Free legal advice -- worth every penny

[seamusTX]

If you have a legal problem that may affect you and your family for the rest of your life ...

1. Hire a lawyer.

Your lawyer is sworn to defend your interests to the best of his ability and maintain your confidentiality. He must maintain your confidentiality until he goes to his grave.

You cannot play this game by yourself. A real lawyer can eat your lunch, and judges will regard you with contempt.

I tried this once, when I was young and naive. The judge said, "Who do you think you are, Perry Mason?" Then he gave me a break that I would not bet on getting a second time.

2. Do not type one word about your situation into a computer or talk about it to anyone other than your lawyer, your spouse, or your minister.

Everyone else can be subpoenaed, deposed, and compelled to answer questions. The answers can harm you. Your house, papers, and effects can be searched. The powers that be have learned that searching hard disks can be a gold mine.

That's it. Thank you for your attention.

- Jim

[atxgun]

Your post begs the question... what's the backstory to #1

[seamusTX]

It was a traffic ticket. I tried to educate the court about what the law "really" meant. He said what I said he said, then consigned me to driver education and court costs.

The lesson stuck with me. If it had been a criminal offense, I could have been in real trouble.

- Jim

[nitrogen]

Fighting on your own for a traffic ticket, or similar offense isn't always a losing proposition.

I've done it when I lived in Arizona a few times, only once losing.

Never done it in Texas though. You may be right about Texas.

[atxgun]

I have a coworker that's a car nut and heck-bent on getting out of every speeding ticket or traffic citation. He has a high success rate by himself, but unfortunately he has a high ticket rate as well.

As a corollary to this, I hope to never be on the same stretch of road as him.

[seamusTX]

Fighting on your own for a traffic ticket, or similar offense isn't always a losing proposition.
I've done it when I lived in Arizona a few times, only once losing.
Never done it in Texas though. You may be right about Texas.

My "Perry Mason" episode was in the town of Willow Springs, Illinois, which I used to drive through on my way to work a long, long time ago (1970s).

This town made about half its revenue from traffic tickets at that time. It was too small a town to have its own municipal court, so they had visiting judges from the county circuit. I lucked out on getting a judge who literally lived in my neighborhood.

Anyone depending upon that kind of luck should bet big money on the trifecta at Churchill Downs.

- Jim

[nitrogen]

Oh, IL!!! Yeah, forget about it.

My wife got railroaded in sandwich, IL. Cop ticketed her for 55 in a 45, then altered the ticket to 75, then sent her to collections when "she didn't pay enough."

Luckelly, she saved her copy, and was able to convince the judge that the officer "was in error"
She was then charged court fees, which pretty much erased the "savings."

[stevie_d_64]

I'm with Jim on this one...

I'm voting on leaving the cleverness with the Judges and lawyers in the "system"...

We may think we know the law, and the angles to exploit little end-arounds to the law...

We want the truth...

We can't handle the truth...

[Venus Pax]

I also agree with seamus's advice. A little bit of knowledge is dangerous.

[seamusTX]

Thanks.

The problem with knowing the statutes by heart (which some members of this forum seem to do) is that you don't know trial procedures and case law that specialist lawyers have learned. They pay for services like Lexis-Nexis that they can use to research these issues, which an ordinary person cannot afford.

You can't expect to outsmart an experienced prosecutor who has been doing his job for decades, any more than you could win a fight with a professional boxer.

- Jim

[casingpoint]

You want to be your own lawyer, go to nolo.com for the legal handbooks. So effective, the Texas Bar Association once tried to get the Legislature to ban their delivery in the state.

The NOLO book entitled "Stand Up To The IRS" is correct right down to the last ink smear in dealing with that aforementioned agency.

NOLO isn't going to make you into a lawyer. But it will allow you to strike a blow within the judicial system from the group least expected, lay persons with small cases not economical for an attorney to represent.

It will also help you understand why and when you need a lawyer.

[Sodbuster]

I saw fit to represent myself in a civil suit back in the 70's. It was a jury trial in downtown Dallas, and the judge made a humongous deal before trial about how the jury was the backbone of our justice system, the one voice that rang out above all others. The trial commenced and proceeded. I thought I did a whale of a job touting my position, as any ignorant hick would, To make a long story short, the jury awarded me the verdict, and the judge promptly overturned the jury's verdict and let the other shiftless skunk get off scott free. (My apologies if anyone here is named either Scott or Skunk)