Frustration in Court
I had an interesting experience recently in court. It had to do with another lawyer in town who called me a few weeks ago. He called me at my office and the conversation went like this:
Him: "Hi Jason, this is [private lawyer name] I've been retained to represent one of your clients."
Me: "Oh, that's cool, taking one off my hands? Which one?"
Him: "I'm now representing [client name], his family just talked to me this morning."
Me: "OK, well I am still waiting on some paperwork, but you are welcome to everything in my file for this Friday's hearing."
Him: "Great, thanks for the info, I will see you on Friday."
Friday came and he was not present in court. I announced to the court that this particular lawyer had called me and told me that he was retained. The clients case was resent for a hearing the next Friday. Sadly, this happens often with private attorneys who take their fee and then show up when it is convenient for them. Their client sits in jail despite the fact that just showing face in court could have gotten someone out of jail. The following Friday came around and this lawyer was once again absent. I told the judge that I would call him up and ask if he was going to make an appearance. Here's the gist of our second conversation:
Him: "Oh hi Jason, I never filed an entry on that case.... I was never retained on that case."
Me: "Really, because you told me that you were representing him, and I announced that to the court last week. You're expected here by the judge."
Him: "Oh yeah, I talked to so many people that I assumed you would figure out that I wasn't coming to represent him."
Me: "You never called me to tell me that. You really could have screwed this client."
Him: "Yeah, I feel bad about that...."
Me: "You should have at least called me. I could have prepared something for today's hearing."
Luckily, the outcome for the client was not bad at all. I got the guy out of jail by talking to the DA, and everything was OK. But it was severely dissappointing to have that conversation. If I was not familar with the case, if there was another DA, or if there was a witness in court who wanted to do a preliminary hearing on the case, this particular client would have been FUCKED IN THE ASS by this guy. Being in jail sucks, it really does. I know because I am there and everyone tells me how much is sucks. I had a client who got stabbed. One of my coworkers had a client committ suicide. There is a TB outbreak spreading right now.... and this lawyer did not care one bit about this client. He did not bother to pick up the phone and make a 30 second phone call. He's very lucky that this client had me to fall back on, and that I was able to get him out of jail. Otherwise, that would be a serious Bar complaint.
Another odd thing happened this week. I was introduced to a young woman in the courthouse who learned that I was a public defender. She asked, "so are you really one of those public defenders who screws his clients, or are you an ok lawyer." What the fuck does that mean? I don't know where people get these ideas about what we do. Is there some TV show where the court appointed lawyers suck ass? Where does this reputation come from? I've met a lot of private lawyers and a lot of public defenders. There are a lot of GREAT private lawyers, but there more private lawyers who push pleas on defendants; more private lawyers who miss court dates; and more private lawyers who just plain fail at representing their clients.
END OF RANT.
Court was ok today. No ass-hole attorneys to report.
Him: "Hi Jason, this is [private lawyer name] I've been retained to represent one of your clients."
Me: "Oh, that's cool, taking one off my hands? Which one?"
Him: "I'm now representing [client name], his family just talked to me this morning."
Me: "OK, well I am still waiting on some paperwork, but you are welcome to everything in my file for this Friday's hearing."
Him: "Great, thanks for the info, I will see you on Friday."
Friday came and he was not present in court. I announced to the court that this particular lawyer had called me and told me that he was retained. The clients case was resent for a hearing the next Friday. Sadly, this happens often with private attorneys who take their fee and then show up when it is convenient for them. Their client sits in jail despite the fact that just showing face in court could have gotten someone out of jail. The following Friday came around and this lawyer was once again absent. I told the judge that I would call him up and ask if he was going to make an appearance. Here's the gist of our second conversation:
Him: "Oh hi Jason, I never filed an entry on that case.... I was never retained on that case."
Me: "Really, because you told me that you were representing him, and I announced that to the court last week. You're expected here by the judge."
Him: "Oh yeah, I talked to so many people that I assumed you would figure out that I wasn't coming to represent him."
Me: "You never called me to tell me that. You really could have screwed this client."
Him: "Yeah, I feel bad about that...."
Me: "You should have at least called me. I could have prepared something for today's hearing."
Luckily, the outcome for the client was not bad at all. I got the guy out of jail by talking to the DA, and everything was OK. But it was severely dissappointing to have that conversation. If I was not familar with the case, if there was another DA, or if there was a witness in court who wanted to do a preliminary hearing on the case, this particular client would have been FUCKED IN THE ASS by this guy. Being in jail sucks, it really does. I know because I am there and everyone tells me how much is sucks. I had a client who got stabbed. One of my coworkers had a client committ suicide. There is a TB outbreak spreading right now.... and this lawyer did not care one bit about this client. He did not bother to pick up the phone and make a 30 second phone call. He's very lucky that this client had me to fall back on, and that I was able to get him out of jail. Otherwise, that would be a serious Bar complaint.
Another odd thing happened this week. I was introduced to a young woman in the courthouse who learned that I was a public defender. She asked, "so are you really one of those public defenders who screws his clients, or are you an ok lawyer." What the fuck does that mean? I don't know where people get these ideas about what we do. Is there some TV show where the court appointed lawyers suck ass? Where does this reputation come from? I've met a lot of private lawyers and a lot of public defenders. There are a lot of GREAT private lawyers, but there more private lawyers who push pleas on defendants; more private lawyers who miss court dates; and more private lawyers who just plain fail at representing their clients.
END OF RANT.
Court was ok today. No ass-hole attorneys to report.
posted by Jay at 7:43 PM
1 Comments:
Great rant made it myself. I love when clients ask if i'm the type to sell out clients I first tell them well yes that's why i'm here talking to you and working on strategy for your case cause that's how we really screw our clients by actually talking to them and getting prepared and then i tell them to check my rep in the jail that usually ends that part of the conversation.janet
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