Burton Hunter's Letter to New Clients

Letter to New Clients

 

From: Burton Hunter

 

Dear New Client:

 

1.      For many years, we have been refining our process of representing clients.

 

2.      Whether you are here for a family law matter, a serious injury claim, a dispute with family or neighbors, or mediation, we stick with fundamentals. We need your help in doing that.

 

3.      When we build a sound foundation for your case, we increase the chances of success.

 

4.      Here they are:

 

a.      Tell Mr. Hunter the truth. Don’t leave out key facts, even false accusations against you, so Mr. Hunter can protect you. Even shading the truth slightly can cause Mr. Hunter to make a mistake in the pleadings (Papers alleging facts on your behalf.), his statements to the court, or his advice to you.

 

b.      Telling Mr. Hunter the truth allows him to assess your strengths and weaknesses and help inoculate you from the other side’s tactics.

 

c.      You have full access to Mr. Hunter’s writings at the blogs “Perspectives of a Small Town Lawyer”, www.burtonhunteresq.blogspot.com , and “WV Lawyer, Tips and Techniques”. He will share articles, forms, and statutes that you need, but feel free to use the blogs’ “search feature” to look up subjects such as custody, alimony, insurance coverages, personal injury, damages, equitable distribution, adoption, and many more.

 

d.      Mr. Hunter has proprietary forms for you to fill out in divorce and personal injury cases. They require you do some real work. Finding time to get the records, make the calls, and do the research will pay big dividends.

 

e.      All family cases, divorces, modifications, custody, child support, and contempt usually require your last 3-5 years of tax returns and financial affidavits of your income, debts and property.

 

f.       All cases require you to identify with precision the people, documents (paper and digital and video), events, places, and things that make up your case.

 

                                                       i.      We will give you sets of three worksheets. I MUST figure out how to get clients to do a better job filling out our forms! If you have a problem with literacy, tell us! A family or friend will help, and our staff will go over them with you before you meet with me.

 

                                                     ii.      The average person does a poor job realizing how many people have a connection with your case; grandparents, spouse, former spouse, significant other, lawyers, judges, teachers, youth coaches, neighbors, extended family, etc.

 

                                                    iii.      “Documents” in this modern age include scanned documents, e-mails, texts, Face Book posts, accounts balances, smartphone screenshots, tax records, appraisals, tax tickets.

 

                                                    iv.      Events, places, and physical objects may also be key, such as former residences, property of the marriage, injuries, medical records, threats, acts of abuse, collisions, prior injuries, or insurance coverages. Facts, facts, facts!

 

5.      They say there are no “dumb questions”, but there are questions that wear me out:

 

a.      “Whose side are you on anyway!?” I am on YOUR side, which is why you will see me being polite and as candid as is possible with our opponents. This may mean conceding the validity of their complaint against you, asking you about accusation, or asking you to collect information requested by the other side.

 

b.      “Why do you bill me for time spent talking to my spouse?” The Rules of Professional Responsibility require me to deal with the our opponent. If they have no lawyer, I have to deal with them. I cannot tell you how many hundreds of times my putting up with rudeness and distrust has helped my client’s case. So, of course I will communicate with your spouse, angry neighbor, or crazy uncle, in an effort to protect your interests.

 

c.      Accusatory #1: “That call didn’t take .1 hr. (six minutes).” I bill in increments of tenths of an hour. Some lawyers deal in quarter hour increments. I rely heavily on e-mail. I usually review my “in” e-mails, and assign .1 hr. to an e-mail and reply. Please realize that the e-mail usually gets me to do something, reply, forward, check my calendar, walk across the room. Those actions forward your case. I tend to copy several of my staff. The billing clerk does her thing, as does the paralegal, scheduling clerk, and receptionist. Like it or not, I find it a fair and reasonable method of “keeping score”.

 

d.      Accusatory #2: “You just don’t understand.” With 40+ years’ experience and 5000 cases, 3000 of which were family law, I usually DO understand. I have gathered much more information than you realize, and assessed you and your problem, and know your “sly” spouse who can con anyone, but can’t con me.

 

e.   If you have told me something 5-6 times, and I have assured you, I HEARD YOU! Don't expect me to have photographic memory. That's why I organize, organize. Don't be offended if I ask for a reminder. By sure, if it is important, it is on one of your lists!

