BRING BACK GOVERNOR PETE WILSON

BRING BACK GOVERNOR PETE WILSON
August 10, 2007
by Donie Vanitzian, JD
(c) 2007 D. Vanitzian
You can’t have a good old boys and girls club without a little help from friends in high places, of course, a little help from California’s State Bar wouldn’t hurt either. [FN1]
Forget for a moment that the term “affordable attorney” is an oxymoron and keep reading . . .
ALL WITHIN 24 HOURS:
I’m looking for an “affordable” attorney when I think, hey wait a minute! I remember a lawyer from way back when, and, well, he seemed all right back then, I’ll call him. I ask him, “How much do you charge an hour?” He says, “$475 but I think my firm’s raising the rate to $480, I’ll have to check.” The conversation continues and he says, “look we’ve been on the phone for 17 and half minutes and 32 seconds and I haven’t charged you anything. That should rekindle your faith in lawyers.” He explains that he’ll charge me $475/hr until the price changes to $480 an hour, but he’ll “lock in” the $475/hr as a favor to me until January 1, 2008 at which time the firm’s new hourly rate of $480 will kick in. I wait for him to call me back with the “final” rate that his firm will charge me. The next day I learn that the rate is $485/hr. I say, “didn’t you tell me it was going to be $480 at the end of year?” He says, “Look, I’m not gonna quibble about $5.” Nothing was mentioned of the $475/hr ever again. This guy makes more money in one hour than many people make in a week and he’s not gonna quibble over $5.00, needless to say he never mentioned the initial $475/hr price he first quoted me again.
Consumers are being denied representation. Contrary to all the statistics showing that California has too many attorneys, don’t believe it. California has a shortage of attorneys and the proof of that could basically be threefold:
(1) How hard is it to quickly find the right attorney?
(2) How hard is it to find an attorney with experience and expertise to handle your situation?
(3) How hard is it to find the right attorney at a price you can afford?
WHY BRING BACK PETE WILSON?
Bring back Governor Pete Wilson because he had the guts to pull the funding of the State Bar and put them in their place. That needs to happen again. Consumers file complaint after complaint at the Bar and what do they get back? This is a civil matter take it up in the courts. Translation: Hire an attorney ($480/hr) to sue ANOTHER attorney (their buddy) who will cross-complain against you, and fight you for free (because he will represent himself) all the way up to the Supreme Court and then he will put in for sanctions against you and motion the court for you to pay his attorneys fees -- that is, HIS fees AGAIN. Oh, by the way, the person who gave the California State Bar free reign was none other than that spineless Governor Wimp Ass Gray Davis of the infamous Davis-Stupid Act. HE is responsible for funding the Bar, giving them the government web site address, etc. Grey Davis is a California licensed attorney. Say no more!!!
Just like the industry cannot police its so-called B.S. certification programs (which are laughable) against its own so-called certified managers, so too, the California State Bar must stop policing its own. Which is even more reason for consumers to keep filing those complaints at the bar against errant attorneys -- file them and don’t stop filing them no matter the outcome of your complaint. The Consumers are eating it big time and paying for the privilege of losing the shirts off their backs.
CALIFORNIA FORCES ITS CITIZENS TO DO BUSINESS WITH ATTORNEYS
Gee, is it any surprise that nearly every California statute mentions attorneys and/or attorney fees? Would it have anything to do with the Legislators being attorneys themselves? Would it have anything to do with the Legislature being beholden to special interests, like, say, the Trial Attorney lobby? It is an understatement to say that consumers are under-represented and that the laws are not written for “us.” Rather, I am of the opinion that the laws written within the last three decades are calculated to insert attorneys into the statutory-equation and into the everyday lives and businesses of everyday Californians. As long as the code section exists, this calculated “special interest” keeps one profession statutorily employed with their fingers in every pot, uh, er, uh, rewrite: with their fingers in every bank account.
