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Recent Blog Posts
Waaaahhhh. Mine Hurts Too!
Carolyn Elefant details the defense of three of the "persecuted" Connecticut Total Bankruptcy lawyers.
I don't know that "persecuted" is the right word to use to describe people who face possible punishment for something they did-let's be blunt-out of avarice. But okay.
Carolyn is impressed by the lawyers' defense that Total Bankruptcy doesn't recommend lawyers but only refers clients to them. (Under the Connecticut rule at issue, it's illegal for a lawyer to give someone something of value for recommending the lawyer's services.)
The Total Bankruptcy sites refer clients to lawyers by asking them to provide a zip code, at which point clients are referred to the sponsoring attorney's website for that geographic location. (Response at 10). But Total Bankruptcy doesn't recommend or endorse any of the Sponsoring Lawyers – a fact that is highlighted in the site's terms of service. The distinction between a "referral" and "recommendation" makes all the difference.
Everything Old is New Again
Austin criminal-defense lawyer Jamie Spencer talked to a parent whose son's DWI lawyer promised, at the first meeting, a 99% chance of getting the case dismissed. I guess that's a problem we should expect to come up over and over again.
New Blog on the Blogroll
Law and Baseball, by criminal-defense lawyer Johnny Gardner, from Bobby Frederick's stomping grounds of Horry County, South Carolina.
Lessons in Media Relations and Blogging, from Tyler Flood [Updated, and Again]
Tyler Flood (one of the smartest lawyers Tyler Flood has ever met!) says of his recent debacle in the Houston Press:
During the course of this process I praised so many of my colleagues and even told Mike who to talk to, including Jed [Silverman], Gary [Trichter], Troy [McKinney], [Mark] Thiessen, Murph [Doug Murphy], Jim Medley and others. It was Mike's choice who he decided to include. I also told Mike many things about our role and the noble profession we are members of. There were so many positive things I discussed with Mike about what we do and the problems we face and try to solve for our clients that the public is unaware of.
And yet, exclaims Tyler, "any of the good stuff would up on the editing room floor."
How to Choose a Criminal-Defense Lawyer
I've been asked to write about how to choose a criminal-defense lawyer.
Disclaimer: What I write here, I write not with the intention of making myself more presentable to clients, but only of telling the truth, revealing a bit of myself, and maybe entertaining or educating. Some of my posts have probably scared off potential clients-not everybody wants to hire the monkey waving around a cocked.45 (as a friendly judge described me recently). I haven't written the "how to choose a criminal-defense lawyer" post because it is usually a thinly-veiled "why you should hire me" post.
I'll avoid that trap, but the fact is that I like getting hired, for three reasons: it's fun defending people; it's how I feed my family and my habits; and it's how I make others' lives better. I believe I've developed excellent ways of treating and helping people.
There are things that we do because we are forced to by circumstances, and there are things that we do because they are right. Those practices that we adopt because they are right, we presumably think are in our clients' best interests. For example, if I think it is in the client's best interests for a lawyer to wear purple socks, I am going to wear purple socks, and I am going to recommend that other clients seek out lawyers who wear purple socks. If wearing purple socks were the Right Way to Practice Law (RWTPL), I'd be doing potential clients a disservice by not informing them of my opinion.
Disbar the Connecticut 5
No, not really. I don't care whether they get disbarred or let off.
A lawyer can't pay a nonlawyer for a referral. This is an uncontroversial proposition. In Connecticut, paying a nonlawyer for a referral can even be a felony. So when five Connecticut lawyers signed on to pay totalbankruptcy.com $65 per referral, they shouldn't have been terribly surprised to find themselves the subjects of a Memorandum of Fact and Law by Disciplinary Counsel (via Simple Justice).
TotalBankruptcy.com, in its bottom-of-the-page low-contrast disclaimer, calls itself a "cooperative advertising website"-a claim handily dispensed of by the Disciplinary Counsel:
This $65 per contact price is fixed, and not contingent on the number of attorneys "sponsoring" Total Bankruptcy, distinguishing it from a cooperative advertising model.
Tyler Flood: The Drunk Driver's Lawyer?
Houston DWI lawyer Tyler Flood on DWI cases, from the Houston Press article (yes, it's like crack):
"Listen, most of the people we get off are intoxicated. But that's the justice system," he says. "I've always thought people would be very concerned if they knew what we were doing."
Tyler: You know that you're talking to a reporter, right?And you know that he's most likely going to print what you say?
You know that what he prints is going into a weekly newspaper with print circulation over 600,000?
You know that among that 600,000 are more potential jurors than potential clients?
And you want to tell them that most of your clients are intoxicated?
This probably didn't occur to you, but some of those readers will draw broader conclusions. Some of the jurors on my next DWI case are going to have read your claims that most of the people you get off are intoxicated. And some of them are going to assume that it's true of my clients as well.
Tyler Flood Can't Help Himself
From the Houston Press article on Houston DWI lawyer Tyler Flood:
On all of his sites, Flood's biography starts with his No. 4 class rank in law school. It doesn't mention that he graduated during the summer with 17 other people. (In fact, the site for Flood Publishing, which sells law school flash cards, claims he graduated in May.) Flood also has a reputation for bad-mouthing other lawyers to potential clients, a serious sin in the cliquish community of DWI defenders. When clients make their free consultation rounds, those who've already seen Flood might be getting his texts while sitting in the next lawyer's office."I can't help it," Flood says.
I've got nothing against Tyler Flood. In fact, I like him. I wasn't even aware that he had a reputation for badmouthing other lawyers for potential clients-it doesn't seem to have done me any harm-but it doesn't change how I feel about him (lots of my clients friends have impulse-control problems).
Andy Nolen, Move Over!
From a Houston Press article about Houston DWI lawyer Tyler Flood:
Flood pays someone to keep up his Google search rankings.... He has reviewed himself on Yahoo (five out of five stars): "Tyler Flood is one of the smartest lawyers I have ever met...reasonably priced also!"
(Here's the profile giving Tyler that review.)
Schmomises
As I understand it, the Harris County Commissioners Court has started approving all DA Office hires by name. So if Pat Lykos wants to hire Joan Schmo to be a Misdemeanor 4, she has to get Joan's hiring on the Commissioners Court agenda and get the court to vote on it at a monthly meeting.
Which is unfortunate for the 10-15 "precommits"-larval lawyers who have committed to working for the DA's office at $12 per hour while awaiting their bar results, in exchange for the promise of an actual salary beginning when they pass the bar (results due at the end of this week).
Because apparently someone forgot to ask the Commissioners Court for permission to put these folks on salary. (This is the account I got from a senior prosecutor; I can't document it.)
So now they have to wait till December to start making more than they would make waiting tables at Chili's. (And another three months for benefits.)
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