 

          f. "Why do we have to follow the rules when 'they' won't?" I get this question often, especially during the         "discovery" phase where other side has done everything it can to "hide the ball" with the help of their lawyer. We answer honestly and follow the rules because that is how I was raised and how you should have been raised. Lawyers are officers of the court who have taken an oath to follow the rules. Answering fully helps us to prepare our case. Answering truthfully helps when the Court has to determine the credibility of the parties and their witnesses. Lying or cheating because "they do" lowers you to their level. Why follow "their" example? And, I almost forgot, "You might get caught!"

 

g.      The key is ANSWER the narrowly focused early questions I ask you, gather the information I ask for, and ORGANIZE your story into a concise set of “objects” and “lists” that I ask for. Then we create the “timeline” of events.

 

6.      Communication:

 

a.      The preliminary telephone chat; first with my staff, and then with me, is critical. I can size up the situation in 15-20 minutes, answer your key questions and quote a fee. You have probably already passed that test, and we have passed yours.

 

b.      We are getting more inquiries via our Findlaw website, www.hunterlawfirm.net . I will respond as quickly as I can, but sometimes you get stuck in my spam filter for a day or two, so remember the trusty telephone, 304 472-7477.

 

c.      I have mentioned that we rely heavily on e-mail. If you have an e-mail account you check regularly, you are likely to have a case move more smoothly.

 

d.      ONE RULE: call or write any time if it is urgent (my home number is 304 472-5644), but please try not to call me at home. My great strength is my happy life, which includes downtime for hobbies, interests, and family.

 

e.      Please try NOT to hit “send” between 5:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. By 9:30 p.m., I will be ready and getting ready to snooze. Most days I will note your e-mail by the following 6:00 a.m., and be in the office by 7:00 p.m.

 

f.       READ your fee agreement or engagement letter. Then reread it. Most contingency cases will not generate monthly billing statements, but I track even that time will promptly provide a statement if asked.

 

g.      We bill regularly but not every month for every case. When in doubt, call and speak with Nancy, who will answer your questions or get answers from me.

 

h.      TELL US if you are becoming inpatient or unhappy but please try to have reasonable expectations. I will answer all questions. If I have made a mistake, I will note it, apologize, and move on. If you make a mistake, I will try to minimize recrimination and move forward constructively. Neither of us should expect perfection from the other.

 

i.        Attached to this form is a “legal checklist”; much of it may seem superfluous in light of a pending crisis, but put this away and review it for your long term legal health.

 

j.        We will work hard to meet, and exceed, your expectations.

 

Thank you for retaining our services.

 

J. Burton Hunter III

Why Play by the Rules?

The  movie drunk with the knife once famously said to  actor Paul Newman,  "There ain't no rules in a knife fight!". Paul's character had asked him, the much larger man holding the knife, who was getting ready for the barroom brawl, for "the rules", and upon getting that answer, Paul's character kicked the drunk in the balls and picked up the knife, ending the fight.

The practice of law has rules.

"Mr. Hunter, why do you insist I answer "discovery questions" posed by the other side,  when the other side does everything to avoid answering ours?"

This is a fair question that I am frequently asked. It reminds me of my sons' high school soccer days when we could see other team's coaches were teaching the grabbing of jerseys and overreacting to slight fouls, and how World Cup soccer players faked injuries late in games. 

And then there are the Barry Bonds, Lance Armstrongs, Tiger Woods, and Roger Clemons of the world. Tiger's new Nike ad says, "Winning Cures Everything." Does it?

More simply put, "Why follow the rules when the other guy is cheating (and seems to be getting away with it) ?

Recently, in the State Bar Journal, WV Supreme Court Chief Justice Menis Ketchum II posed the problem as follows:
 

In the waning years of my four decades of law practice, and in the last three years reviewing appellate records, it has become apparent to me that a perverse culture of obstruction has developed regarding pusillanimous interrogaory objections and prefatory instructions. This culture condones and encourages lawyers to rely on the discovery process (the way lawyers obtain information from the other side under the "discovery rules" of the WV Rules of Civil procedure.) as a means of abusing an opponent. The strategy of many lawyers is "give as little as possible so [your opponent] will have to come back and back and back and maybe will go away or give up. These lawyers will do anything to keep from having to appear in front of a jury.

 

Justice Ketchem goes on to dissect the behavior of the lawyers who are part of this culture. I agree with him completely, and have written about "Disengenuous Lawyers" and "Short-sighted Lawyers" in this blog.

