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Financial Freedom Is Merely Organized Common Sense
Things Lawyers Know
Lawyers are interesting people with a rather unique worldview. The good ones are curious, quick-witted, competitive and practical.
They know things about the legal system that many clients would be well served to notice. Let’s call these the fundamental rules of law:
- No one goes to court for justice, they go to have the rules applied.
- Few criminal case defendants want justice, they want off.
- Every agreement has a flaw
- Every agreement will give you something. If you read it, you will get an education. If you don’t, you will get experience.
- A guarantor is an idiot with a pen.
- No lawyer litigates in vain if the client pays.
- Prepare every will and power of attorney as if it is your last. Eventually one will be.
- Oral agreements are worth no more than the paper they are written on.
- No agreement is more reliable than the people who contracted to do it.
- Using two Canadian coins, one of which cannot be a nickel, a lawyer can make 55 cents in many ways.
- Every client believes his case is better than it is.
- There is no guarantee of a good outcome with any case, in any court.
- Lawyers are word, not number, people. If their fee went up 10%, few lawyers would know how much extra they received.
- Surprises are devastating. Lawyers need all the facts before they start.
- A partner is something you make someone when you cannot afford to pay their salary any more.
- If you defend yourself, you have a fool for a client.
- If you are a witness, answer questions with as little information as possible. Yes and No are best.
- When the judge explains their reasoning for judgement, everything before the “but” is BS.
I am sure there are more. Feel free to add some in the comments section.
As an idea, justice is a bit intuitive. Law is not. The moral of the story is that justice and the law are not the same thing and you err when equating them.
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Don Shaughnessy is a retired partner in an international public accounting firm and is presently with The Protectors Group, a large personal insurance, employee benefits and investment agency in Peterborough Ontario. Contact: don@moneyfyi.com
moneyFYI 
Oh, yes. There’s “a man is considered innocent until he’s broke.”–Robert Blake
Wow. That hasn’t changed much in all these years.
Litigation is a mug’s game. Plaintiff or defendant, you will not be happy with the results or your case no matter what they are. And you will resent your lawyer’s bill. If you win, you will conclude that you were so obviously in the right, you could have done without a lawyer and still prevailed. What did your lawyer do for those kind of fees anyway? And if you lose, well, why pay a lawyer for making you a loser? . Settle your dispute any way other than by litigation: mediation, negotiation, boxing match, arm wrestle, coin flip are all very effective. And if it’s just a matter of principle (as many plaintiffs will claim) – ask a priest, rabbi, imam, wise uncle or other trusted sage who was right and who was wrong. They’ll tell you for free.
Wonderful advice. I once had a client with an 80% or so case whose lawyer advised him to invest the probable legal fee in business promotion and expect to do better. Smart lawyer with a client who trusted him and who did just that.
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