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Bad Economy: My Fault

Jun 3, 2009
By .
Law Practice

I'm sitting in a room in Fresno. I'm here as one of five lawyers at a deposition. All five of us drove here from Los Angeles, a four-hour drive in medium traffic. All of us will sit through the deposition for three days, and have talks each day that we will describe as "conferred with" in our bills. Then all of us will drive back through Friday traffic. The plaintiff's lawyer is not charging anyone by the hour, of course. But various large entities are paying for the time of the other four lawyers. Counting travel, and our modest Fresno hotel rooms ($89 corporate rate for a perfectly decent room), and the hours the lawyers spent assembling exhibits and preparing to ask questions at the deposition, I conservatively estimate that the entire enterprise will cost the corporate clients $65,000.

That's some employee's salary and benefits for a year. Or a new piece of heavy equipment. Or a good chunk of inventory for a small business.

It has to come from someplace.

Sorry about that.

Last 5 posts by Ken

7 Comments
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7 Comments

  1. Brandon  •  Jun 3, 2009 @11:17 am

    Welcome to the Central Valley, Ken. Thanks for the "stimulus package" for our local economy! :)

  2. Ken  •  Jun 3, 2009 @11:30 am

    Thank you, Brandon.

    On the way up — somewhere short of Bakersfield — I saw what appeared to be a topless bar housed in several connected trailers. The sign said something like "Bob's top less [sic] place".

    Some of the small towns along 99 are stunningly beautiful in the golden hour before dusk.

  3. Brandon  •  Jun 3, 2009 @12:15 pm

    MOST of the towns along 99 get more beautiful the darker it gets. :) I vaguely remember a thread about your trip on the Board That Must Not Be Named, and most of the posts there accurately (if derisively) described the area.

    California's Central Valley – The Flint/Detroit of the West Coast; come for the crushing poverty, stay for the gang activity!

    Seriously, though–if you're in Fresno all week, swing by the River Park area on the northern part of town. You'll find several nice restaurants (PF Chang's, Ruth's Chris, etc.) there. If you've got a few hours of free time, you're about an hour west of Yosemite National Park with all of it's natural attractions.

  4. Jag  •  Jun 3, 2009 @12:42 pm

    Don't even get me started on litigation costs. My company has one case pending right now and it's central Michigan. We're already over $200k in fees before trial.

    It is an extremely frivolous case and the unemployed plaintiff won't take less than $1 million (apparently they don't believe in Rule 11 in rural Michigan). The case is worth nuisance value at best so it's going to trial. Probably another $150-200k in fees and costs.

    In my 15 years as a lawyer, I have never had a case that just thinking about it fills me with uncontrolled rage.

  5. Charles  •  Jun 3, 2009 @12:58 pm

    Spend the money on a GM vehicle and the economy is saved!

    The country is in your hands, Ken.

  6. Transplanted Lawyer  •  Jun 3, 2009 @2:23 pm

    If the case justifies a three-day-long deposition there must be a lot more at stake than $65K. I mean, I sure hope that there's more at stake than $65K. If not, that would be a powerful testament to the extraordinary power of HATE, that most human of all emotions, which keeps nine out of ten licensed attorneys, and ten out of ten forensic accountants, continuously employed.

  7. Mark  •  Jun 3, 2009 @3:18 pm

    Guess what, I rented a car and drove from Santa Clarita (northern LA county) to Laguna Hills (85 miles each way) to appear for a small claims trial. The bank was being sued for $39.00.

    The defendant refused to sign any settlement agreement because it was more than 1 paragraph and written in "legalese". We offered more than he was asking for (reaging the account, removal of the late fee, etc) but he got exactly what he sued for. Only $39.00

    What a wast of time.