Lawyers and lawyers constantly get a bad rap from the public opinion. Why is that? Most lawyers are just people with a profession like you who just want to make honest money. Just because a small part represents large corporate interests that are unpopular, the general public has demonized them. I hope to bring you in this article some of the myths about lawyers that are constantly being passed by word of mouth without any facts to back them up. Lawyers are one of the cornerstones of business, if we didn’t have them, the criminals would go free and the innocent would be executed.
1. All lawyers are sharks – The truth is, they are in a very competitive business that requires heated debate as a hallmark. Some go so far as to manipulate circumstances to appear as they wish or to force higher settlements, but that’s a small group. There are thieves in America, but do we assume that all Americans are thieves? Most attorneys are honest men and women trying to make a difference in the legal systems of their communities.
2. Lawyers are overpaid: Lawyers are often paid much less than their services. The average court case requires much more than what you see in the courtroom. Legal documentation can be one of the most tedious reads ever, it can take a long time to go through it and make sure nothing has been missed. Before setting foot in court, they have to interview you, draw up a report for the judge, outline your case, and review all the legal documentation and evidence. Typically this equates to hundreds of hours – even a hamburger flipper would make a few thousand dollars for that amount of time and effort.
3. Lawyers try to take cases: this is completely person-to-person and exists in every industry, your mechanic does it, your employees do it, and so on. Most lawyers have so many cases that solving them all quickly would be refreshing, often they have finished dozens of other cases before they can put together a summary for a complicated one. Most of the time this is not due to malice or greed, but because the case is very complex and requires many legal hurdles to be circumvented.
4. All good lawyers are loud and noisy: This is not always the case, much of the “magic” they do is paperwork and hours of intense study. The news has sensationalized the image of the lawyer striking his fists and almost committing contempt to achieve true justice. The true crusaders in the never-ending litigation battle do most of their work in the quiet of their offices. Many times they don’t even have half an hour to talk about their case. His passion for justice and his clients’ cases is excellent, but it is not always exemplified in boisterous natures.
5. All Attorneys Hate Each Other: Sometimes, on motions at a court hearing, one of the attorneys is succinctly defeated in a way that damages his reputation. This causes you to lose business and, in turn, revenue. This will provoke animosity in any industry, but it does not mean that all lawyers burn their bridges, if that were true there would be no firms or partnerships. Often times, the nature of the legal system causes many attorneys to work together in many settings and then face each other as opposition the next year. There is a certain camaraderie among lawyers in most large cities. They are competitors in the same way that sports stars are, when the most played games have no hard feelings about who won or lost, it is the fans who get mad at each other, just as clients do at attorneys.
6. All lawyers have roughly the same training – This is completely untrue and makes it appear that only experience makes a lawyer competent. In reality, the situation is much more complicated than it seems, a probate or probate attorney will not necessarily be a competent defense attorney. Also, the location and available resources largely determine how well educated an attorney is when they leave law school. If they lived in an area with a large population and many seminaries, they are likely better trained than someone who practices in a small town. Also, the laws change so frequently that age can even cause a problem because they can function on the basis of old laws.
7. You don’t need a lawyer, wrong. The insurance industry wants us to believe that attorneys are an unnecessary hindrance in the legal system; they just want to keep more of their settlement money. They have entire divisions within their companies designed to reduce payments to the minimum necessary. Even outside of that, some people think that taking responsibility for executing your own defense is smart. Do you honestly think you know the legalities of our complicated system better than someone who deals with it on a daily basis? An attorney will have resources and information that will not be readily available or obvious to the common citizen.
8. If I already have an offer, I do not want a lawyer: Some people find that they do not want to speak to a lawyer once they see the sum of money being offered, for fear that the lawyer will accept a large part. After all, the common fee is more than 1/3, but with an attorney on your side, your settlement offer may be much higher. You will often not make claims for items because you are not sure if you qualify legally, a good personal injury attorney will be lost to find those items and most of the time makes the amount increased much higher than the original offer.
9. Insurance rates are going up due to lawsuits: this is being painted in a bad light, of course insurance rates are going up, but that is not the fault of the lawyer, it is the high profit margins that he demands. the insurance industry causing this. increasing rate. Frivolous lawsuits are not caused by attorneys but by the lawsuits and deception of their clients. Insurance companies will use whatever factor they can to justifiably raise rates, and legal costs are an easy scapegoat.
10. Trial lawyers charge by the hour: Some lawyers charge an hourly rate, but this is far from standard practice, there is a precedent that was set only decades after the founding of our country that made it possible for anyone to obtain representation by paying a percentage of your award at the end of the trial. They do this at great risk, they could end up spending months fighting a case that their client lied to them about and not making money for their hard work.
One industry or another designed these myths, they benefit from your fear of approaching a lawyer. These industries make huge profits by cutting legal fees from your budget, if they can make you fear a lawyer, when they tell you they think you don’t need one, you will listen. The worst thing you can do is decide not to seek legal representation, your opponents will not be such a fool, although many industries tell you not to get an attorney, they will always use the services of an attorney for themselves. Lawyers are normal people with a complicated profession, no different from many professions. They are providing a valuable service, and for my part, I don’t want to have to read every article of the law regarding broken ankle on a college campus if such a situation were to occur. So do not fear them, consult them for advice wisely as you would any expert in any particular field.