One reason Lawyers have a bad name!

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JOhnH

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I'm in the process of selling my business. Of course a transaction like this requires a Lawyer, and I expect that I will need to pay them a fairly large sum for their professional services,

But,

I just received a statement. In it he lists everything he charged me for the month.

His minimum charge seems to be $41.25.

When he sent me a copy of a preliminary draft, I emailed him in response with a "Thank You".

Later he sent me copies of some final documents. One of them contained a previous version (with misspellings that had been corrected), so I emailed him to let him know he sent the wrong copy.

On the Statement:
Charge $41.25 for reviewing email (all it said was "Thank You").
Charge $41.25 for reviewing email and re-sending the correct document.

In the scheme of things, these charges are insignificant. But still . . . :mad2:

I'd get crucified if I charged my clients because they sent a "thank you" by email or if I charged them to correct my admitted mistake.

I'd email him to protest the charges, but I still need him to do his best work for me, and besides, he'd charge me for reading my complaint.
 
Did you hear about the lawyer who recently passed away?

He had to wait in line a bit to meet St. Peter to find out if he was going up or down. Anyway he gets to the head of the line and to his surprise St. Pete jumps up, offers him his seat and says that he's happy to finally see him here. Startled, the lawyer asks about all the fuss, after all nobody else got treated that way.

St. Peter replied that they don't get to meet the oldest living (now dead) human every day. The lawyer protested that he died young at 67. St. Pete checked his notes and said, "But your billed hours show that you are 130!"
 
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I'm a lawyer and agree with your assessment. I'd never charge a client for reviewing a "Thank you" email or for correcting MY mistake. It's a shame there are those who do. Make note of those discrepancies and deduct them with a note from the final bill. I suspect there won't be any pushback.
 
LDJones said:
I'm a lawyer and agree with your assessment. I'd never charge a client for reviewing a "Thank you" email or for correcting MY mistake. It's a shame there are those who do. Make note of those discrepancies and deduct them with a note from the final bill. I suspect there won't be any pushback.
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Good suggestion. Thanks.
 
Why don't lawyers go to the beach?
























Cats try and bury them in the sand.
 
Why don't sharks eat lawyers?
 
JOhnH said:
I'm in the process of selling my business. Of course a transaction like this requires a Lawyer, and I expect that I will need to pay them a fairly large sum for their professional services,

But,

I just received a statement. In it he lists everything he charged me for the month.

His minimum charge seems to be $41.25.

When he sent me a copy of a preliminary draft, I emailed him in response with a "Thank You".

Later he sent me copies of some final documents. One of them contained a previous version (with misspellings that had been corrected), so I emailed him to let him know he sent the wrong copy.

On the Statement:
Charge $41.25 for reviewing email (all it said was "Thank You").
Charge $41.25 for reviewing email and re-sending the correct document.

In the scheme of things, these charges are insignificant. But still . . . :mad2:

I'd get crucified if I charged my clients because they sent a "thank you" by email or if I charged them to correct my admitted mistake.

I'd email him to protest the charges, but I still need him to do his best work for me, and besides, he'd charge me for reading my complaint.
Click to expand...

That's priceless!

Oh, wait...

Rich
 
Two East Texas scumbags: one charged me over $20,000 for sending 2 one-page letters to collect probate accounts; another sent me a bill for $1000 five years after my divorce for additional time he "just discovered". Sorry bastards!!
 
Speaking of aged accounts, we just received a bill for medical care from >5yrs ago. We called and they said they had some free time and were clearing out old transactions.
Is there any limit on how long we can get bills? I would not be too happy about a very large bill from >2 years ago for example.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Speaking of aged accounts, we just received a bill for medical care from >5yrs ago. We called and they said they had some free time and were clearing out old transactions.
Is there any limit on how long we can get bills? I would not be too happy about a very large bill from >2 years ago for example.
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Statutes of Limitation will play a role in whether they can sue you for non-payment. Will vary state-by-state.
 
silver-eagle said:
professional courtesy.

why do they bury lawyers 12 feet below? Deep down, they're nice guys.
Click to expand...

