When Lawyers Screw Up

When Lawyers Screw Up PDF Author: Herbert Kritzer
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700625852
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Unhappy clients bring thousands of legal malpractice claims every year, against mega law firms and solo practitioners, for simple errors or egregious misconduct, and for losses than can reach $100 million or more. This in an industry, legal services, generating nearly $300 billion a year in revenue and touching every facet of American society. Yet, scant if any scholarly attention has been paid to the questions and consequences of lawyers' professional liability. This book is the first to fully explore the mistakes lawyers sometimes make, the nature of these mistakes, the harm they do, and the significant disparities in outcomes for corporate and individual victims of lawyers' errors. A systematic, empirical study of legal malpractice, When Lawyers Screw Up employs both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the frequency and nature of claims, the area of practice producing them, the amounts at stake, and the resolutions. The authors also use a range of data sources to study the frequency and outcomes of legal malpractice trials, whether bench or jury. Their comparison of legal malpractice cases involving the corporate and personal service sectors reveal the difficulties confronting claims coming from the personal sector—difficulties that often deny victims redress, even when they have suffered significant harm. When Lawyers Screw Up draws on a series of interviews to describe the practices of lawyers with expertise in handling legal malpractice claims, even as it notes how few such experts are available to prosecute these claims. In light of their findings, the authors suggest a range of reforms that would help victims of legal malpractice, particularly individuals and small businesses, in pursuing their claims.

When Lawyers Screw Up

When Lawyers Screw Up PDF Author: Leslie C. Levin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 26

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Book Description
This essay reviews Herbert Kritzer and Neil Vidmar's book, When Lawyers Screw Up: Improving Access To Justice For Legal Malpractice Victims, which examines legal malpractice in the United States including, inter alia, its prevalence, the nature of claims, their resolution and cost, the market for legal malpractice insurance, and the challenges and economics of legal malpractice litigation. The essay focuses particular attention on the authors' findings that many individuals are unable to obtain redress when their lawyers cause them harm. This is due, in part, to the difficulty of proving lawyer malpractice claims, and to the fact that the vast majority of U.S. jurisdictions do not require lawyers to carry malpractice insurance. As a result, it is virtually impossible for a malpractice victim to find a lawyer who will bring a lawsuit against an uninsured lawyer or to recover damages even when they are awarded. The essay considers why only two states require lawyers to maintain malpractice insurance. The answer reveals a common problem with lawyer regulation, which is that courts often defer to lawyers' interests rather than promote the interests of the public. The essay discusses some of the solutions the authors propose to address this access to justice problem. It also suggests some additional ways to increase access to justice for victims of lawyer malpractice, including through an expanded role for lawyer discipline systems.

When Lawyers Screw Up

When Lawyers Screw Up PDF Author: Herbert Kritzer
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700625852
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Get Book Here

Book Description
Unhappy clients bring thousands of legal malpractice claims every year, against mega law firms and solo practitioners, for simple errors or egregious misconduct, and for losses than can reach $100 million or more. This in an industry, legal services, generating nearly $300 billion a year in revenue and touching every facet of American society. Yet, scant if any scholarly attention has been paid to the questions and consequences of lawyers' professional liability. This book is the first to fully explore the mistakes lawyers sometimes make, the nature of these mistakes, the harm they do, and the significant disparities in outcomes for corporate and individual victims of lawyers' errors. A systematic, empirical study of legal malpractice, When Lawyers Screw Up employs both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the frequency and nature of claims, the area of practice producing them, the amounts at stake, and the resolutions. The authors also use a range of data sources to study the frequency and outcomes of legal malpractice trials, whether bench or jury. Their comparison of legal malpractice cases involving the corporate and personal service sectors reveal the difficulties confronting claims coming from the personal sector—difficulties that often deny victims redress, even when they have suffered significant harm. When Lawyers Screw Up draws on a series of interviews to describe the practices of lawyers with expertise in handling legal malpractice claims, even as it notes how few such experts are available to prosecute these claims. In light of their findings, the authors suggest a range of reforms that would help victims of legal malpractice, particularly individuals and small businesses, in pursuing their claims.

How Lawyers Screw Their Clients and what You Can Do about it

How Lawyers Screw Their Clients and what You Can Do about it PDF Author: Donald E. DeKieffer
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781569800553
Category : Lawyers
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
An indictment of the practice of gross billable hours among lawyers, which encourages them to accumulate as much hours as possible on a case, penalizing efficiency and competence, offers ideas for protecting oneself against it. IP.

Explaining the Inexplicable

Explaining the Inexplicable PDF Author: Rodent (Attorney)
Publisher: Atria Books
ISBN:
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
The entertaining, subversive, and biting style of the Rodent has earned him a national audience. He now treats readers to his first book-length expose which lifts the rock off the judicial community to reveal tips for survival at the Firm, how lawyers gnaw their way to the top, how to master the art of overbilling, and more! An outrageous, insightful swipe at members of the Bar.

Malice Aforethought

Malice Aforethought PDF Author: David W. Marston
Publisher: William Morrow
ISBN:
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Malice Aforethought is a behind-the-scenes look at American attorneys who are poisoning the American legal system: how and why they do it and how they cover it up. Marston contends that in the rare instances attorneys are caught breaking the law, they receive a slap on the wrist; they are almost never disbarred.

