Homework #2: Hiring A Lawyer Exercise

A. For each situation (1-6)…

1. You are a housecleaner & were injured when a rickety bookshelf fell on your
head while you were cleaning at a client’s office. You want to file a personal
injury lawsuit to cover your medical bills and lost wages.

2. Your housecleaner was injured while cleaning the rickety bookshelves at the
office of the company you own. You need to defend a potential personal injury
lawsuit.

3. You need help setting up a corporation (specifically, an “LLC”) for your new
business.

4. You were arrested for DUI.

5. You’re planning to file for divorce.

6. You’re a builder who finished a project, but the person who hired you is
refusing to pay the last $1500 she owes. You want your money!

 …answer each of the following questions:

a) Should you hire a lawyer? Why or why not?

b) If so, what characteristics in a lawyer (or law firm) will you specifically be looking
for? Why?

c) How will you find this lawyer? Be specific.  Some examples:  I would call my
cousin, x, since he y a few years ago; I would look at z website, because it tells
me.

d) How (i.e., by the hour, contingency, fixed fee, some combination) do you expect/
want to pay? Why?  How much do you expect it to cost?  (No extensive
calculations here, just a general figure per hour, percentage, set fee you saw on
the web, whatever.)

e) Might you want to handle this issue without hiring a lawyer? How would you do it
instead? Why? What concerns might you have about doing it this way?

**More on the back**

B. Choose two (2) of the above scenarios and actually find a lawyer (either in the
way you described in #3 or some other way). Write his or her (or the firm’s) name
and explain why you chose the way you did. The more detail the better.

C.  Choose one (1) of the above scenarios and research how to do it yourself on
the web. Write the web address of the particular site you used (if applicable) &
approximately how much you would expect the job to cost. Then, explain the pros
and cons of doing it this way (as opposed to hiring an attorney to do it for you),
and tell me whether (in real life) you would likely try it, or you would choose to
hire an attorney instead.

Answer:

1. A. Yes, because I’m sure that a housecleaner doesn’t understand laws as much
as lawyer with a license to practice. To win a lawsuit that demand monetary
compensation, I think it’s important that you know which rules put the client in
liability to cover those bills and wages, that’s why I would hire a lawyer to find
these rules.

B. I think I would want a lawyer with good analytical skills, and research skills as
those two skills are important to know which rules would work or win this lawsuit
in favor of me. I would also find a lawyer in this case that has handle cases like
this because it means that he is familiar with this kind of situation.

C. I would look Google specifically with keyword “personal injury lawyer” because
there are a lot of types of lawyers, and I want the ones that are good in these
cases, and I think there are reviews about lawyers in the internet, so that would
help a lot for. Another option would be asking people who knows where to get a
good lawyer or how to like friends or acquaintances.

D. I think the most that would I pay for a lawyer for $150/hr, that’s the minimum
range that I found in the internet. I set this the maximum because I think this
amount is already a burden for a housecleaner and I expect it to cost from $500-
$1000 depending on the hours at the end.

E. I might want to solve this issue without a lawyer if I can solve this medical bills
with the owner of the office by negotiating and talk with the owners about the
burden of the medical bills, and potential of help from the owner to pay this, with
this me and the owner could save time and money from going to court and hire
lawyers. My concern for this is the negative response from the owner or in other
word, he/she would be unwilling to pay or negotiate for this.
 2. A. If there is a potential injury lawsuit to me, I would hire a lawyer to give me an
explanation under what rules I’m liable for his/her medical expenses and would it
be cheaper to solve this personally with the victim without going to the court.

B. I would try to find first lawyers that have experiences in this kind of situations
and an expert which is personal injury lawyer. Another characteristic that I want
would be a calm lawyer and the ones that doesn’t always think court is always
the way to win, because this type of lawyer can give me other advice on how to
solve this besides going to the court.

C. I would ask my business associate and acquaintance as I’m sure those people
have at least an experience with lawsuit and how to choose the right lawyer for it,
or giving me directions how to negotiate with the victim so that he/she won’t bring
this to the court.

D. I would say if it can win me in the court, I’m willing to pay until $300-400/hr
since I think it’s still cheaper than paying someone’s medical bills which is very
expensive here in U.S. In the end I would say it would cost up to $4000.

