The Untethered Lawyer

Making A Decent Cup Of Coffee In A Hotel Room

Jay Fleischman — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:39:38 +0000

I’m in Tucson this weekend for the Members-Only Workshop being put on be the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys. The hotel is gorgeous, the weather beautiful, the company fantastic. But I’ve got a problem, and that’s my caffeine addiction.

See, my morning ritual begins with a cup of coffee at home. On the road, I have the choice of either doing without it entirely or slogging down to the hotel coffee shop for my morning fix. After all, those little coffee makers in hotel rooms … well, they suck. Coffee comes out thin, tasteless, and makes me even more ornery than I was when I woke up.

I found a fix awhile ago and wanted to share it. I’d give attribution but I’ve forgotten who told me. If it was an online source it was probably Lifehacker, but who knows?

First, run your water through the coffee machine without any coffee.

Second, run the hot water back through the machine – this time with the coffee.

I think the problem is that the heating mechanism in these cheapo coffee machines doesn’t bring the water to a temperature sufficient to release the flavor from the coffee grinds. But once you heat it and then re-run it through, the water is at a far better level.

I’ve just made my morning cup and am enjoying it before hitting the speaking circuit this morning, and I can tell you it works just fine.

Photo courtesy of svanes.

Saving GMail To Your Hard Drive

Jay Fleischman — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:40:50 +0000

Lots of lawyers use Gmail for their email needs, be it the standard “@gmail.com” version of the wildly-popular Google Apps. But we get nervous when it comes to keeping all of that valuable electronic data in the cloud. What if the messages are lost? What if I don’t have Internet access just when I need to get that attachment?

You’ve got a few options.

First, just use IMAP to download your email from the Google servers and keep it in sync between your computer and the cloud. It takes awhile the first go around, but if that’s how you routinely access Gmail then it’s pretty quick and reliable.

This is the option I use, and it works perfectly. I can access my GMail account 24/7/365, and I’m always confident in my ability to get my hands on important messages and attachments whenever I want to do so.

There is, however, a second option. You could go with GMail Backup, which is free. This is especially handy if you’re bumping up to your storage limit and don’t feel like opening up a second GMail account.

GMail Backup saves and restores a full archive of your Gmail email account. The downside is that though It’s available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, you get a graphical interface only with Windows. If you’re on a Mac or Linux, you’re forced to work through Terminal to get it done.

I’ve used GMail Backup on my Mac, and it wasn’t a big deal to use Terminal and go it without a graphical interface. But I’m a geek, so I get it if you’re not keen on the idea of tinkering under the hood.

Unbundled Legal Services Or Self-Represented Consumers? You Decide.

Jay Fleischman — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:00:00 +0000

I recently came across a study by the New York State Bar Association that says that each year, New Yorkers experience a total of 2.5 million legal problems per year for which no lawyer is available. Some of these people do nothing at all, others try to do it on their own.

Both of these groups concerns me, and should be cause for worry on the part of every lawyer.

Consider this: if someone has a legal problem and does what I like to call the, “ostrich in the sand,” routine, that person invariably ends up getting raked over the coals. They get evicted, their bank account gets frozen, the kids don’t get child support, the house is lost to foreclosure. Choose your poison, the end result isn’t ever good.

Don’t believe me? Talk to any one of the millions of American homeowners caught up in the foreclosure crisis and ask them if they’ve got the money to hire a lawyer to adequately defend them – particularly in the specialized area concerning the transfer and securitization of mortgage obligations. Take it from a lawyer who actively defends foreclosure cases when I tell you that it ain’t gonna happen too often. Simply put, the cost of private counsel in these matters is prohibitive to many homeowners.

Now let’s flip to the other side of the fence and talk about pro se litigants. Look, I understand why someone would “take the law into their own hands,” and either bring a lawsuit or defend one without a lawyer. But there again, when looking to specialized fields of law such as bankruptcy, credit card lawsuit defense and consumer protection work the waters are murky indeed. So much of this stuff is impossible to understand unless you’ve gone through years of education (and spent a bunch of time learning from the feet of the masters).

Once again, think I’m wrong? Go to your local civil court one morning and watch the consumers who bother to show up to defend lawsuits brought against them for credit card debts. Most of these lawsuits are filed without any lawyer review, without proof that the debt is truly owed by the consumer, and without any sense of how the amount demanded was calculated.

Many of these cases could be easily won if only the consumer had some amount of legal representation and background knowledge. Instead, people either fail to show up to court to defend themselves or use, “I can’t pay you now,” as a defense. Neither one of these is a good tactic to use.

And don’t get me started on consumers representing themselves in lawsuits against harassing bill collectors and credit reporting agencies. They don’t. Period.

I’m not saying that self-help isn’t effective sometimes. In fact, there are many excellent resources available from companies such as Nolo to help guide consumers in helping themselves. But the reality is that for many, not having a lawyer at all is the kiss of death for their legal needs. They’re left in the dark, relying on unreliable sources of information and cobbling together defenses and causes of action that may not be legally viable.

So what’s the solution? There are a few options:

Increased funding for legal aid and legal services programs. This is a great idea, but if you talk to anyone who works in legal aid or legal services you’ll find that they are understaffed, underpaid, and overworked on basic matters being handled for the truly poverty-stricken (criminal, eviction, child support and domestic violence). Besides, is it the place of legal aid and legal services programs to provide representation for the middle class? Nope.
Create a workable framework for unbundled legal services and limited representation. By allowing and standardizing unbundled legal services for consumer protection and bankruptcy work, consumers have the ability to gain basic knowledge and a cost they can more readily afford. Lawyers end up charging less for basic aspects of their legal representation, but would potentially make up that loss through the increased amount of business (you have more time to take on more matters if you’re spending less time on each one) and lower staffing needs (you don’t need to hire more courtroom lawyers if you’re not handling the depositions and trial work). Lawyers providing unbundled legal services would also be able to be brought back into a matter later on (presumably at full fee) if it was required by the facts and circumstances of the case.

As you can tell, the business model of unbundled legal services is one that fascinates me. It can be a cornerstone of a virtual law firm, it can serve as an additional profit center, and – most importantly – it can enable a lawyer to do more good work for more people, which is good karma.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments below – I’m anxious to hear your opinions.

Photo courtesy of scion_cho.

Just Released – The Untethered Lawyer For The Kindle

Jay Fleischman — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:24:14 +0000

Love to read about being free from the confines of your office? Now you can learn on the go with The Untethered Lawyer – Kindle Edition. I decided to make the blog available on Kindle because … well, because I’ve gotten a few requests for it on the blog and privately.

I don’t expect to make much money off this deal – I think I get under $1 for each person who subscribes – but it’s a cool delivery mechanism for people who love their Kindle.

Get it by clicking here. And while you’re on the site, why not submit a user review of The Untethered Lawyer? I’d really appreciate the feedback about what we talk about here, and it would help new readers to get a sneak peek.