By contrast, this is how I practice law.
Last edited Sat Jul 15, 2017, 02:36 PM - Edit history (1)
I had a client who was in municipal court for unlawfully towing two vehicles in a parking lot. The owners had to pay him more than $300 together to get their cars back from storage and for fees.
My client knew he was wrong and wanted me to help him in court. It was more than a conviction and a fee. He wanted to continue to be on the list that the municipality used for illegal parking. This would be a significant demerit.
So I talked to him and got him to admit he knew it was wrong and he did it anyway.
I told him that there wasn't much I could do for him -- except for straightening out the mess he created.
I proposed that he return the money right away to the two owners of the vehicles with a note of apology that I would review and then mail on his behalf.
Of course initially he didn't want to do it. He wanted it all: to keep the money and to get away with his wrongdoing, likely to continue to do it.
I played hardball as I wasn't on record with the court yet as his representative and I could walk and let him find an attorney who would charge him more than $1,000 and couldn't deliver the goods either. I was asking $400 and offering him a second chance.
So I got my money, the money for the owners, and the two apology notes BEFORE we went to court. When we went before the judge, I put in a plea of guilty with an excuse. I presented the checks and apology notes and proceeded to tell the court that my client made a significant error in judgment, he admitted violating the law, he was sincerely sorry, he was ready to correct his mistake, and the judge would never see him again in his courtroom.
The judge was disarmed, taken aback as one doesn't see an individual admit guilt and a readiness to correct the violation except for almost never.
We got a conviction but the judge didn't impose a penalty under the circumstances.
My point: as an attorney, you don't pay the bills with my philosophy and business model, but you do have the opportunity to set things straight and maybe a client or two.
= new reply since forum marked as read
To his credit he put them in a newspaper bag. He was an employee at the store.
A flounder?
Shoplifter pinched by police after trying to walk out of store with live LOBSTERS in his pants
By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 15:03 EDT, 7 September 2011
A man in southern Mississippi is accused of trying to walk out of a D'Iberville grocery store without paying for live lobsters he had stuffed into his cargo shorts.
Nathan Mark Hardy, 35, was arrested on Saturday after allegedly being caught stuffing two bags of jumbo shrimp, a pork loin and two live lobsters into his pants.
Police Chief Wayne Payne said Hardy, of Biloxi, tried to escape by removing the pork loin from the waistband of his pants and throwing it at employees of the local Winn Dixie.
<snip>
'In all my years in law enforcement, I've seen people shoplift steaks and all kinds of items, but never live lobster,' Chief Payne told the Sun Herald. 'It’s a good thing the rubber bands didn’t break.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2034627/Shoplifter-pinched-police-trying-walk-store-live-lobsters-pants.html
