Is it too easy to bitch about lawyers?

The BBQ Pit
1

Timeline:

August of last year - we listed our lot for sale since we’d just closed on the purchase of our house and we no longer needed a building lot.

Up until 2 weeks ago - some interest, some bad news, some discouragement.

Two weeks ago - contract that met our terms, including a fast closing. Yay.

May 3 - closing on sale of lot. All went well except the closing attorney goofed - thought we still lived in FL and charged us some state fee levied on out of state sellers. No big. Our realtor caught the error and the attorney promised a check for the difference (just a bit over $600) would be mailed forthwith.

May 6 - I called the lawyer’s office because the check hadn’t arrived yet - I wanted to be sure they sent it to Mechanicsville and not to Florida. I was informed that yes, they had the correct address, and the check had been mailed on May 5. Not exactly forthwith, but OK.

May 7 - no check in mail. It’s Saturday, I couldn’t have done anything with it anyway. No big.

May 9 - no check in mail. Call lawyer’s office. “The check was mailed on Friday.” “But I was told it had been sent on Thursday,” I protested. But OK, if it was sent Friday, I should have it on Tuesday.

May 10 - Tuesday. Guess what - no check. Now I’m miffed. Yet another call to the lawyer’s office. I didn’t labor much to disguise my anger. “I’m sorry, Shannon made a mistake - it was mailed out yesterday.” Assuming “yesterday” was end of the work day, it didn’t get to the post office till Tuesday morning. When I got off the phone with them, I called my realtor and told her she probably didn’t want to do business with this particular office. Ever. I was not happy.

Lest you think I’m unreasonable, I live 17 miles from the law office. Same county. Different zip code. I could drive there in 20 minutes.

I didn’t call today. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. If it’s not here tomorrow, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I may drive down there and talk to someone face to face.

I don’t think I’m being unreasonable. It’s been a week. It’s not a huge amount of money. But it’s my money and I want it.

Stoopit lawyer office. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

2

Frustrating certainly. But this is a lack of organization within an office. Happens everywhere from time to time. Certainly it’s not limited to law offices. So, yeah, it is too easy to bitch about lawyers. Particularly so, because I seriously doubt the attorney himself has little to do with this.

3

I’m sure the attorney has no idea. But I’ll be sending a letter advising him of this whole fiasco once I have check in hand. If I was really cynical, I’d think they kept the money in an interest-bearing account to squeeze a few pennies of daily interest, but I seem to recall that escrow accounts are not supposed to draw interest.

And I know it’s not just law offices. We went through similar frustrations with a realtor about 15 years ago. Then there was the doctor’s office that never bothered to call us with the test results, until after our visit to an emergency room. But at the moment, I’m pissed at this law office. Hence the thread.

4

People say about cops, “You don’t like them until you need one.”

I would be WAY more inclined to say that about lawyers.

5

Oh yeah, I understand your frustrations totally and am in complete sympathy. I can tell you I’d have damn few clients if they had to call here three different times, getting three different answers, looking for the documents I owed them. And probably no clients with repeat business.

I was just answering the question explicit in your thread title, nuttin’ else. Carry on - please.

6

May 12 - the check finally arrived. Envelope postmarked May 11. But the check was cut May 4. Oh well, at least I know who not to contact if I need legal services. Sheesh…

7

You think that’s bad? Frustrating, yes… but not bad.

When my grandfather died the lawyer’s firm originally contracted to handle probate dropped the ball so often, and so completely we were told, sub rosa, that it would be actionable. If we could find a lawyer to actually take the case. And people think the Blue Wall of Silence is bad. :eek:

8

No… it’s not too easy to bitch about lawyers. Every occasion I have had to deal with them has resulted in BAD THINGS HAPPENING! You can make excuses for them all you want, but they are scum, and bring scum with them. No good can come from this…

9

:rolleyes:

10

hi broad stroke, I’m scum. nice to meet you. Meet my friend Scummy. :cool:

11

My big problem with the legal industry: they operate behind this veil of arcane, archaic language, and their business practices seem to be rooted in the 19th century. they are supposed to make things easier-instead that drag things out, and make simple things into colossal mountains of paper. case in point: these infernal title searches-why do these things take so long? Answer-the court records are not computerized! Why aren’t they computerized? Answer; the legal industry doesn’t want them to be computerized.
The banking industry is so efficient 9by comparison)-you can get approved for a $500,000 mortgage loan in a week or less-but the title “search” grinds on, and …on,annnd,onn :confused:

12

I’m offended! Often when invited to a party, I spend hours agonizing over the choice of exactly what bottle of scum to bring!

–Cliffy

13

Lawyers make work for other lawyers. What’s that old joke about one lawyer in town having nothing to do, and two lawyers in town means they’re busy all the time? It’s a self-fulfilling occupation. You need lawyers to interpret the laws because lawyers write the laws. And you need lawyers to write the laws because lawyers are interpreting the laws.

14

This depends on where you are. Depending on where you are in Virginia, a lot of this stuff is computerized. The reason it isn’t computerized everywhere you go is that it costs a good amount of money to do so. This is something that has to come out of the county budget, so if they were to raise your property taxes to computerize land records would you approve or disapprove?

15

I laughed so hard when I read this I spit Dom Perigon all over my computer. Guess I’ll have ta wipe it up with a big old fistful o’ blooooood money!

16

Man, I wish this canard would die. Why would I have an implicit agreement with another lawyer to deliberately make my job as confusing, incomprehensible, and tedious as possible?

17

This is the Pit! We don’t need no facts or logic to get in the way of our rants. No, sir, we do not. Oh, and if the records are computerized and people don’t know about it, don’t you know whose fault that is? The lawyers, of course.

You actually do your own wiping? Hmmm. I call in my old, minimum wage secretary to do it for me. And I yell at her the whole time. Because Og forbid a lawyer dirty his hands with actual work.

18

More like condoms: You only really want them when it’s too late.

19

Hunh. I’ve noticed that quite frequently, the same people who want to tar and feather lawyers will, when asked “who do you admire?” often say “Atticus Finch.”

20

Yeah, well I think Han Solo was a pretty cool smuggler, but I doubt there’s much reality in that fiction either. :wink: