If people did what they were supposed to do we would have to get real jobs, and they would probably involve manual labor. Maddog often says this to remind us where some of our clients are coming from. Ommmmm.
Friday I received a call from another attorney, JS. JS had an old client come in to see him to help him address some Court papers he received. Now, in the United States, you have a constitutional right to be told why you are being summoned to Court. This is because when we were merely a Colony, Britain did have not to tell you why you were being arrested and these Secret Bills angered a lot of people, so when they wrote the constitution they gave us the right to know the charges against us. There are some duties attached to these rights-- like you have to file an Answer to the charges against you or a Default could be taken.
When I serve papers on people, I (and all lawyers) attach a sheet of paper that says something like: "The papers attached to this paper are important. You must file an answer to these papers within 30 days (14 in District Court) and appear on this date at this time in front of Judge Blank, or a Default judgment could be taken against you." Really, its in bold 14 point type. I also serve interrogatories on all my Child Support nonpayers. Interrogatories are questions to help me make sure there are no legal reasons you haven't been paying Child Support. (Once, I actually got, "I was in the mental hospital" in response to "reasons for not paying" Okey dokey, there's a reason. ) I put in bold 20 point font at the top of these: Please read and answer these questions.
I am not trying to be subtle here, or sneaky.
Now. Lets guess what percentage of those whom I serve with these papers actually read and answer the Complaint OR the Interrogatories?
3%, maybe less.
Which is why I was actually surprised to hear from this attorney. His client, and I have the papers to prove it, was served in NOVEMBER with the papers. Court is scheduled for Tuesday (February 8). Client has not made a payment since last April. The second notice to appear went out January 18. Naturally, he goes to see his attorney FRIDAY , February 4.
Client has found a job. Yay! Guess when he has to be there? No, No, really- guess!
Tuesday when he is to be in Court. WHY? WTF?
I agree with attorney to actually be in Court at 3:30, not 1:30 so client can go to work first but I refuse to put it off because, well, I feel that that would be rewarding procrastination by the Client. Attorney is cool with that since he already has to be there, and I would always give the attorney a continuance or Client if there was a real reason.
Ok, lets go over this people: Blowing off Court is not on par with blowing off your friends. You get 1 notice, no excuses. We're not gonna call you and remind you that its important.
Why am I telling you? I KNOW you would be there, and would have called your attorney the DAY you received the papers, or as soon as you realized you were headed into something legal! You wouldn't, say, call her on a Friday afternoon when she was in a CLE and your house closing was melting down and you had already paid to put new hardwood floors in the home you wanted to buy before signing the deal and say, "Arrrggg! This other attorney is charging us thousands and he keeps screwing everything up and now the sellers are demanding more money to close just because we didn't close when we promised we would! What do I do????"
Would you? Nah. Not my friends. : ) Not my Bestest friend in the whole wide world. Nah. UnUnh, it isn't gonna happen.
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