Lawyer Ratings

[TPK]

Looking at Martindale website today and lawyer ratings.

A CV Rating is an excellent first Rating and a statement of a lawyer's above average ability and very high ethics.
A BV Rating is an indication of an exemplary reputation and well-established practice. A typical lawyer is in mid-career, with a significant client base and high professional standing.
An AV Rating shows that a lawyer has reached the height of professional excellence. He or she has usually practiced law for many years, and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity.

Does this rating actually mean anything?

TPK

[socrateaser]

The rating mostly means that the attorney hasn't gotten in any serious trouble. I know of attorneys who are great and yet don't show up in the database at all. Others who are rated highly would cause me to shrug my shoulders.

You still pays yer money and takes yer chances.

[TPK]

>. I know of attorneys who are great and yet
>don't show up in the database at all.


1. Care to name a few that are on the database or not on it? You seem to be very critical of other lawyers (mine included but no offense taken). I'm just wondering who Soc does like??




Others who are rated
>highly would cause me to shrug my shoulders.

2. Drop of few of those names on me too??


Seriously, name me some well known lawyers that you think are good. Are guys like F. Lee Bailey, Gary Shapiro, Mark Garagos, Johnny Cochran really any good? They are celebrities for sure, but is that for the clients they handle or the quality of their work??

What makes a good lawyer in your mind??

Are they only as good as their won-loss record??

TPK

[socrateaser]

>>. I know of attorneys who are great and yet
>>don't show up in the database at all.
>
>
>1. Care to name a few that are on the database or not on it?
>You seem to be very critical of other lawyers (mine included
>but no offense taken). I'm just wondering who Soc does like??

Objection: argumentative.

>
>Others who are rated
>>highly would cause me to shrug my shoulders.
>
>2. Drop of few of those names on me too??

I refuse to answer on grounds that I may ruin what's left of my crappy reputation.

>Seriously, name me some well known lawyers that you think are
>good. Are guys like F. Lee Bailey, Gary Shapiro, Mark Garagos,
>Johnny Cochran really any good? They are celebrities for sure,
>but is that for the clients they handle or the quality of
>their work??
>
>What makes a good lawyer in your mind??

Two shots of vodka, some vermouth, shaken, not stirred, and a green olive.

Or, maybe it's the ability to achieve an outcome for one's client, that is worth more, after paying the attorney fees and costs of suit, than what the client could have recovered without hiring an attorney.

>Are they only as good as their won-loss record??

I think he's got it!!!

Seriously, though, settlement beats letting a judge decide in almost every instance of civil law. Criminal law is different, however, because, life and liberty are at stake, but criminal judges take their jobs more seriously, so things balance out.

Child custody is sort of a special situation. It's about money, but it's about the child, and love, and instinct, and territory and about a host of other things that the legal system is completely unprepared for, because niether judges nor lawyers are trained in physical anthropology or evolutionary psychology or theology...and that's what domestic relations law is really about trying to deal with...the primal forces of nature.

But, that's the system, and no one has the nuts to change it, so I guess we'll all just have to keep stumbling along with it until we're invaded by the barbarians from the ____ (fill in the blank with your favorite villian).

[TPK]

Easy on the sauce there Soc, it's a workday tomorrow...court day for me.

___________
True Story


The first attorney I went to with my issue floored me. Open the phonebook and this guy's firm has the full-page ad. Must be good right? I sit down with him and tell him my tale of woe. He's jottin down notes looking all serious.

"Let's get to the retainer now" he says.

"$10K retainer, and a guarantee of another $20K"

Whoa!

I turned white as a ghost.

"Can you guarantee me a WIN with that kinda money??" I asked.

"We can't guarantee clients an outcome of a case" he says.

Gulp.."I'll have to get back to you" I said


I talked to my DA friend who suggested using the county bar association in my area. That's what I did and retained an attorney thru the referral system for much much less. It's a 3 headed firm, and I'm comfortable with him which is important.

Another true story

Weeks later I'm in the barber shop to which I've gone to for over 20 years. I know the guy well. I'm telling him my legal issue. He tells me he's about to become a habitual offender for divorce.

He says "I got this really good lawyer, a real bulldog"

Really.."Who is he?" I ask

"Some guy in Flemington" he says.

Hmmm....sounds familiar

"What's his name?"

And he tells me who it is.........and it's that same guy that wanted $30K from me!!!!

I nearly fell off the barber chair laughing.

I told him to run for his life, or to bend over.

Next time I see barber he tells me he retained someone else.

That's why I was asking what makes a good lawyer. What can the $30K guy do for me that my lawyer can't??

My NY lawyer is actually a Town Judge as well, are their any advantages to that??

TPK

[socrateaser]

>That's why I was asking what makes a good lawyer. What can the
>$30K guy do for me that my lawyer can't??

I don't know. The best attorney knows the judges and how they will rule. The best attorney's office is extremely close to the courthouse, because it makes it less expensive to do business, especially since most attorneys charge for drive time. The best attorney doesn't do something without running it by his/her client first. The best attorney will tell you up front what he believes the outcome will be, and he/she will be right, most of the time. The best attorney will admit he/she's wrong when he/she is wrong.

The best attorney doesn't exist -- the best attorney is a fiction, because the best attorney is best avoided.

But, sometimes, you need an attorney. Bottom line is that no one leaves a court happy -- everyone loses, especially in family law. And, you'd better get used to it, because you're in it for the next 21 years.

One other thing...$30K sounds like a lot of dough, but if you pay $300 per month less in support over the next 20 years, that would be a savings of $72K, so maybe $30K is a deal, if the $30K attorney knows the local judges and the system. Personally, I think that anyone who runs a full page ad is dangerous, because he/she has too much overhead, and the clients pay for it. Practicing law does not require opulent surroundings. All ya need modernly, is a laptop with an internet connection and a subscription to a good legal database -- and a laser printer, and a scanner -- everything else is puffery. After that, it's all about being convincing to your opponent and to the court.

>
>My NY lawyer is actually a Town Judge as well, are their any
>advantages to that??

Not really.

Q: You know what they call an attorney who got Cs and Ds in school and barely passed the bar exam?

A: Your honor.

good luck tomorrow.