and he's getting to charge a client for sitting there for three hours because nothing's happening I suppose he could say I'm making money but even so most attorneys to know who were being paid by the hour would rather be doing something constructive because even they know that their client is unhappy looking at them and seeing the imaginary clock running like in a taxicab that that's just building them time so we're just as unhappy with how inefficient system is and most attorneys can even tell you which courts are more efficient or which judges are more efficient there was a judge named Barry Howard in Oakland County a few years ago who was one of the most efficient judges I'm guessing in the history of mankind and he would get to court early and of attorneys got there early he'd just start calling cases and and he would routinely look around with nothing to do it says is there anybody ready to go I'm ready and so we like efficient course we don't like inefficient courts we are just as frustrated as you are so again if there's something happening and the courts going little slower than you like don't yell at the attorney because it's probably not the attorneys fault now another thing you need to know this is number three on the list a good attorney cannot win a bad case as easily as a good one and a lot of people think I've got a really screwed-up case I'm in a lot of trouble I need to get a good attorney who can win this for me and people think that well if you've got a good case you can win it with a bad attorney and if you got a bad case you can win it with a good attorney that's not how it works a bad case is difficult to win good at earning your bed and a good case is winnable by a bad attorney or a good attorney I mean don't get me wrong a bad attorney can screw up anything we want to avoid them all together but for some odd reason everyone seems to think that if you've got the worst case on earth okay and as exempt by joachim lee give is they've got videotape of you leaning out of a moving vehicle shooting it deer out of season and you think that you can get off by hiring a good attorney who's going to go ahead and come up with some really crazy legal oceanic shenanigans it's not going to happen there's some cases it just aren't winnable now i know you're in say hey steve-o jensen he's a why he he's going to be a free man shortly yeah once in a while someone gets lucky but that's an extreme anomaly the average case okay it's won or lost on its merits as long as you have a competent attorney this idea that you can find yourself a Perry Mason or some magical attorneys going to come into court and get the whole courtroom spinning and the judge with stars and sides is going to dismiss you and apologize to you for having put you two it's not going to happen so a good attorney cannot win a bad case as easily as a good one and this good attorney out there that's going to you know save the day it's probably not going to happen number four attorneys cannot afford to work for free and every now and then I get asked by somebody they say Steve I got a case I want you to handle and it's not a lemon law case so there's no statutory fees you can recover and I say well I'd have to charge you for that they say well can't you do it for free and I say no I'm really sorry I can't I'm dizzy and I and I don't I don't do free cases like that people say why I've heard that once in a while attorney to do things pro bono and pro bono I think means for free doesn't it and it's Latin it mean something else that's kind of what it is you know interprets into and I say well I've helped people in pro bono cases who really needed help but simply saying if people you take a lawsuit and file this lawsuit that has no chance of ever getting anybody any money for free um no because like most people who run businesses I've got phone bills I've got equipment to pay for I've got people working for me everything I do costs money to file a lawsuit costs money the a letter costs money I do still have to send mail once in a while you know I guess iPhones and think so overhead and an attorney is like any other professional with bills and overhead costs and so on and for me to keep the lights on as they say see these bright things janitor masks to keep the lights on costs money and so the idea that I'm going to take you know a chunk of my time and throw it out the window on a free case well it'll be harder to keep the lights on but also there's something to remember that we can never predict how long a case is going to take so someone who says to me Steve will you take my lawsuit and handle it for free you understand that if a lawsuit goes south as we say the lawsuit goes or sideways or gets out of control a lawsuit can take a lot of time and it means we file the lawsuit they file an answer and we have some discovery back and forth when we go to you know depositions and we go to pretrial conferences we go to settlement conferences and then we have a trial you know in a trial communiques tend a few days in court the idea about putting like hundreds of hours into a file on a guarantee of zero return not many attorneys can do that and I mean literally we can't do that if we did actually do that on a regular basis we'd go out of business and you must rather have an attorney who can stay