When a Lawyer Betrays and Abandons His Client!

When a Lawyer Betrays and Abandons His Client! PDF Author: William Munns
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781729210314
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Clients who lost a case because of a procedural requirement mismanaged by their attorney, lawyers and paralegals attempting to assist a client wronged by an attorney, legal scholars, educators, and analysts of the law all may find value in this unique legal reference. The author spent three years researching the issue of attorney malpractice and the legal recourses a client has when an attorney abandons the client and destroys a client's civil case. What is unique about this text is that not only are legal statutes and caselaw presented and analyzed, but the complete casefilings of an example case, from trial court ruling through the court of appeals, and finally petitions for hearing by both the California Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, all are included for reference. So the reader can see exactly how the subject was argued in briefs and supported by caselaw. Attorney error statutes, malpractice lawsuits, and disbaring an attorney are also covered in detail.When attorney misconduct detrimental to the attorney's own client is the issue, the theory and reality of the matter, what courts should do, and what they actually do, are disturbingly different. Any person concerned with this subject will benefit from the material of this book, and may use the material to navigate this maze toward a better solution for themselves than the author's case received. Educators, scholars and legal writers may also benefit from this detailed examination of the issue of attorney betrayal and abandonment of the client, by comparing the theory and the reality of one example case.

Explaining the Inexplicable

Explaining the Inexplicable PDF Author: Rodent
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780671527907
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Want to know what goes on behind closed law firm doors? Trust The Rodent, the unofficial mascot of legal professionals, to tell the ugly truth. In his latest expose, The Rodent covers topics such as Power Schmoozing, Berlitz Partnerese, and Law Fibs. Required reading for . . . anyone thinking of becoming a lawyer.--Lawrence Walsh, Pittsburgh POst-Gazette. Illustrations.

No Peace for the Wicked

No Peace for the Wicked PDF Author: Mark Shaw
Publisher: International Book Management Corporation
ISBN: 9781563154409
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
You think all lawyers are alike? THINK AGAIN! Homer and Ike, two mentally-handicapped men are sent to prison for a murder they did not commit. What better way to solve a crime! But there is a path to truth. And, not one lawyer would walk down its path for Homer and Ike. Except Luther Parsons, a black-balled, borderline alcoholic attorney; his gun toting wife and a rag-tag but loyal group of misfits known as the 18th Irregulars. When threats of disbarment came flying his way, Luther knew he was on the right track. But this case was much more than exposing a judge on the take or an attorney's screw-up. The fork in this road led straight to the White House.

No Contest

No Contest PDF Author: Ralph Nader
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0375752587
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 461

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Book Description
The legal rights of Americans are threatened as never before. In No Contest, Ralph Nader and Wesley J. Smith reveal how power lawyers--Kenneth Starr perhaps the most notorious among them--misuse and manipulate the law at the expense of fairness and equity. Nader and Smith document how corporate lawyers File baseless lawsuits Use court secrecy to their unfair advantage Engage in billing fraud Nader and Smith sound the warning that this system-wide abuse is eroding our basic legal rights, and propose a positive, commonsense vision of what should be done to reverse the corporate-inspired corruption of civil justice. Timely, incisive, and highly readable, this is a book for all citizens who believe that prompt access to justice is the backbone of democracy, and a precious right to be reclaimed.

The Trouble with Lawyers

The Trouble with Lawyers PDF Author: Murray Teigh Bloom
Publisher:
ISBN: 9784871871389
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
The Trouble with Lawyers shows how the American Middle Class is victimized by a segment of the American legal profession. It is a book of critical importance for anyone involved in an accident case, a divorce, the buying or selling of a home, the sale of a business or the probating of an estate. It should be of equally vital concern to responsible lawyers and judges. The relationship between certain lawyers and their clients grows increasingly more lopsided every year as lawyers make themselves bigger and greedier partners of their middle-class clients. How do they do this? Through minimum fee price-fixing agreements that are supposed to be supported by our courts - the same courts that denounce price-fixing when it's tried by business or industry. In the Trouble with Lawyers Murray Teigh Bloom reveals with names and cases: How crooked or unethical lawyers have the odds overwhelmingly in their favor when disbarment threatens... How lawyer thefts from clients are climbing and why bar associations are afraid to get to the heart of the problem. Why it is almost impossible to sue and collect from a lawyer who has lied to you, given you you expensively bad advice or simply forgotten to take care of your case until it was too late. How the organized bar censors high school texts and TV scripts that show lawyers in an unfavorable light .... How the lawyers have enriched themselves through the court-finagled guardianships over the mentally ill, the aged and our defenseless Indians. How one state finally succeeded in its campaign to "stop the lawyers" ... What can be done - in spite of lawyer domination of Congress and our state legislatures - to give us a better break and fairer fees when we need legal services. .... Mr. Bloom spent three years researching this book, to demonstrate the faults and failures of lawyers and the fear of reform from within. As he writes. "We need our lawyers and, in an increasingly complex world, will need them more and more. But we need them on fairer terms. "