The Practice

Write A Book - The Right Way!

As you know, I wrote a book about Litigating MIST Cases - a type of personal injury case. Well, I did it the hard way. Okay, not the very hard way. But, a hard way. I just found out there is a better way. You can publish a book without tearing out your hair. (Okay, I admit it. I have no hair to tear out!!)

Anne Loehr is an executive coach, speaker and author. She published her book, "A Manager's Guide to Coaching" (by American Management Association) in the arguably record time of 6 months. She learned a lot along the way, and now she's teaching a one-on-one course for others who want to take a shorter route along the rocky road of publication.

Anne is teaching the 10-week course to help you capture an agent's attention, get the right endorsements, and grab attention for your new book. Price is $1,500. Mention you saw it here and get 15 percent off (take the course for $1,200). Read about the entire training package that Anne offers.

A discount. Imagine that. Hey wait, I keep giving you guys information on discounts. By the way, publishing a book fits in well with Ben Glass' Great Legal Marketing!

Secretaries, Oh My

Why am I not a big fan of legal secretaries? Because they get in the way. Oh, don't get me wrong. A good secretary is worth her weight in gold. The key word here, however, is good. And those are hard to find.

Not only are good legal secretaries hard to find, but a legal secretary can get in the way of communication. You see, if I want to invite someone to lunch, I pick up the phone and call. It is pretty easy. However, there are many attorneys, and I mean many, who tell their secretary to call.

Great, so you say you want to take me to lunch, but you can't spend the 5 minutes setting up the appointment yourself? You send someone else to do it. What does that say to me? It says - in loud words - "I want to talk to you, but not that badly."

If you must have a secretary, find a good one. And let her do him/her do his/her job. But do not let him/her get in the way of you doing your job and communicating with people. After all, attorneys are communicators!

Use a name

No, not your own name. Use the other person's name. If you are calling me, say "Hi Jonathan." When we are done, if I have helped you, say "Thanks, Jonathan."

Two caveats:

1. Do not shorten someone's name unless they do it. Jonathan does not become Jon. Judith does not become Judy. Michael does not become Mike. I usually go by Jonathan. It is annoying when people call me Jon.

2. Do not screw up the name. If you are unsure about how to pronounce it, just ask.

Why do you do this? Because you show the person you are talking to that you are paying attention. It helps to make the other person feel a bit more important.

Free Marketing Tip: LawGuru

I have written about it before, but I think it bears repeating. Lawguru is a great way to get some free marketing and provide a service.

How it works: You sign up with Lawguru and provide a profile. You list the practice areas for which you can answer questions. People with legal questions post the questions and then they are emailed to you. If you want to answer it, great. Click the link and you can give an answer. If you don't want to answer it, just delete the email.

The benefits are numerous. First, you are helping people who generally have basic questions like where they can find a form or how long the statute of limitations is for an issue. Second, you get to see what areas of the law people are talking about. This is great if you are a blogger because it can give you an idea about topics for your blog. (This also works if you have a newsletter and need to fill it up.) Third, you get people reading your answers. I have somewhere around 40 people, on average, who read my answers. (They don't give you the specifics, but they do track how many questions you have answered and how many people have read your answers. Do some simple math.) Fourth, you may get a client out of it. I am contacted two to three times per week by people who read my answer and want a consultation. Not bad.

The downside: you will see a lot of attorneys who say "You need an attorney. Call me." That is not so helpful to the consumer. As long as you avoid this trap, you should be fine.

Check out Lawguru and see if it works for you.

Angels fly........

because they take themselves lightly. At least, that is what The Razor on KNBR tells us at the end of every show. Attorneys, on the other hand, sink because they take themselves too seriously.

Face it, most of us are not dealing with life or death issues. Sure, we may be dealing with a client who was injured. Or a contract dispute. Or an employment matter. But, most of our clients are not going to die over what we do.

I have two cases that I can think of where opposing counsel apparently thinks that this is a case of such great importance that they need to be a*******. I don't get it. They are disputes about money. That's it. Either they win money or I win money. End of story. What is so important about money? Sure, it helps, but its just money.

Remember not to take this too seriously. It is important, but it is not life and death.

Malpractice Insurance

I read an article today comparing malpractice carriers. There was a ton of information. However, one of the most important things was just glanced over: AM Best rating.

DO NOT SHOP INSURANCE ON PRICE ALONE!

