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Why I want to be a lawyer

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 12:53 pm
by SemperLegal
Perhaps this reflects poorly on me.

However at my job as a paralegal last night, a crazy pro se litigant (who is weirdly a highly-educated professional) sent an extremely inarticulate and poorly edited threatening email that a) insulted my grammar and prose and b) threatened to sue for attorney's fees if our client in a federal civil matted did not pay him damages claimed in a dismissed state court indictment. I got way too much pleasure out of drafting a three page response that can be summarized as "I am smarter then you, and my superior usage of Google and Cornell's Legal Information Institute website have made you look like a small child."

Please tell me this is what litigators do 100 percent of the time.

Re: Why I want to be a lawyer

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 1:05 pm
by postn0bills
pretty much.

Re: Why I want to be a lawyer

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 1:06 pm
by CanadianWolf
Challenging an angry pro-se litigant may not have been the wisest course of action.
How much was your client billed for this three page provocation ?

Re: Why I want to be a lawyer

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 1:08 pm
by thecilent
SemperLegal wrote:Perhaps this reflects poorly on me.

However at my job as a paralegal last night, a crazy pro se litigant (who is weirdly a highly-educated professional) sent an extremely inarticulate and poorly edited threatening email that a) insulted my grammar and prose and b) threatened to sue for attorney's fees if our client in a federal civil matted did not pay him damages claimed in a dismissed state court indictment. I got way too much pleasure out of drafting a three page response that can be summarized as "I am smarter then you, and my superior usage of Google and Cornell's Legal Information Institute website have made you look like a small child."

Please tell me this is what litigators do 100 percent of the time.
:D

Re: Why I want to be a lawyer

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 1:18 pm
by SemperLegal
CanadianWolf wrote:Challenging an angry pro-se litigant may not have been the wisest course of action.
How much was your client billed for this three page provocation ?
Zero dollars, I am not sure it was even survived lawyer review, I obviously was not going to send a provocation without approval from the boss. My guess is that the attorney will let the client decide if he wants to have it sent and the client will approve it, since he is going to jail on unrelated charges.

The reason that he was not billed is that we took it on a flat fee (which is pretty standard for the type of case that this is) since we represent his other companies on at least ten other matters. If the litigant formally files what a normal court would call a third-party complaint, we shift to hourly billing. Pretty sure that gave away what kind of case this is.

Re: Why I want to be a lawyer

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 2:57 pm
by jgloster
SemperLegal wrote:Perhaps this reflects poorly on me.

However at my job as a paralegal last night, a crazy pro se litigant (who is weirdly a highly-educated professional) sent an extremely inarticulate and poorly edited threatening email that a) insulted my grammar and prose and b) threatened to sue for attorney's fees if our client in a federal civil matted did not pay him damages claimed in a dismissed state court indictment. I got way too much pleasure out of drafting a three page response that can be summarized as "I am smarter then you, and my superior usage of Google and Cornell's Legal Information Institute website have made you look like a small child."

Please tell me this is what litigators do 100 percent of the time.
It should be: "I am smarter than you, and my superior usage of Google and Cornell's Legal Information Institute website has made you look like a small child."

Re: Why I want to be a lawyer

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 2:58 pm
by Ginj
jgloster wrote:It should be: "I am smarter than you, and my superior usage of Google and Cornell's Legal Information Institute website has made you look like a small child."
:lol:

Re: Why I want to be a lawyer

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2010 3:05 pm
by DukeCornell
jgloster wrote:
SemperLegal wrote:Perhaps this reflects poorly on me.

However at my job as a paralegal last night, a crazy pro se litigant (who is weirdly a highly-educated professional) sent an extremely inarticulate and poorly edited threatening email that a) insulted my grammar and prose and b) threatened to sue for attorney's fees if our client in a federal civil matted did not pay him damages claimed in a dismissed state court indictment. I got way too much pleasure out of drafting a three page response that can be summarized as "I am smarter then you, and my superior usage of Google and Cornell's Legal Information Institute website have made you look like a small child."

Please tell me this is what litigators do 100 percent of the time.
It should be: "I am smarter than you, and my superior usage of Google and Cornell's Legal Information Institute website has made you look like a small child."
+1