 

My answer to my client is:

 

1. By answering the questions completely, and reserving only privileged or confidential material, the other side is helping us to prepare our case, and we are showing the other side that we have a strong one. Acting like  you have something to hide just motivates the other side to dig harder.

 

2. And, as silly as it may sound to my cynical colleagues who want to win at any cost, I am an officer of the Court who has taken an oath to respect the Court and its rules. That's what I intend to do.

 

3. I explain to my client that this abusive behavior is the very behavior that caused the divorce or controversy in the first place, and that lowering ourselves to the other side's level is not the best course of action.  

 

4. I promise my client that if the other side is foolish enough to take us on in a contested trial, I will punish them, within the rules, for the way they have behaved. The Court is the referee, and if the referee sees a cheater, he knows how to deal with him, most of the time anyway.

5. I also persistently and consistently follow the rules in working to get the other side to give us what we are entitled to, costing that party money and grief until he gives us what we ask or the Court can see  he is hiding it.

 

The "discovery rules" require the other side to answer most reasonable questions. An objection based on "relevance" does not allow the other side to refuse to answer, although the lawyer "culture" described by Justice Ketchum does just that.

 

A partial or incomplete answer is a failure to answer, but try to convince my  "disengenuous" colleagues of this.

 

A claim not to have a document that the party can readily get from his employer or bank or credit card company is a refusal to answer.

 

Some lawyers are just too lazy to push the client to get the answers or the documents. Some do not care. And some, quite frankly, are cheaters.

 

Perhaps you think one of those cheaters will be better for you, but remember this:

 

1. The cheater will cheat you. Why do people who have affairs with married people think that person will be faithful to them? I never understood this.

 

2. The cheater does not care about you, or your children, or your family, or the greater good. The cheater cares about.............the cheater of course.  

A Small Town Lawyer's Reading List

I have been asked to present a 50 minute seminar on the topic of Law Office Technology.

I started to compile a list of books that I have used, over the last ten years or so, as the foundation of my understanding of the modern world. It is more a bibliography than anything that a particular lawyer needs to read on a particular day.

I have mentioned some of these books in prior postings, and they definitely are with me when I write anything. Some are easier reads than others, but they are solid writings, by Pulitzer Prize and Nobel prize winners. All that are rated on Amazon are four stars or better. Here they are:

1.1. Reading list:

1.1.1.       Night, by Elie Weisel; 120 pages by the Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. "A slim volume of terrible power." New York Times.

1.1.2.       Future Shock; by Alvin Toffler; a must for anyone wanting to understand the modern world; $01  used at Amazon; $.99 from Kindle;

1.1.3.       Anything by Asimov, Heinlein, Silverburg, Clark, etc. They gave me perspective

1.1.4.       What Technology Wants: Kevin Kelley (The formula? 60% of new technology is positive, and 40% is negative. That comports with my experience.)

1.1.5.       The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World; Matthew Stewart

1.1.6.      The Clockwork Universe, Isaac Newton, the Royol Society, and the Birth of the Modern World

1.1.7.      The Song of the Dodo: Island Bio-geography in an Age of Extinctions by David Quammen

2.2.8.1 Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed: Revised Edition; Jared Diamond

2.2.8.1 Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond

1.1.8.     The End of Lawyers, Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services, Richard Suskind (boring, boring, boring! I do not see this impacting our world in WV, except on short term such as "LegalZoom.com". )

1.1.9.     The Social Media Bible, Tactics, Tools & Strategies for Business Success, Lon Safko and David K. Brake. (My version is 2009; new version May, 2012; very comprehensive, 800 pages, but not a "how to" book.

1.1.10.  The Myth of the Paperless Office, Abegail J. Sellen and Richard H.R. Harper (2003, also outdated, but it defines the challenge.  The basic premise, "paper-less", remains true.")

1.1.11.  Scrolling Forward, David M. Levy, also outdated 2001,  but a favorite of mine. Contains a history of the document.

1.1.12.  Thinking Fast and Slow; Daniel Kahneman; a tough read by a Nobel Prize winning economist/mathematician on how our thinking tends not to comport with reality.

1.1.13.  The Map that Changed the World; William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology; (The creator and creation of the first geological map of Great Britain.)

1.1.14.  The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time; Johathan Weiner: a great little primer on evolution, and how it works in our time.

1.1.15.  How the Scots Invented the Modern World: "The True Story of How  Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It", by Arthur Herman.