E. I would do that if my lawyer say it’s worth it rather than going to the court and
spend more money. I would talk to the victim and negotiate about the
compensation. My concern for this would be the reluctance of the victim for the
negotiation or the amount of monetary compensation amount that sometimes is
over valued by the victim.

3. A. I think it’s important when setting up a new business to hire a lawyer to make
sure that you are doing it right to make your company into LLC (Limited Liability
Corporation) and legalize it, so that when something bad happens, your private
assets will not be taken.

B. I will find famous lawyer that handle business cases because it means that
he/she is familiar with these situations and specialized in this, and a lawyer that’s
careful in examining rules and telling me steps so that nothing wrong will happen
in the future.

C. I would ask my parent because both are experienced in setting up businesses

and my dad has his own lawyer for his company, so maybe I would call his
lawyer to ask for advice in setting up my business.

D. I would maybe consider for maximum of $100/hr since when you’re starting up
company, you need to be efficient and I would expect maybe around $400-600 at
the end for the cost.

E. I think I might do this without lawyer if my business is a small business that

almost requires legal work at all because I think many government in the world
encourage small businesses to grow, so the rules are not that complicated for small
businesses. I would do the legal like filling up forms by myself and look at the internet if I
have trouble understanding some questions in the form and research it by myself. My
concern for this would be my limited understanding if something in setting up this
business has something to do with law and requires me to answer questions regarding
the laws.

4. A. For this I would hire a lawyer, because DUI’s are where the government gets
serious. So, to win or at least have lenient punishment, I would hire a lawyer to
help me get these results.

B. I would hire a lawyer with calm, good communication skills, and people skills. I
think these attributes are important for my lawyer to convince the judge to reduce
my punishment or even can win my case.

C. I would ask my guardian to help me find a lawyer or at least get suggestion to

where do I have to come to get a lawyer since my guardian is a very experienced
person and I think he has this all experience to help me find a lawyer.

D. I would expect maybe around $150-300/hr that is within my range because I’m
a student and I don’t have that much money to pay a lawyer for a DUI case. I
would expect maybe up to $1500 at the end to pay the lawyer.

E. I would if I don’t have enough money to hire one since I know that the states
can provide you with a lawyer in court if you are unable to hire one. My concern
is whether if it’s as good as someone that you hire because you trust lawyer that
you hired compared to a lawyer that’s assigned to defend you, it could be a
lawyer that handle this case the first time.

5. A. Yes, I would to make sure that assets that belong to me is going to be mine
after the divorce and to get fair number of assets that belong to both of us. The
other thing is if you have children, I wanted to make sure I get the custody of my
children.

B. Lawyer who always put family first rather than bringing me and my wife
straight to the steps for legalizing the divorce because sometimes people are just
angry at each other and still love each other and that’s why I would hire a lawyer
that wants to sort this thing out first before bringing it to the court.

C. I would try to search in the internet about lawyers that can help to work out the
relationship of their clients before filing divorce if it doesn’t work out. I would also
be looking for a lawyer that can help me get as much as my assets in case the
divorce is going.

D. Depends on my assets, if I have huge assets I would spend as much as $400-

500/hr just to make sure that I can save my assets. I would estimate around
$2000-3500 in the end.
 E. Yes, if I can sort my relationship with my wife by trying to get together again, I
would not need a lawyer. Sometimes, things are unpredictable and I need to
prepare if the divorce is happening, that’s why I would hire a lawyer.

6. A. Of course I would hire a lawyer to file a lawsuit because it’s clear that she
owes me and doesn’t want to pay me.

B. I think for this one I’m looking for a lawyer like a bulldog, because sometimes
cases like this needs this type of lawyer. I think this type of lawyer have passion
to win.

C. I’m going to search in the internet for a lawyer that have handled this type of
cases and won compensation for his/her clients because this shows me how
good he is.

D. I expect it less than the amount of that she owes, like maybe maximum of
$150/hr. If it’s too expensive, it’s not worth it since the amount she owes is only
$1500. I would expect at the end it will cost around $600-1000.

E. Well, if she paid her debt to me, I would not file a lawsuit against her. I would
solve it first by negotiating and ask her to pay her debt. My concern would be her
unwillingness to pay the debt.