Consumers are literally left to fend for themselves. Oh, don’t get me wrong; the lawyers DO want to help you, for a price. That price often entails a retainer agreement, for some, it amounts to a down payment on a house purchase. What might not seem like much to that attorney, might be the entire salary for the person desperately in need assistance. It is worse with mediation and arbitration. One not only pays the mediator and/or arbitrator (some charge as much as $500-700/hr) -- add to that, your own attorney’s fees just to meet with, and sit in front of, a mediator and/or arbitrator. OF COURSE, the mediator and/or arbitrator is also an attorney.
The courts are not helpful to pro se or pro per defendants either and the court clerks are so arrogant it is a wonder they stay employed. I’ll save those stories for my next expose' as they are absolutely scandalous.
When I inquired from one attorney if he would consider pro bono in helping an elderly man in his 90’s who was partially paralyzed and all but bedridden, I was told that the “pro bono” time that the attorney would have otherwise donated, was used up by me in relaying the old man’s story to him.
In another case where I was being billed $400/hr the law firm's invoicing reflected 15 minute telephone calls, but my timer on such calls showed I only spoke for 2 minutes on one call, and 5 minutes on another, but got billed $100 for each call. I asked for an explanation, and boy did I get it!!! It goes like this: Attorney: "I can't bill less than 15 minute intervals because I have to get to the phone and then I have to gather my thoughts before I answer a call; and then I have to pick up where I left off when I hang up the phone. That's fifteen minutes down the drain right there that I can't get back."
CALIFORNIA'S BROKEN LEGAL SYSTEM AMOUNTS TO A SPECIAL BRAND OF LEGAL TERRORISM
When the statutes are so complicated that ordinary consumers cannot enforce everyday laws without hiring an attorney, the system is broken.
When the consumer cannot be taken seriously unless and until he or she hires an attorney to write a letter to the errant party, let alone the fact the attorney's letter is no better than the one you wrote, but no one would take you seriously because you are not an attorney, the system is broken.
When you cannot afford an attorney but the jerk that is suing you can, that is legal terrorism and the system is broken.
When you ask your attorney for the entire file, including emails and letters, and he threatens you that if you do not pay for it he will not give it to you -- even though the useless Bar says that's an offense, but s/he does it anyway, the system is broken.
When you have to coddle and kiss the ass of any attorney and act as if you like him or her because you fear they will screw up your case if you don't do that, the system is broken.
When you give your attorney evidence to use in your case and s/he fails to take it seriously and you lose because of it (and there is nothing you can do about it), the system is broken.
When you have filed ten complaints against errant attorneys at the California state bar, and the attorneys you filed against make up some total B.S. to weasel out of their criminal actions against you, and the Bar returns it to you with "it’s a civil action", the system is broken.
When you hire an attorney who parlays a $2,000 case into a $100,000 loser with nothing to show for it except your loss and then s/he says, "I did everything I could," the system is broken.
When your attorney soon becomes chummy-chummy and on a nickname basis with the bad attorney on the other side and you can't stop it because your attorney threatens to drop you (after depleting all your money and asking for more), the system is broken.
When you run out of money half way through a case that should have been dropped, and your attorney says I have to drop you because you can no longer afford me, the system is broken.
Of the majority of cases that land on my desk it appears that the minimum parlaying of fees is somewhere around $35,000 to $50,000. That means even if your case is “easy” and should have been resolved quickly for just a little bit of money, attorneys on either side will milk it until the cash register hits the magic numbers of $35,000 to $50,000.
These indicators can only mean one thing, and that is the so-called watchdog agency that is supposed to protect us, has failed miserably. They are too comfortable in their day jobs, or they have reached their level of incompetence. This will only change once the public's outcry is heard in full force.
Consumers are encouraged to file complaints against errant attorneys: http://calbar.ca.gov
Consumers are encouraged to contact the author with any management and manager complaints by contacting: http://www.certifymyass.com
~0~ [FN1] Author note: This particular article does not include all the good things about many wonderful attorneys, that is in another article that is due to be published later on this year

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