1.1.16.  Small Pieces Loosely Joined; "A Unified Theory of the Web", by David Weinberger. 2002. It helped me get a handle of this amazing thing, "The World Wide Web".

1.1.17.  Defenders of the Faith, "Christianity and Islam Battle For the Soul of Europe (Suliman and Charles V, Henry the VIIIth and Pope Clement), by James Reston, Jr. A gift from my wife Nancy. Some roots of the conflict of Islam, Christianity, and the world.

1.1.18.  bird by bird, by Ann Lamott; a great little book; "Some Instructions on Writing and Life".

1.1.19.  Effective Time Management; by Lothar Seiwert and Holger Woeltje. I good tutorial and reminder of office time management based on Microsoft Outlook.

1.1.20.  Edwin Newman on Language, Strictly Speaking and A Civil Tongue; Old school but great stuff; no "hopefully" or "healthy food".

1.1.21.  The Metaphysical Club, A Story of Ideas in America, by Louis Menand, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. The story of the American thinkers of the Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., John Dewey, and many other American thinkers of the 19th century.

 

If this isn't enough, controversial writings of the anti-religionists (atheists/skeptics), Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins argue, a tad arrogantly, for rational thought and against superstition, and are always entertaining, and the books of Malcolm Gladwell, such as The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, are thought provoking but not necessarily scientifically confirmed.

Anything by Bill Bryson is entertaining and informative, especially "A Short History of Nearly Everything".

Finally, for a whopping big novel, Charles Dickens' Bleak House. Also, The Checklist Manefesto, which makes the case for checklists in nearly any human endeavor, and the story of cancer, The Emperor of Maladies. I could go on, and probably will. Happy reading.

What If I Hire a Divorce Lawyer

I was tempted to cover my family law, personal injury, and civil trial practice in one article. That will not work. They are different, and deserve their own space, as does the mediation process.

Today, I focus on the process of hiring me and achieving your "fresh start" in life via divorce. For reference, you may want to read "Divorce 101 - Handout, Oct 5. 20111 - http://tinyurl.com/b4h7ggw .

Here is how it goes:

1. I WILL discuss your case with you, in some detail, over the phone. I like to chat. I am good at it. I can answer questions. I am willing to take the risk of the cynical person who calls around just to knock a lawyer out of a potential case by a conflict. Some day I may change, but for now you can have 10-20 minutes of my time and a quotation of my fee over the phone.

2. I have 5-10 questions to ask you before you get to "tell your story", such as:

a, What county?;
b. Length of marriage?;
c. Number and age of children?;
d. Serious issues of fitness, substance abuse, physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse, or danger?:
e. Assuming parents are fit, what was the approximate share of the "caretaking functions" each parent provided the child/ren during the one year period and two year period prior to separation? This is a big one;
f. Type of property? Real estate? Personal property? Property acquired during the marriage? And property acquired by inheritance or by gift from someone outside of the marriage?;
g. Values of the property?;
h. Amount and nature of your debts? Is it secured by property? Or is it unsecured?;
i. What is the caller's main immediate problem or concern?;
k. Is there an alternative to a divorce; and,
l.  Has either party already filed?

3. From there,  we can move to a range of issues. Whether you can afford a lawyer?; how long to obtain your retainer?; are you hoping to move away or keep a spouse from moving with the children?; are you in immediate danger?; is there a pending domestic violence petition, a DV order, or a pending criminal charge, a girlfriend, or boyfriend, etc.?

4. If you will answer those questions, I will quote a retainer, usually one that is sufficient to get us through settlement negotiations or mediation. 80% of cases settle at that stage.

5. I will quote an up front retainer. Part of that retainer is based on an hourly fee and part on my experience, discounts, and other factors. Typical retainers are $1050; $2050; $2850; $3500; or $5000. I will quote the fee, based on my experience, by number and seriousness of the pending issues.

6. $1050 of my fee is a consultation fee/retainer with a built in discount for all but the simplest cases. As an example, let's pick the middle rate of $2850. I usually agree that no further fee will be charged unless we go over, in combined services and costs, $3350. After that, I usually agree to discount my hourly rate by 25%, or at least $50 per hour.

7. That "double discount", the $500 cushion and the reduced hourly rate, and my vast experience, and other factors, entitle me to have the minimum consultation fee of $1050 to be non-refundable.

