Now if I tear up a contract, I really don’t have to do any of the things that contract says I do. Right?
Popular misconception. However, it is true that you can individually secede from the Union, declare yourself a “sovereign citizen,” and stop paying taxes. Try it. I’ll be over here setting up the camera.
Never watch TV or movies depicting your real-life job. It’ll inevitably frustrate you.
For instance, I imagine the brain slugs who store our bodies in tanks and live off our thoughts watching The Matrix and shouting, “That’s not how it really works!”
Would it be looked upon favourably if I were to assert that the judge, if not the whole courtroom, was out of order?
Need answer fast.
I do try to remember: With some exceptions, most writers are not lawyers, they’re writers; they’re not doctors, they’re writers; etc. Even those who care enough to do the research will make countless technical mistakes when they set stories in a profession not their own.
But I think this – and Suits – is more a case of They Just Didn’t Care.
By God, perhaps.
There is no law to prevent a lawyer from owning an ambulance company and having an advertisement printed on the ceiling of the ambulance so that the injured can read it while on their way to the hospital.
It’s true that ambulance-chasing is against the rules.
However, it is not against the rules to advertise, even when that advertising is narrowly targeted. I have known lawyers to skim the newspapers for stories of tragedy or likely obituaries, locate an address, and pop a pamphlet in the mail. It’s not the same as handing your card directly to the accident victim, but only by a matter of degrees.
So that time when my husband had a very minor accident at work and had to file a Worker’s Comp claim, all those lawyers who called us and sent us solicitations in the mail inviting him to sue his employer because he had a boo-boo: We could have turned their asses in?
The OP should try working in medicine and watching TV. The stuff the writers get wrong is too numerous to mention, so I’ll just touch on something simple.
TV CPR: Six easy, sure fire steps to reincarnating the dead.
1.) Do not check airway - start CPR immediately. Yell as much as possible.
2.) Begin with 15 - 20 chest compressions. Be sure to be as inconsistent as as you are able in the number and don’t forget to bend your elbows.
3.) After each compression cycle, administer two breaths using bag mask.
4.) After second breathing set, throw away bag mask in disgust and use mouth to mouth. It is recommended that the health professional yell, “we don’t have time for this!” during this step.
5.) By now, a coworker should have arrived with the Magical Defibrillator Reanimation Apparatus. Remember, the MDRA functions through the use of sound waves. The user is instructed to yell “clear” as loudly as possible so as to provide the necessary decibels during operation.
6.) Pound on patient’s chest repeatedly with a closed fist while yelling either “Don’t you die on me, Jonesy!” or “Just this one time, God! Just this one time!”
Used to be. I remember a scene in Heinlein’s I Will Fear No Evil (1970) where the lawyer representing Smith’s daughters, who is trying to prove Joan Eunice is not a woman with Smith’s brain in her head, demands the judge recuse himself because he is a fraternity brother of Smith’s. The judge points out that this would only prejudice him in Joan Eunice’ behavior if she really is Smith, and the lawyer backs down. The judge goes on to remark that “Since lawyers are not allowed to advertise,” they tend to join as many clubs and social organizations as possible, for networking (though the word does not appear), and he notes several in which he shares membership with every lawyer in the room. Getting the legal-advertising ban lifted in the U.S. (the process began in 1972 with Bates v. State Bar of Arizona) was a big controversial deal at the time; this is a very . . . stodgy profession in some ways.
Maybe, depends on the rules of your state’s Bar (federal system, you know). Did the letters arrive sooner than 30 days after the accident?
It’s perfectly all right, BTW, for criminal-defense attorneys to monitor the daily arrest reports and send solicitation letters to all the suspects with no waiting period, lots of crim firms do that routinely. But, I don’t think most people would find that in any way objectionable – it’s not “stirring up litigation,” it is answering a real and present personal need for legal representation.
And we all know that a law degree bestows perfection and no lawyer would EVER, EVER break the rules and do something unethical.
It’s the bar license, not the law degree. People with only the degree can break all the rules they want and they are not subject to administrative discipline by a body they do not belong to. They may never get to join, but I know a lot of people with a law degree who do not have a license.
My apologies The_Second_Stone and BrainGlutton. I’ll amend the statement to:
And we all know that a bar license bestows perfection and no lawyer would EVER, EVER break the rules and do something unethical.
Next you’re gonna tell me Lionel Hutz isn’t the sterling example of a lawyer Matt Groening made him out to be?
Oh, yes. And the calls were coming within 10 days. I’ve never checked any rules; we just deleted the messages and tossed the solicitations in disgust. It was a very minor injury and he wouldn’t have reported it if he wasn’t required to.
I don’t know that. The California Journal is a lawyer magazine that arrives in my mailbox every month. Every month I read of more than a dozen California lawyers that break the rules and do something unethical. And those are just the ones caught and convicted. I am no fan of the legal profession or the judicial system.
Not in public like that, he wouldn’t, unless he were either a total idiot or in total desperation. There’s always a chance your prospect or any onlooker may know about the rules against ambulance-chasing (might even be a lawyer himself, we don’t wear suits all the time), and get miffed, and grieve you to the Bar, which might punish you with disbarment, suspension, or reprimand.
Brilliant!
That’s why you’re the judge and I’m the law talking guy.