Links About Lawyering

This is an interesting essay by a lawyer who graduated in 2007 into the waiting arms of unemployment. He decided to begin helping people who were deep underwater on their mortgages by trying to get them loan modifications. This is the story of his first client and his first encounter with Wells Fargo. Also includes an interesting side note about new California law that discourages lawyers from taking on these types of cases.

-- JohnSchwab - 26 Feb 2010

Here's someone who needed a good lawyer.

"At his urging, she pleaded guilty and went to jail for a felony that turned out not to be a felony at all. “It seemed like he was on the D.A.’s side,” she said later...

Usually, such a minor case would go unnoticed; a little test of the constitutional right to a lawyer, results unknown. Instead it has made Mr. Barber an emblem of the problems of the state’s ramshackle system of providing lawyers for indigent defendants. On Tuesday, New York’s highest court is to consider a class-action suit, filed by civil liberties lawyers in Ms. Hurell-Harring’s name, that seeks broad changes in the state’s frayed network of public defenders, who are routinely unmonitored and often overwhelmed. Her case, now being pored over by some of the state’s leading lawyers and judges, offers a window into the everyday corners of the legal system, where no one is usually watching."

Info about the suit from a previous article here

-- DevinMcDougall - 21 Mar 2010

Another story about a situation where good lawyers are needed - School Suspensions Lead to Legal Challenge, By Erik Eckholm, Published March 18, 2010 in the New York Times. I don't have many statistics about these types of suspensions or about the exact effects of zero tolerance policies in U.S. schools, but they are becoming increasingly common and have lead to some pretty absurd results.

As these school discipline cases are being brought out of the traditional setting (principal's offices) and into police stations, there is more of a role for lawyers. Even in cases that don't end up in the criminal justice system, students facing very severe punishments that can potentially play a huge role in their futures need good advocates to stand up for their rights and represent them.

-- DavidGoldin - 21 Mar 2010

New partnerships between hospitals and lawyers.

"In a process being duplicated nationally — the latest partnership started in West Virginia in the fall — the doctors at Children’s Hospital, using a protocol that started 18 months ago, referred 500 patients for legal aid last year. Some needed help getting food stamps, heating aid or cash welfare that had been wrongfully denied; some received help with evictions or home repairs, and others got legally mandated help for children with learning disabilities.

The idea was developed in the 1990s by Dr. Barry Zuckerman, chief of pediatrics at the Boston Medical Center. In recent years it has taken off, mainly in pediatric centers, although the technique is being tried with cancer and geriatric patients as well.

“This has transformed the way we think about giving care,” said Dr. Robert S. Kahn, a pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital who helped start the collaboration with the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati."

-- DevinMcDougall - 23 Mar 2010

xkcd today with a comic applicable to lawyering.

Be sure to read the alt text.

-- DevinMcDougall - 02 Apr 2010

Yet another area where good lawyers are needed. I don't know much about debt collection and the role of lawyers, but I thought this article was particularly interesting.

An interesting note - Erica Brachfeld (the lawyer bringing the suits) does seem to grasp that the old business model is dead:

"Collection industry representatives say that collection law firms operate under a business model that anticipates a large caseload.

Harvey M. Moore, president of the California Creditors Bar Association, said, 'We're not built on the same model of a traditional law firm in that we do not bill an hourly rate for our work. We are not paid unless we collect.'"

-- DavidGoldin - 23 Apr 2010

Some New York Judges are taking a stand against credit industry law firms which are trying to use the courts as a branch of the debt collection industry. Still a small step, but interesting to see that some people are seeing the problems with the current system. Still, it is clear that people against whom debts are being collected need good lawyers to represent them - especially given the unfair practices (like process servers who serve process to addresses where people haven't lived for over 5 years and sign sworn statements).

-- DavidGoldin - 08 May 2010

I saw this in the paper today. It will be interesting to see whether it leads anywhere. It definitely seems long overdue.

-- DavidGoldin - 04 May 2010

Another update on the legal aid system in New York and attempts to updated it.

-- DavidGoldin - 06 May 2010

Perhaps this new trend will give a new meaning to the phrase "jailhouse lawyer"?

Indian outsourcing firm Radiant Info Systems has found yet another way to lower wages — hiring data entry clerks from a local prison. Some 200 inmates will be paid $2.20 a day to handle manual data entry tasks for Radiant's BPO deals in a pilot for the scheme. Radiant execs told the BBC that the deal will provide skills to inmates when they are released from prison. No doubt they would also be due for a pay raise.

-- DevinMcDougall - 13 May 2010

For all who are still interested, I thought this was a particularly thoughtful piece which discussed a specific element of the legal profession without bashing it as a whole.

-- DavidGoldin - 16 May 2010