A group of lawyers were touring by bus. The driver had a heart attack and drives the bus off a cliff 300 feet high. What do you say?
 
Clark1961 said:
Did you hear about the lawyer who recently passed away?

He had to wait in line a bit to meet St. Peter to find out if he was going up or down. Anyway he gets to the head of the line and to his surprise St. Pete jumps up, offers him his seat and says that he's happy to finally see him here. Startled, the lawyer asks about all the fuss, after all nobody else got treated that way.

St. Peter replied that they don't get to meet the oldest living (now dead) human every day. The lawyer protested that he died young at 67. St. Pete checked his notes and said, "But your billed hours show that you are 130!"
Click to expand...

:rofl::rofl::rofl: :idea: :rofl:
 
Clark1961 said:
A group of lawyers were touring by bus. The driver had a heart attack and drives the bus off a cliff 300 feet high. What do you say?
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"That's a shame."

Now if there was an empty seat, you'd say "That's a crying shame".
 
bflynn said:
"That's a shame."

Now if there was an empty seat, you'd say "That's a crying shame".
Click to expand...

or "damn, there was an empty seat"


What does a lawyer get when he takes viagra?
 
Why do folks take an immediate dislike for a lawyer?
 
What do you call a ship that sinks and 500 lawyers drown?


A good start.
 
LDJones said:
I'm a lawyer and agree with your assessment. I'd never charge a client for reviewing a "Thank you" email or for correcting MY mistake. It's a shame there are those who do. Make note of those discrepancies and deduct them with a note from the final bill. I suspect there won't be any pushback.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:
I don't charge for anything that would take me more time to do the billing that the work took in the first place and I never charge to fix my screw ups.
 
steingar said:
Why don't lawyers go to the beach? Cats try and bury them in the sand.
Click to expand...
[FONT=&quot]
Charlie, a retired engineer, passed on at the end of a long and productive life. Upon arrival at the Pearly Gates, a harried St. Peter was unable to find Charlie’s name on the list authorizing entry into heaven. Charlie was relegated to Hell.[/FONT] [FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]After arriving in Hell, Charlie decided that the place could use some improvement. The Devil was intrigued and set Charlie to work air conditioning the Devil’s office.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]One day the Devil was sitting in his newly air conditioned office, when the phone rang. It was God. God occasionally called up the Devil, just to give him a hard time. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]God said to the Devil, in a smug tone of voice, “Is it warm enough for you down there?” The Devil replied that he was sitting comfortably in his new air conditioned office. God indignantly asked, “How did you get your office air conditioned?” The Devil replied, “My engineer Charlie took care of it. In fact, now Charlie is working on getting us running water.”[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]God sputtered, “How did you get an engineer. There was a mistake. We never send you engineers. You send me back my engineer immediately.” The Devil responds, “No way! I have Charlie and I am keeping him.” God thunders, “Devil, give me back my engineer, or else!” “Or else what”, the Devil inquires with an amused look on his face. “Or else I will sue you,” God exclaimed.” The Devil laughed. . . “God, where are you going to get a lawyer!”
[/FONT]
 
Stevel said:
Why do folks take an immediate dislike for a lawyer?
Click to expand...

Actually, I kind of like lawyers. The one I had for my business in Queens was great. He was a "storefront lawyer." No fancy offices, no pretenses. But the guy wrote some wicked nastygrams. He was cheap, too. I don't think I ever paid more than $50.00 for a standard nastygram. Some of the complicated, custom ones were a bit more, but I don't think ever more than $100.00. He was also very reasonable with general business-related legal work.

The last time I used him was after I sold the business and moved. The landlord hadn't returned my $1,400.00 security deposit. And mind you, I'd not only left the place in perfect condition and with many improvements, but I also lined up a good new tenant for him (my friend Marc, an FDNY Paramedic) so the landlord didn't lose a single month's rent on the place.

Nonetheless, two months after I moved, I still hadn't received the security deposit refund. One letter from David and the check arrived the next day by express mail, including the seven years' worth of interest, plus a penalty David tacked on to cover "expenses," which were basically nothing because he didn't charge me anything for that last job.

Rich
 
All lawyers suck. Except mine.
 
JOhnH said:
I'm in the process of selling my business. Of course a transaction like this requires a Lawyer, and I expect that I will need to pay them a fairly large sum for their professional services,

But,

I just received a statement. In it he lists everything he charged me for the month.

His minimum charge seems to be $41.25.

When he sent me a copy of a preliminary draft, I emailed him in response with a "Thank You".

Later he sent me copies of some final documents. One of them contained a previous version (with misspellings that had been corrected), so I emailed him to let him know he sent the wrong copy.

On the Statement:
Charge $41.25 for reviewing email (all it said was "Thank You").
Charge $41.25 for reviewing email and re-sending the correct document.

In the scheme of things, these charges are insignificant. But still . . . :mad2:

I'd get crucified if I charged my clients because they sent a "thank you" by email or if I charged them to correct my admitted mistake.

I'd email him to protest the charges, but I still need him to do his best work for me, and besides, he'd charge me for reading my complaint.
Click to expand...

They're not all bad. It's just that the 95% give the other 5% a bad name.
 
My lawyer is great and I won't let him go. I would hate to see him on the other side of the table from me.
 
LDJones said:
I'm a lawyer and agree with your assessment. I'd never charge a client for reviewing a "Thank you" email or for correcting MY mistake. It's a shame there are those who do. Make note of those discrepancies and deduct them with a note from the final bill. I suspect there won't be any pushback.
Click to expand...

I try to track my time (it's my inventory), but I don't charge for anything that is not of value to the client. That would be ignorant.
 
I confess I never really understood the lawyer negativity thing. All the ones I have dealt with have been top notch; helpful, exceedingly intelligent individuals. I have received very good assistance from every last one.
Maybe it's something from the past? Or, maybe we only hear about the bad ones which makes people think the rest must be that way...which, thinking about it.....is pretty silly. Huge number of them we never hear about - slogging away every day, helping the little guy.
 
Karen and I have been enjoying "The Good Wife".

We think it tries to take a balanced view of attorneys.

Real attorneys likely roll their eyes at some of the shenanigans, I imagine.
 
Lawyers are no different than any other profession, there are excellent, horrible and everything in between. I don't even have angst against the personal injury guys, there are a few legit PI claims and those folks need a good laywyer. If we as a county did two things though I think it would improve relations between lawyers and the masses, meaningful tort reform to reduce frivolous lawsuits and term limits to reduce frivolous politicians (bought and paid for lawyers).
 
My favorite lawyer is my daughter. She's the smartest person I know. Way smarter than me. And much better disciplined. Smart and disciplined is requisite to make it through law school. To forge a career requires more of the same. That scares regular folks. Lawyers do know the best lawyer jokes, though.

Do you know the difference between a halibut and a lawyer? One's a mud-sucking bottom feeder, the other's a fish.
 
What do they call the guy who graduated last in his law school class?...........................................................................................





Counselor.
 
Norman said:
What do they call the guy who graduated last in his law school class?...........................................................................................





Counselor.
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Or Your Honor! :yes:
 
Lawyers take the blame, but they're only serving the wishes of greedy citizens.

Lawyers wouldn't get away with half as much without jurors ignorant of the fact that all settlements eventually come out of their own pockets. They think big awards are punishing faceless corporations, but they just get passed on - with a markup - to retail prices.

I love how experimental aircraft give me back the right to take personal responsibility for my own risks, without bloated costs.
 
John, depending on the size of the frim the attorney may be required to keep his time for 100% of what he does so that the Firm management can see that he is putting in the necesary hours per week, month, year. Some firms take the attorney time record and have a staffer do the data entry and bill from those records. So the attorney may have been just accouting for his time to his firm and it go included in a bill. Check with him. If thats the case he may be embarassed and apologetic if its not the case. Then you have the right to be miffed.
 
Lindberg said:
Everybody hates lawyers until they need one. But there's definitely some things that shouldn't show up on a bill.
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The answer that I was expecting is "Because it saves time."
 
Why do lawyers have a bad name? Because they're lawyers. That's an easy one.

No person could become a lawyer without an ethical bypass.

(also... somewhere in this thread someone used IGNORANT when they could only have meant stupid)
 
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