My experience with lawyers is this:
I was separated from my husband (read:he kicked me out of the house), and I got served divorce papers. My sister interned for a lawyer the previous summer, and I asked her about what to do. She called him for advice about me, and he told her to have me come in. I did, and after explaining that I was absolutely broke, he told me not to worry- he would do my case for FREE. And he did just that. He was extremely nice to me, helped me a lot, and did it without EVER sending a bill. So there! Then, maybe I attract nice people (see the good cop thread).
An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.
That’s not the same one, Sox Fan. The case I refer to is * United States ex rel. Gerald Mayo v. Satan and His Staff, * 54 FRD (Federal Rules Decisions) 283, W. Dist. PA, Dec 3. 1971. Gerald Mayo brought a civil rights action against Satan–who he said had, with his servants, placed obstacles in Mayo’s path causing his downfall. The court dismissed Mayo’s action (“Prayer Denied”) on three grounds:
It could be considered a class action, but the court could not decided whether Mayo’s complaints were representative of the class as a whole.
Mayo’s action made no allegation that the defendant (Satan) lived in Pennsylvania.
Mayo had failed to provided instructions to the U. S. Marshall’s office for service of process.
Incidentally, I don’t know what “ex rel.” stands for. Does anyone among the Teeming Millions know? Thanks very much.
it’s the abbreviation for “ex relatione” (I may not have got the spelling right), and it’s roughly equivalent to “on the information of.” I’m not sure how it is used down south, but in the Anglo-Canadian tradition, it was used in the style of cause for the prerogative writs, which are fictionally brought in the name of the Crown against an agent of the government or an inferior court. So, “H.M. the Queen ex rel. Jones v. Smith” means that Jones is bringing some sort of application against Smith, such as certiorari, prohibition, or mandamus.
My wife’s cousin, at a family gathering, noted that he had just gotten a client’s case (he was convicted of rape) overturned because of some technicality (he told us what it was, but I can’t recall now). My wife’s uncle asked if he was proud of this. He responded that, as an attorney, he was proud, as a human being, he wasn’t so sure.
An acquaintance of mine is running for state’s attorney. At his first fundraiser, he told the story of why a 51-year-old man with a thriving law firm would want to run for office. He has done his share of defending accused criminals. One of them was an accused rapist/murderer in a nearby county where they had never had a case like this, so he was asked to work the defense. Each day, he said, he went in and saw the victim’s mother sitting there. Each day, he wanted to go up and tell her how sorry he was about her loss, etc. But he couldn’t – he was defending the man accused of doing it.
The guy was convicted, and many years later, he was elsewhere defending an appeal for an accused murderer (for those in Illinois, it was the Niccario case). He saw the mother of that victim again in the hall. She came up to him and told him that he has a gift – he’s just using it for the wrong side.
Another thing he says he’s seen in the courts here is that many of the prosecutors come to court unprepared. Now, this was good for him as a defense attorney, because he could whip 'em and win the case. But he recognizes that some of these folks deserve to be in jail. He plays his part in the system by defending them, but the prosecutor is supposed to be playing his part as well by putting on a case to convince the jury.
There is a book “The Trouble With Lawyers.”
It says that most of the politicians that make the laws are lawyers and they make the laws to suit lawyers.
When buying or selling a house getting a lawyer is recommended by your Realtor. In my opinion they are just there to complicate the process.
When closing on my house one of the many things I had to sign was a list of people that had the same initials as me in order to confirm that they weren’t me.
My lawyer wasn’t even in the room, his secretary was handling it. When I asked why this was necessary she said it was the law.
When I replied, " if there was ever a law made by lawyers for lawyers this was one."
Her reply, “you got that right.”
My uncle is a lawyer, specializing in criminal defense. He finishes the lawyer jokes for you, before you can even think about getting to the punchline. He firmly believes that everyone has the right to legal representation, but he has come to realize in his years of practice that sometimes it’s not “can I keep this defendant out of jail,” but “can I keep this defendant from spending the rest of his life in jail.” There’s a difference. He too has had the same lawyer/human being conflicts. I do admire him for his work…but if I hear a good lawyer joke, I’ll try & tell him at the first opportunity
I can’t resist recounting my favorite Alan Dershowitz story here (which I posted earlier elsewhere on the SDMB).
Two of W. F. Buckley’s “Firing Line” half-hours were on the subject “The Separation Between Church and State.”
During one of the programs, the camera was on Dershowitz, and he said “If Abraham tried to sacrifice Isaac today like he did in the Bible, I would have him indicted for attempted murder!”
Buckley, off-camera, quickly said “But would you defend him?” The audience laughs.