8. In other words:

a. If I do $1850 worth of services and costs, you get a $1000 refund;
b. If I do $2850 worth of services and costs, you are charged $2850; no refund due;
c. If I do $3350 worth of services and costs, the $2850 retainer covers it;
d. If I do $5000 worth of services and costs, at my usual rate of $200/hr. (but probably soon to increase a bit), you pay the $2850 plus, less $500 for the first discount, less 25% of the unpaid balance, which equals $4085.50 paid for $5000 in services and costs. Get it? If not, read this paragraph again.

9. It sounds a bit complicated, but clients understand it.  We reduce the fee agreement it to writing and give the client a copy. Clients appreciate the "double discount" and my willingness to "share the pain" if the case does not settle.

10. In the office, for our first interview, we spend around two hours together.

11. I educate you on the law.

12. I ascertain more essential facts.

13. I share with your my proprietary, and the WV Supreme Court's mandated, intake forms. (I give you the "worksheets" described in my blog post "More About Organizing Your Case"; http://tinyurl.com/ctcvsew   .

14. These forms create the structure that let's me identify the people, documents, things, events, and places that make up your case.

15. We put together a game plan:

a. We decide where will you stay after you file?;
b. Will you tell your spouse ahead of time?;
c. What do you do under certain contingencies?;
d. Do you need a safety plan?; or to file a domestic violence petition?
e. Will there be a "tug of war" over the children;
f. Then, you are assigned "home work". The better job you do, the more savings you will have. The more work you do, the less you have to pay the lawyer.  Be prepared to work in order to protect yourself, your rights, and your children.

16. At the end of that first interview, the client often says, "I feel much better now." And so he or she should feel. They have a plan and an attorney with the staff, facilities, and experience to help them carry out that plan.
 
17. Sometimes it is a "piece of cake", or the lawyer makes it look that way. At other times, it is "a war". My opponents should know that they do not want a war with me. I have the scars to show I can fight hard and fair for a just result.

If you have read this far, you have a very accurate picture of what it is like to hire me as your lawyer. Once the facts are collected, settlement overtures made, temporary issues addressed, mediation scheduled and attended, and even a trial conducted, you will ready for the next challenges in your life as a single person!









 
 

Fundamental Precautions

Folks; I am well aware that I sound like a nanny, but that's what you are paying me for, or would pay me if I were your lawyer.

This is for free. Please try to imagine; you are laid up at home, can't go to work, wheelchair in corner, lying in that recliner, with your arm in a cast in traction and your leg in a large metal brace. Your spouse is frazzled and anxious.

You can't get the noise of the collision out of your head. Nor can you forget the $80,000 of medical bills you have received, much, or all, of which is not covered by a medical insurance.

If you are "lucky", you were hit by a Fed Ex truck.  In such cases, caused by the driver of a commercial vehicle, you may receive something close to "full reimbursement", IF you have a good lawyer.

But, if you are "unlucky", you were hit by someone with little or no insurance. In WV the per person liability minimum requirements are $20,000. Compare that to this hypothetical with a claim value of $200,000 - $1,000,000 depending on lost income and permanency.

Of course, in such cases, you turn to your own insurance carrier. How can it help? Because  you can purchase "uninsured coverage", "U.M.", (it is mandatory you carry at least $20,000 per person), or underinsurance , "U.I.M."(which you can waive).

Let's say the other guy has $20,000 in per person liability coverage. That's almost nothing.

You tell your sales agent, and she breaks it to you that there is a "Bias Waiver" in your file where you waived underinsured coverage. You are screwed.

You are going to lose your job, your house, your savings, your retirement, and maybe that beloved spouse. Talk about "picking up the pieces". There are hardly any pieces.


I refer you to my earlier blog posts. Search for "insurance" or "coverage" or "umbrella". The solution? Up your UM and UIM coverage, and if you can afford an "extra $200", bet a personal umbrella but MAKE SURE the agent offers you UM and UIM coverage. In at least one extreme case, the agent did not and we had to recover under the agent's "errors and omissions" coverage.

Our state Delegate, Bill Hamilton, is co-sponsoring a bill this year to increase minimum coverages. I support it, but the real solution is to purchase the insurance protection you can afford, and realize you cannot afford not to!

