Lawyer Land

I'm late. I'm sorry. A guest spent the night on Sunday night. Plus there was the Patriots game. That doesn't really account for all of the lateness though. Most of it was due to late-night video game playing. In any case, on to the post....

Contrary to most people, I have a fond spot in my heart for lawyers. To me, there is something pure about the law. It represents order and unbiased logic. It is the system of rules by which we live, and a lawyer delves into this lake of purity to find the great fish of truth. I actually considered going to law school before realizing that I really didn't want to do all of the grunt work that young lawyers need to do in order to make the big $$$ to pay off student loans. 100 hour weeks also aren't very appealing.

Recently, I had an encounter with my landlord's lawyer (or the lawyer of the late father, I'm not really sure). I had heard that he was a respectable fellow and contacted him in hopes that he could act as a bridge between my landlord and me. I reasoned that I could have a constructive conversation with the lawyer and that the lawyer could then have a constructive conversation with my landlord. (If you are wondering why I couldn't have a constructive conversation with my landlord just read back a few posts.)

When I arrived at the lawyer's office I quickly saw that my expectations would not be met. Instead of acting in good faith, the lawyer tried to bully me. He said that I had a problem and that my lease was not valid. I remained civil and refuted every one of his potential arguments concerning the validity of the lease. Of course it didn't hurt that I had received legal counsel confirming that the lease is indeed valid. The whole conversation really brought out the (potential) lawyer in me and I genuinely enjoyed the game of negotiating/posturing. I would like to think that I handled the situation with grace and that one of us left the office with dignity. But then again, he is a lawyer, so I'm not sure how much dignity he has to lose. (See how quickly I've become jaded with the field.) The result of the meeting was that I am supposed to call the lawyer back with approximate damages caused by the landlord breaking the lease and he now knows that Michelle and I won't be pushed around.

A tangent to the story:

The discussion with the lawyer included a type of bullying that I find incredibly childish. My position entering the discussion was that our lease is valid and that Michelle and I have consistently acted in good faith. The lawyer's position was that our lease is not valid due to reasons explained in a previous post. The lawyer's argument of choice for helping to determine the matter was to tell me that I am wrong and that he is right. Does this strike anybody else as incredibly stupid? OK, so you say the lease is not valid. Well I say the lease is valid. So there. If the lease is indisputably not valid, we wouldn't be having the conversation in the first place. We are meeting because the validity of the lease is in question.

It also bothers me that while the lawyer may think he is acting in the best interests of his client (it would certainly be best for them if we just gave in to all of their demands) I don't think he is acting in the best interests either of the law or the client. He had the opportunity to broker a deal that both sides could agree to live with, at minimal cost to his client, but instead chose a confrontational approach that will end up costing his clients more. In that regard the lawyer was truly acting in his own best interests. The longer this gets drawn out, the more meetings he has, the more times he has to appear in court (if it gets to that) will mean more money for him. To be honest, he has little incentive to reach a mutually agreeable solution quickly. My father explained to me that often times lawyers will reject a settlement with an insurance agency and prepare for trial. Immediately before trial they will settle the suit for the exact amount they could have settled for initially. There was never any intention of going to trial, but this way the lawyer gets to bill a whole heck of a lot more.

Pundits banter about the degree to which lawyers and malpractice suits have contributed to the rising cost of health care in America. I wonder if anyone has ever quantified the degree to which the legal profession has increased the overall cost of either general insurance or even of cost of living. Seriously, the number must be out there somewhere.