» Entries tagged with "Clients"

Calling You Out, Brian Sloan And “The Arizona DUI Team”

As much as I value the information they can provide and respect many of my colleagues who participate in them, I don’t belong to any of the local lawyer listservs. I quickly tire of people bragging about wins, and I find that the ones who brag the most tend to paint less than complete pictures of what really happened. There are occasionally other sorts of misinformation too. Plus, I hate needless drama. It’s exhausting. Earlier today, someone brought to my attention a perfect example of why I’m not involved in listservs. Here it is, a message to a DUI lawyer listserv from lawyer Brian Sloan, who apparently leads “The Arizona DUI Team” (make sure you capitalize the “The,” apparently), trying to “call out” an excellent lawyer … Read entire article »

Filed under: Uncategorized

Have Desperate And Ethically Questionable But Possibly Jewish Lawyers Fight For Your Case Now!

I often brag to my tech-savvy friends, “I have a Twitter.” I’m actually not kidding. It’s the place to find out what I have for dinner once or twice a year or to click through to my new blog posts if you don’t already know the URL or are unfamiliar with the antiquated concept of RSS. Anyway, someone or something called @BernieSez followed me a little while back, and the notification included this description: “Take a picture of your traffic ticket and receive bids from lawyers to handle your case.” Curious in a train-wreck-watching sort of way, I clicked through and saw it was like a number of other ethically-questionable, lawyer-demeaning sites where the desperate among us spend money to bid on table scraps. It’s sad, but … Read entire article »

Filed under: Marketing

Why It Sometimes Sucks (And Then Doesn’t…Sorta)

It’s often hard to explain the little reasons it can sometimes suck being a defense attorney, so I figured I’d strike while the iron is hot and write about something that happened recently. It should highlight one tiny little reason why the job can suck. It should also highlight why the job doesn’t just suck all the time, but is more of a roller coaster of suck and not-suck. A couple of weeks ago, I had a settlement conference in a case. The goal was to see if the parties could reach an agreement. The prosecutor and judge were both great to deal with, and my client was very reasonable. He was facing a harsh mandatory minimum prison sentence and understood by the end that he … Read entire article »

Filed under: Practice in General

Gee Whiz, Referrals!

An email arrived last Monday from Lawyer.com with the title “Potential Client – Action Requested by Tuesday 9.00 AM.” Adrian forwarded the one he got to me shortly afterwards with a message saying “blog fodder?” I really didn’t want to write about it, but I now feel compelled. Apparently, the “Lawyer.com Listing” I didn’t know I had “generated a Potential Criminal Client.” Clicking through took me to a page where information about the “client” was posted. It was someone with questions about something old on his criminal record, and he wanted a consultation. I would’ve ignored it had I not gotten another one. The second one was from a family member of another potential “client” and provided the guy’s full name and jail location as well as … Read entire article »

Filed under: Marketing

Why The Work Never Ends

I started work today with the best intentions. I had a list of what I had to accomplish along with a realistic plan of attack. After I sat down and finished my first task, a call came in: CLIENT: A detective came to see me and I pled guilty ME: What? CLIENT: It’s an emergency. I pled guilty. ME: You mean you confessed? CLIENT: Yeah, I pled guilty. I told him all the other stuff I did. ME: Did you say you had a lawyer? CLIENT: No, I just talked to him. He read me my rights and stuff. ME: Why did you talk to him? CLIENT: I don’t know. We’re gonna need to add the new charges to the current plea. ME: What new charges are there going to be? CLIENT: It doesn’t matter, … Read entire article »

Filed under: Clients

Just Callin’ To Chat

I often get emails with convoluted stories that appear to have nothing to do with criminal defense. For instance, the sender will discuss her sick dad, her faith, and her wicked stepmother. There will be no obvious relevance to my line of work, but when I call, I will invariably speak with an individual charged with embezzling funds from her dad’s savings account and assaulting his new wife but who couldn’t have possibly done it because she’s a pillar of the mega-church she attends whenever she isn’t in the custody of the department of corrections for various financial and violent crimes. I’m making up the example, obviously, but reality isn’t all that different a lot of the time. One recent message and the ensuing conversation left me really … Read entire article »

Filed under: Clients

Quit Making Me Write About You, Avvo

I’ve written far too much about Avvo already, but they went and did it again. After claiming my profile to “earn” a super awesome perfect 10 (Look at me! I’m special!), the emails started pouring in. I immediately became desensitized to the spam about webinars and musings from all kinds of brilliant “lawyers” who are far too smart to do dirty work like practicing law, but something else finally caught my attention. A recent email had the grabbing subject line of “New Case Notification: A traffic ticket case has just been posted.” I hadn’t asked to receive anything of the sort, and as I read the email, I wished I hadn’t. It wasn’t really a traffic ticket at all, but someone charged with a criminal offense. … Read entire article »

Filed under: Marketing

It’s Lonely Being Perfect

I set aside a few hours on several different days during my recent hike to make sure everything was okay back at the firm. On those partial “work” days, I mostly made sure my clients were happy and everything was going as planned in their cases. I returned calls from a few prospective clients as well. At first, the prospective clients would leave polite messages. They’d ask that I call them back at my convenience, acknowledging that my voice mail greetings said I would have limited availability until May. A few wished me well on my walk and said they’d be contacting Adrian because time was of the essence. What nice people I get to meet sometimes. At some point after climbing onto the Colorado Plateau, however, … Read entire article »

Filed under: Clients, Practice in General

Food for Thought

A few Fridays ago, I spent the day in a very short jury trial. In that one short day, I was given more food for thought than I ever could have imagined. Between dawn and dusk, I strengthened a few existing beliefs, reconsidered many more, and even managed to drink a beer or two afterwards while trying to make sense of what happened. Here’s what I learned… You are entitled to a jury trial in an Arizona reckless driving case I initially told my client that I didn’t think he was actually eligible for a jury trial in a case involving a single count of class 2 misdemeanor reckless driving. I didn’t even believe he was actually going to get one when he showed me his hand-written pro … Read entire article »

Filed under: Prosecutors, Trial

Getting Internet “Clients”

I’m a big deal. I have a blog. The ABA even gave me a little badgy thingy despite the fact I placed last. Regardless, I’m a badass. Check out what my enduring internet fame has given me: Is my plea going to get better? Do prosecutors quit giving offers after it’s set for trial? And this: Can I possess a firearm? Or have a look at this one: The police are at my door. I’m in New Jersey. What do I do? Need free advice ASAP. No money, LOL. I’m making these up, of course, but the real ones are worse. Trust me. Sadly, these types of messages are the fruits of my labors. I’m no Eric Mayer of Unwashed Advocate fame (have a listen here), … Read entire article »

Filed under: Marketing, Practice in General

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