Reflections Upon A Working Vacation

For those of you who only follow this blog, a lot more has been happening than shows up here:

1. On February 18, I posted a piece to my blog "WV Lawyer - Tips and Techniques", discussing my working vacation, goals, and challenges;

2. Last year my aim was to complete my blog book, same title as this blog, and upload it to Blogspot, which I did.

3. My goals this year were unrealistic, but here is what I did:

a. Completed the aforesaid blog article;

b. Completed revised Pathagoras Templates for divorce petitions and counter-petitions.

c. Learned the new blogging platform for my Findlaw website www.hunterlawfirm.net and carefully copied and upgraded 8-10 of my best blog articles.

e. I learned to optimize the articles by "tagging" them with appropriate key words, category, etc.

f. I added new photos and illustrations, many of which were my own photographs.

g. I attended two hearings remotely, dictated several documents using Dragon, and e-mailed them to the office, and fielded and responded to, dozens and dozens of e-mails. The staff finally figured out I was not going to call someone back or try to reel in a new client, and took on the responsibility of doing those things for me. Thanks staff!

h. Spent hour after hour with the person I love to be with more than any on earth.

i. Ate, ate, ate, and ate. We learned one thing well. The American food industry has developed a sophisticated web of inducements, pricing, portion manipulation, and marketing to assure we will eat too much of the wrong thing.

j. Salads end up with cheese and bacon;  everything has lots of added salt; portions are gargantuan, and the things you can grab and eat at a drive through are almost always bad for you. This fried fish platter included over a lb. of fish, claw, and fries.

k.. We accept full responsibility, but it will take 3-4 weeks just to return to where we were before we left. After I lose that 8 lb., I have the 20 left I was working on. Back to Mandy Engberg's Yogalosophy and long walks with Duffy.

l. After leisurely sleeping in until 8:00 a.m., Nancy began to charge around, restoring order to our word, and I am spending an entire day with Pathagoras, trying to finish the project I started, of doubling the forms and features I need for document assembly.

m. Bottom line? I highly recommend to my clients and colleagues that you get away whenever possible. If you can leave it all behind, so that. If you can explore a new world, such as Hawaii, Ireland, or Egypt, or Israel, to that.

But, if the only way you can justify to yourself a break away from the routine is a "working vacation", I strongly recommend that you to so.

 And I can't think of anywhere better than Savannah, Amelia Island, or Jekyl, or St. Simons, as the quiet, comfortable, place to do so.

Why Do You Bring Your Client to Every Hearing?

I believe, whenever possible, my client should accompany me to court, even when we are meeting the court in chambers for a "scheduling conference", or a "status conference" or a "pretrial hearing".

Other lawyers reply, "That makes no sense." And even a judge recently said, I am not going to make any rulings today, why waste your clients' time?

Here is my answer:

1. When I arrived in Buckhannon from the USAF JAG Corps., Circuit Court Judges still heard divorces. One judge in particular brought us into his office "just to find out the issues".  He had an infuriating habit of sizing things up after just a few words from the lawyers, with the clients sitting outside.

2. I practiced summarizing my case into one or two sentences. That helped a bit. But it still felt like Russian Roulette. And I always hated to bring the client bad news and feel the client thought I had sold him out.

3. Once he told my opponent to go tell his clients they had lost. I thought the lawyer would blow the top of his head sky high as he explained to the judge through clenched teeth that they had flown in from Ca. for the hearing the judge was trying to deny to them.

4. For nearly 40 years, I have been bringing my clients to each hearing unless there are exigent circumstances. I show them the courtroom, the witness chair, where the court reporter sits, the jury box, and any else I can think of. I have heard excellent trial lawyer speakers at continuing legal education suggest this very thing. Usually I learn something I would not have learned or answer questions that need answering.

5. I figure the case was important enough for the client to hire me, so his missing work is justified. I trust he will tell me if it is serious problem.

6. During a surprising percentages of cases, something important happens at that hearing. Perhaps the other lawyers didn't bother to have his lawyer there. Maybe the Court wants to schedule something for the week of my client's vacation. Maybe the Court has a question that only my client can answer. I have seen it all.

7. Today, my client had some important evidence to share with me, and I was able to tell him his case had been continued and mediation ordered. These were both good things, BUT what about the time when something BAD happens and the client is not there? This is why I believe it is unconstitutional for a judge to bar a litigant from sitting next to his lawyer at any hearing and why the recorder should be on for every hearing or conference.

8. Just think of the lawyer who had to tell his Ca. clients they had lost. That was 40 years ago, but I still remember his anger and embarrassment.

So, if your lawyer does not stay in regular contact, copy you in e-mail and other correspondence, and have you physically present at every hearing, I suggest you consider whether you have the best attorney for that particular job.