Posted By:
warshawlawYet another potshot at attorneys.
Contrary to what you might think, we lawyers (especially the ones in solo or small practices) do a lot of free work. The most basic is the free consultation most lawyers offer clients. If you go to the doctor for a consultation and it turns out you have a cold that he can't help you with, you get billed, right? Not so with an attorney. Probably 90% of the up calls I get do not turn out to be paying cases for me, but I hear out the clients, give them the best advice I can, and I get zippo for my troubles. I've sat on free legal clinic panels on weekends (with lots of my colleagues, BTW), worked up contracts for local charities (girl scouts, temples), been a volunteer arbitrator for the court system, etc. I handled a simple family law matter (a type of case I HATE doing) last year all the way through a trial because I felt sorry for the people who came to me with it. I didn't even get back my out of pocket costs on that one.