Wheh, I hope that made a point. When you buy insurance, you are buying their promise to pay. If they are not there to pay, you have wasted your premium. You MUST buy malpractice coverage from an A rated carrier. Anything else will be a waste of your time.

Litigation by the numbers?

Yes, it exists. Holy cow! Litigation by the numbers is a California book that walks you through litigation. It starts with the filing of the complaint and goes through enforcement of your judgment.

Now, I don't normally recommend products. Remember, my list is very short. And this makes my list. Of course, it helps that my friend Eugene Lee recommends it. Since Gene is so much more eloquent than me, here is what he writes:

"I had to do a fax filing of a demurrer yesterday.  I flipped to the right section in your book and, voila!  Everything was right there, with simple, easy-to-understand and comprehensive step-by-step instructions.  I have to say, I honestly think your book is even more valuable than Rutter and CEB.  No lawyer should be without it.  This book should be at the top of the list of gifts to give any budding lawyer who has just pased the bar.  It's the gift that keeps on giving!  Julie, many thanks for writing this book!  You've helped lawyers everywhere!"

Look, if you are a law student or a new lawyer who actually litigates, you need to read this. Where else are you going to get one book to tell you everything you need to know? Oh, and the price is right!

The book is written by Julie Goren. I think this is something that you need to take a look at. It is a great book written by an excellent attorney (who happens to be very nice).

Stop the madness!

I know I post on this every so often. I still don't get it. Why do lawyers insist on playing games in trying to resolve disputes? Why do we try to hide the ball? What is hoped to be gained?

Look, my goals are very simple in handling cases and yours should be too: resolve the case most favorably to a client at a fair price. It is that simple. So, if you have a choice of doing A, which does not move the case towards conclusion and costs the client money, or doing B, which moves the case towards conclusion at some cost to the client, go with B. You will be happier every time.

Okay, so I am idealistic. Want a dollars and sense reason to do it? Imagine your client challenges your bill at the end of the case. In California, we have mandatory fee arbitration. You go to the fee arbitration and the arbitrator says to you "Mr. Stein, why did you force your opponent to file a motion that you lost when you knew you would lose? You charged your client 2 hours for that." It doesn't matter what your answer is. You just lost credibility to the fee arbitrator and that statement may get the client to think that not only does he have a fee arbitration issue, but he may also have a malpractice case.

It doesn't matter if he actually has a malpractice case, if he thinks he does and files a claim with your insurance or files a lawsuit against you, you have to pay your deductible. Now you are out of pocket the money for the fee arbitration and your deductible.

So, before you do something, make sure that you are moving your cases towards resolution.

You need another reason not to talk to the media?

I have been a proponent over here of not talking to the media. I don't think anything good can come of it. And, now, more evidence of that.

The DA in the Duke lacrosse rape case has been charged with ethics violations arising out of his comments to the press. Apparently, some of the comments he has made may have been "improper." At least one person thinks the defense attorneys may have also made improper statements.

Look, you never want to try a case in the media. You won't win. No one really wins. Let your lawyering speak for itself and if you absolutely MUST make a statement, make it as boring as possible. Try something along the lines of "We will let the legal system determine the outcome of the case." It is not sexy, but it will avoid you worrying about ethics charges down the road.

Billing Time

Okay, I admit it. I lost some time over the last week. I have been retained on an hourly matter and it is taken up much more time than you would expect. It hasn't been grueling legal work or work that requires much thinking. Just a lot of phone calls.

Anyway, while making all of these phone calls, I have not always been in my office. And, with a few other things going on, I have not been able to document all of my time as it is occuring. So, today, I tried to catch up and guess what? I lost hours.

Yes, I actually lost hours. Maybe it is like an episode of The Twillight Zone. Time has just disappeared.

Actually, I know I spent a lot of time on this file, but I just couldn't capture my time. I am an experienced time biller having been an insurance adjuster for years before I became an attorney. And all insurance adjusters know how to bill their time.

But, in this case, there have been so many ticky-tack phone calls (from people other than the client) that I just couldn't capture all of the time. It happens and we just have to accept that. So, a few ideas to capture as much time as possible:

1. Capture your time as you spend it;
2. Keep paper with you to capture time when you are not in the office;
3. When you get back to the office, put your time in immediately;
4. Use a code system as shorthand so you do not have to write out full details but you can still put details in your computer;
5. Make sure you spend a few minutes at the end of every day capturing your time.

There you have it. A few tips to help you make sure you bill all of your time!