in business because he's good at what he does so I specialize in certain kinds of cases those are what I handle if I can't handle your case don't take it as an insult but I also can't handle your case for free because I expect my cases I need my cases to actually make money number five if you think you can save money by handling a case on your own don't be upset when an attorney tells you how expensive is the straighteners case out later and my good friend Adam from North Carolina pointed this out to me he said several cases and so of I every attorney has where somebody said you know something this law thing can't be that difficult I'm simply going to start this on my own I heard about this crazy person who took on the system and filed their own paperwork next thing you know they're in front of the Supreme Court and they na and they changed the law and they and they've made headlines and they did it all themselves but it's being smart and technically speaking you are allowed to be your own attorney in most cases as long as you're not and so if you want to you can but what has happened is I've met people who call me mrs. Steve I filed a lawsuit because I thought how hard can it be and now it's gotten a little more complicated and I thought it was going to be and I'd like you to come on board and there's a related story here where I've also gotten the story where someone said Steve I have a case and I didn't realize I should have contacted a specialist and so I went to my local attorney the same guy who you know does my you know wills for me and he's handled a couple contract matters these house also know a few traffic tickets for me and I went to him and said hey why do you follow a lemon law case for me so he did and now he's in over his head and will you help us out and I've actually gotten that phone call from the client before I've also got the phone call from the attorney before I've actually an attorney 16 I'm over my head help me help me and only once in 25 years have I actually said yes I will try to help you out speaking to the attorney because the attorney called me and the client called me okay and they both said we need your help and actually help that person out but generally speaking we don't do that because I've seen it before where an attorney filed a lawsuit and the answer was filed litigation ensued they're halfway to the case and now they're facing what we call summary judgment where they're getting all their causes of actions thrown out because inappropriate there's almost nothing left in the case and now they come in 60 what are we doing I say oh I'm looking at your complaint you didn't file the right causes of action like you you missed the boat back at the dock I mean this is this bad analogy but you screwed this case up on day one and now you want me to fix it and the problem is it's difficult to fix something when the plane is going down in flames again bad analogy but I'm sorry it's appropriate and so a lot of attorneys myself included don't want to get involved in a case that's already been screwed up by somebody else it's a no-win proposition okay and the problem is it's even worse when it's a non-attorney started the case and I've had that happen before where a judge actually told somebody and said look you should hire an attorney they didn't do it you should hire an attorney they didn't do it you should hire an attorney and finally say okay I'm gonna go hire an attorney they call me up and say judge this judge told me three times I should hire an attorney I want to hire you and I say wait he told us that three times the same hearing no three different hearings where are you in this case oh we're going to trial next week but it's a simple case it was a simple case you wouldn't need an attorney so again if you think you can save money by handling the case on your own don't be upset when we tell you how expensive is it straight in the case out later likewise if you hire a non specialist or the wrong attorney at the beginning of your case don't be surprised to find out that it's either impossible or more expensive to get another attorney to come in and straighten us out later no one wants to do that I like to start with a blank slate and get things going in my own direction and somebody says hey jump aboard here and try to straight this up for us like I said it's a thankless job I don't want it number six this one kills me and it gets every attorney every attorney is that someone say to them when we're standing at the hallway in courtroom in particular and and in the courthouse and the the client says you know something I know a guy who had this exact same charge in front of this judge and he pulled some mumbo-jumbo his attorney did and got the whole thing thrown out or I know a guy who had an attorney who had a lawsuit just like mine and he got a million dollars in a ham sandwich I mean just some crazy thing okay and people always claim that they know a guy who had an attorney or they know a guy who got out of this and it's always that friend of a friend kind of urban legend structure to the story where we know it's not true okay you didn't really know a guy who was on film while driving in a moving vehicle shooting it deer out of season who got the case thrown out of court and the judge apologized to them because