Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Misconceptions...

I am really tired of people complaining that "My lawyer talked to the other lawyer! S/He can't do that! I told him not to speak with the other side unless I was present."

Yes, Yes I can. In fact, that is WHY you hired a lawyer- to talk to the other side on your behalf. And no, you don't need to be there- you need to shut up and sit down and I will come and tell you what the proposed settlement is and then you will tell me what you do and don't like about the proposal and I will tell you what the law is and we will craft a new proposal and I will go back to the other lawyer and we will repeat the process until an agreement is reached or a stalemate is clear.

Oddly enough former spouse did this exact thing... And he is a lawyer. When he filed "something to get the divorce paperwork started, but I didn't file for divorce. And no I don't have a copy of what was filed. My lawyer just drafted something." I asked for his attorney's name so I could figure out what he filed, because what he said made no sense- you don't file something to get it started- you file for divorce. And my former spouse said, "You can't talk to my lawyer!"

And I laughed in his face. "You've got to be kidding me!" I said, "That's why you hire an attorney." And he acted confused, like he didn't understand.

"Because that's why you hire a lawyer so the lawyers or lawyer and other party can talk." I tried, but not very hard, to not sound like I was speaking to a 2 year old. "C'mon' we covered this in the first year of Law School. Duh."

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