LISTEN TO YOUR ATTORNEY!!!

Hello All,

I know it has been quite some time but I have been hesitant to put up the same boring legal explanations anyone who knows how to use Google can find, just to fill up space. So this brings me to a delicate but necessary subject; let us proceed:

Let's say you go to the doctor because you are sick. He examines you and gives you a diagnosis and and treatment program. You may not like it, it may hurt, and it probably will be expensive but you have two choices: Either do what he says and get better hopefully or find another doctor for a second opinion. He may or may not give you a different treatment than the first.

Here is the thing though, whether it is the first doctor or the second YOU DON'T ARGUE AND SECOND GUESS HIM. You work with him or move on. You paid him BECAUSE he is a doctor of medicine and in the same vein (pardon the medical pun) an attorney is a doctor of law but there are always those few clients/patients that think they know more than the professional they paid for advice from. Either listen to your professional or get another, do not argue with him or her... it is a waste of your time and theirs.

One of the biggest complaints I hear is that the case is taking too long. It is a simple fact of life and a flawed system that often a legal case can go on for extremely long periods of time. I promise you that your attorney wants to settle your case either through negotiation or trial as quickly as possible. I am not saying there are not attorneys out there who don't "pad" their time but most of them in my experience are working for big firms with big corporations for clients. Those of us with the everyday American as a client do not want to extend the case any further than it has to be simply because most clients are strapped for cash in these tough economic times and it is better business to do a good job as quickly as possible and move on to your next client than try and squeeze the last few coins out of someone who probably had to borrow the money to pay you to begin with. The problem comes in when the client thinks that he or she is the subject of unjust persecution by their own attorney, the system, the world itself. They can become uncooperative, questioning every move you make, every decision made, every delay that comes up and blame the attorney when in fact we want to get the case over, about as much as the client, if not more.

Attorneys deal in facts and law and it is not always easy to relate that to an emotional client who feels like everyone, even their own advocate, is out to get them. I said a year ago that I was not going to sugar coat the things I wrote and this is in line with that. I have some of the best clients in the world,... but they do not always understand the restrictions, rules, regulations and proverbial roadblocks that an attorney trying to win/resolve a case has to deal with.

Whether it is a doctor of medicine or a doctor of law, when you hire someone for their advice and expertise, don't question every move that is made. We are trying to help you but we cannot if you will not let us.

/sigh I do not mean never ask a question, but to question every single thing a professional does... if you are one to do that then I say PLEASE, go to law school or medical school yourself, we are not teachers, we are practitioners of a profession. You don't ask a mechanic why he uses a certain tool for a certain job you just want the job done. Let us get the job done, and if that requires you doing things that you are told to do... do them, or find someone who DOES NOT CARE what happens to you if you fail to do take the right actions. I do care.

This has probably been a bit more harsh than I set out to make it and for that I apologize but I told you I call it like I see it and that may not make me popular but it does make me honest.

-Casey R. Varnado, Attorney