somebody pulled some legal shenanigans that didn't happen didn't happen and and what I always like to say to people jokingly they go yeah I know a guy who hired a guy who who got this thing thrown out I think go hire that guy then why didn't you hire him why are you hiring me you know glider that guy and it's just people talking it's like bar talk and I don't know why people do that but they do that all the time and it's even worse when I've actually had someone tell me they say well someone told me that they knew a guy so it's they couldn't find that person they wanted to and I've also been in court before where best example a client is there like let's suppose a a you know a woman buys a car okay and the car is a lemon so we're in court on this matter and we go to court and she shows up and there's a man with her and she's oh this is my boyfriend this is Bob okay so if she wants Bob there and Bob's involved in our discussions we can sit there and talk and she and IgAN Bob can discuss things all day long it's not you know attorney-client privilege and at that I mean if she you know it allows it and I've had it happen before where as the woman there and I'm there and I'm the attorney and whenever she's talking to me she listens to me but for some odd reason when bob is there suddenly she defers to Bob and I've actually had it more than once where the other person looks at me and goes I don't know why you think you can only get this friend of mine got this you know and it can be in a lawsuit setting it can be in a in a traffic court situation where they say oh you know a friend of mine had had had just identical ticket and got it thrown out because he had a better attorney than you and I'm always like I said I'm not shy but I don't say well why didn't you guys hire him you know I mean seriously if there's this magical attorney out there who can make you you know wave his magic wand and get you whatever you're entitled to why don't you hire that person okay and again the person doesn't exist so why bring it up okay it's urban legend but for some odd reason these are the stories attorneys often hear we get told these things by our clients so the six things attorneys wish you knew I'm gonna count them down one through six like this with Casey Kasem but just the top six number one we don't write the laws so if you're upset about the laws you can talk to me about it we can discuss it but don't let me yell at your legislator because your legislator is the one who wrote the law and don't don't get me wrong I agree with you that many of the laws are cockamamie okay many of the laws should be rewritten or simply removed from the books but I don't write them it's my job to explain them to you and teach you how to use them to your advantage number two attorneys are just as frustrated by the legal systems inefficiencies as you are so when the court goes slow or the court loses documents or the court reschedule something I'm frustrated you're frustrated again you can express your frustration to me but don't blame it on me and don't think I'm happy about it because I'm not number three a good attorney cannot win a bad case as easily as a good one so if you've got a bad case understand it's going to be a bad case and there's only so much you can do with it good attorney or otherwise but it's not like hey a good attorney can salvage anything any true a good attorney can can do a better job than a bad attorney but that's not a guarantee that they can win everything because they are a good attorney number four we can't afford to work for free yeah once in a while we'll handle pro bono case once in a while I feel sorry for something I'll cut my fee once in a while I'll help you out I might write you a letter something like that but I cannot afford to drop my paying clients or my paying cases to take on some legal quandary and morass of litigation as a sympathy case simply because I've got bills to pay and overhead like any other business number five if you think you can save money by handling your own case knock yourself out but understand that might make it more difficult for another attorney to come along and salvage it later and we've all encountered that whether it's another attorney or another just a person handling their own case those cases are started by somebody else to be very very difficult for me to get in there and fix it later which might not happen so think long and hard before you decide to handle your own case and number six if you know a guy who knew a guy who got another guy off because he pulled some fancy you know Fancy Pants tricks in court hire that guy okay because that guy probably doesn't exist so those are the six things attorneys wish you knew I hope you understand them taking the art and read them before you go in and talk to your own attorney about something questions or comments is always shooting my way Latos law comm le h QX l8w comm i'm on twitter at Steve let's even ele HT o and this shows on iTunes stitcher SoundCloud pod mean Google Play and YouTube thanks for watching and listening bye-bye

Channel: Steve Lehto

Views: 122,886

Rating: 4.9302254 out of 5

Keywords: Michigan, Lemon Law, Attorney, Lawyer, Southfield, Detroit

Id: hy-z8g30UB4

Length: 18min 18sec (1098 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 17 2017