OT: Holy Cow!

[Brian Krashpad]

Well, a couple months ago, one of our firms' best clients hired me to be his counsel for purposes of a personal case. In other words, usually he hires my firm (not me personally) to do work on cases wherein he, as an attorney, represents his various clients.

In this thing from awhile back though, the case was his own. He had taken a specialization certification test in a particular area of the law, but not passed it. The Florida Bar gives these tests in various legal subjects (like criminal law, real property, tax, family, elder law, etc.), and if you pass it you can put that you are "certified" in that area by the Florida Bar, on all your ads, CV, etc. And in turn use that certification to justify a higher billable rate due to your expertise.

Anyhow, the Bar doesn't allow test results out of their offices, nor is anyone allowed to make copies of them. So if you want to appeal a failing score, you first have to go to the Bar's offices and sit there and review the test answers and the Bar's official answers, and take notes, and then later use that to draft an appeal arguing that you should have passed and why.

So anyhow, our client hired me personally to drive downstate and be his counsel of record to review the answers. That was a nice little chunk of change. Then he hired our firm to actually write the appeal.

I just heard from him via e-mail that he actually WON the damn thing.

I would have bet good money against that result. Not that the test didn't have some serious flaws in its suggested "correct" answers, but, face it, the Florida Bar generally doesn't like being told by some lone ranger how screwy its test answers are.

Woo-hoo!

Brian Krashpad, 1, Florida Bar, 0.

[Spudman***]

Does that mean there is another lawyer lose in the world?

[Brian Krashpad]

Does that mean there is another lawyer lose in the world?

Haha, nope, he's been a lawyer for years. This is not the Bar Exam, to get in, it's a Certification Exam, to claim you have expertise in a certain area.

The best part is, this guy really is a great lawyer in his subject area. The whole taking the test rigamarole is bullsh*t. He's also a really great guy.

This is the same guy that's offered to hire me on several occasions. I'm guessing at this point the offer still stands. Business has been really sucky of late, and frankly I hope I don't ever have to take him up on it. He's about 6 hours downstate of me.

[marnold***]

Ph34r the Krash.

[poodlesrule]

The best part is, this guy really is a great lawyer.....

OK.

Now we want to know if he has an interest in music and specifically guitar playing?

Is his house/yard big enough for a house concert, and spouse is not allergic to loud music?

[Brian Krashpad]

OK.

Now we want to know if he has an interest in music and specifically guitar playing?

I honestly don't know. Fwiw, he does know I'm a musician and that I'm in a bunch of different bands. He came up to Gainesville a year or so ago to visit his significant other, and I took him to lunch. That's basically unheard of for my frims clients, whom we never meet irl.

Is his house/yard big enough for a house concert, and spouse is not allergic to loud music?

I'm guessing his house is big enough, from the interior shots I've seen. As far as his significant other goes, I don't think the state of Florida allows them to legally be married. So probably not "spouse." I doubt he's allergic to loud music, but have no specific facts on which to base that guess.

[Spudman***]

As far as his significant other goes, I don't think the state of Florida allows them to legally be married. So probably not "spouse."

I would have thought wills and bankruptcy cases would be plentiful right now. Does your firm do that work? What about wills? It sucks not having work.

[Brian Krashpad]

I would have thought wills and bankruptcy cases would be plentiful right now. Does your firm do that work? What about wills? It sucks not having work.

We do whatever our clients do. A lot of wills and bankruptcy cases are not heavily litigated, or if they are, are not complex. Or if they are complex don't involve enough money to involve outside research counsel. Our clients tend to ask for our help on the difficult stuff, and when there's a lot of money swinging. If it's easy, we never hear about it.

Not to say those things can't be difficult. But we get very few of them.

[sunvalleylaw]

Congrats counsellor. Always nice to notch a win!

[Brian Krashpad]

Congrats counsellor. Always nice to notch a win!

Thanks Steve. As you know, often the quality of representation does not result in a positive result. In this case I seriously doubted it would result in a win, despite that I thought I did a damn good job in issue-spotting and argument, based on my experience in the specific subject-matter area. Frankly, I could not have done this good a job in any other subject area, but it had not only been the bulk of my work in general over the years, but has also been almost everything I have done with/for this client.

[Commodore 64***]

Did you order the Code Red?

[FrankenFretter***]

Right on, Brian! Good on ya!

[Brian Krashpad]

Did you order the Code Red?

You can't handle the truth!

[deeaa*]

OT, is it true that every American knows at least one lawyer?

I've never even met a lawyer that I'd know and I've got divorces behind me even...but I never even came close to needing one. Sometimes people would have a lawyer take care of these kind of things and stuff like land/estate sales etc. but so far I've managed just fine without one. I mean, how hard can it be to write a pre-nuptial or a deed to a house etc, it's all in the books how you do it anyway. I suppose we do have lawyers who also deal with normal people's issues, but I think it's more like they are in courts/criminal cases.

One of my childhood friends and band buddies from wayyy back is a judge, though, in the south of the country.

[Brian Krashpad]

OT, is it true that every American knows at least one lawyer?

All the people I know do.

I've never even met a lawyer that I'd know and I've got divorces behind me even...but I never even came close to needing one. Sometimes people would have a lawyer take care of these kind of things and stuff like land/estate sales etc. but so far I've managed just fine without one. I mean, how hard can it be to write a pre-nuptial or a deed to a house etc, it's all in the books how you do it anyway.

Well, it's all in books how build a rocket or a skyscraper, but I wouldn't try to do it. Without training to use those books you have no contextual knowledge to know whether what you're doing is right. Further, in the US law is not only found in statute books but reported appellate case law. I don't know about Finnish family law, but no way should most people in the US try to draft their own pre-nuptial agreements. Pure folly.

Our president Lincoln is reputed to have said that a person who represents himself has a fool for a client.

Present company excepted , of course.

[marnold***]

Can't speak for every American, but I know several--even before I came here and met Krash, Shiner, et al. The only time I've ever personally made use of a lawyer is in writing up a will. Even then, we got all the info together with someone else and just handed it to him to make it all official-like. My will is only really necessary for the kids so my relatives wouldn't have to fight WI probate for custody. Lord knows we don't have any money to worry about.

[Robert****]

Congrats, Mr Expert Advisor Brian Krashpad!

[deeaa*]

OK...well my old nuptial agreement was merely a few lines, simply saying that we agree that all the existing debts and possessions of either remain so despite the marriage. There was nothing else. Simple enough. Then we just put in a bank safe. Would have held up in any situation...but when we had our divorce there wasn't any argument anyway, she just left and we notified the authorities we're no longer married.

We also have a will, which simply says that in the case of either one dying, we'd prefer for his/hers entire assets to remain in the spouse's free usage, i.e. not be yielded to heirs until seen appropriate by the surviving member.

I get the idea that the U.S. law system is incredibly complex from the gazillion law etc. series we also watch...it's an endless source of amusement for sure...but here it's much simpler. There's no waivers etc. or all kinds of liability suites etc...and it's pretty easy for anybody to read how the laws go in which cases on the internet and that's pretty much how it goes in reality as well, so all you maybe need to do is some amends like our nuptial agreement was. Or when I bought my house I just wrote a sales document as per instructions on the net and had a notariat office finalize it into city archives, or something.

I didn't bother with a nuptial agreement with my current wife, though.

[Kazz]

Congrats Brian.....