Solo In Chicago…Grow Your Practice!

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A thoughtful post from the Dirty Lawyer on being “available” as an attorney.

Defendant hurls file, striking judge in face

Judges sometimes throw the book at defendants, but defendants don’t usually throw things at judges.

On Wednesday, though, Damen Toy hurled a thick legal file at Cook County Judge James Obbish during a sentencing, striking the judge in the face, according to witnesses. The incident prompted Obbish to slap an extra six months onto Toy’s 75-year sentence.

Full article. This is why I’m civil only…all I ever see is the occasional verbal outburst.

Well I had a paternity case over 32 W. Randolph recently and lo and behold the opposing attorney withdrew. How to proceed? This comes up a bit in some of these domestic relations cases and in eviction matters.

1. My client’s interests come first. If you can take advantage of the opposing party’s lack of experience (frankly whether a pro se or attorney situation) for the advantage of your client, do it! I didn’t say be fraudulent or unethical. I said get the best result for your client using this potential advantage. Use discovery and pleading formalities to your advantage.

2. Be the “objective voice” and lower the temperature. This is important in most of my cases where we’re dealing with people bickering about totally not relevant issues in domestic relations cases. Cut to chase and see what the pro se litigant wants…it might be tenable and you can get the case settled.

3. How to handle judge “softness” with pro se litigants. This is a tough one and I don’t think there’s one answer. The issue is pro se litigants being able to get away with stuff and just ramble on in court. I don’t think too many judges do a great job of “controlling” the pro se litigants. And then your client thinks, oh, she/he is getting to spout off and such and why aren’t I? You as lawyer may need to aggressively stop these outbursts in court.

ABA’s Law Practice Today had a good piece entitled, Ten Golden Rules to Make Your New Client Happy. Some of the tips we’ve seen before, but I thought this was a good, new one:

1) Send Your New Client a “Client Welcome Kit”

I am amazed at how few law firms do this. In addition to a well-written cover letter from the managing partner, include your firm brochure, a client service pledge, a current list of contacts with direct dial phone numbers and email addresses and a nice gift.

CBA is starting to post podcasts of various seminars. Not too many posted yet, but what’s there is free.