How do you find a good lawyer?

My friend sold her business a liquor store with so much down and so much owed on time payments spread out over a few years. Part if this included the inventory to be spread out over six montly payments. As of eight months, he has yet to pay a cent of the inventory and now he is not paying the monthly dues. To his credit there was a flood in the business which has now been closed for three or four months and his excuse is that he is "waiting" for the insurance to pay up. However he didn't pay a cent of the inventory for the three months prior to the flood. If I have read the contract correctly, if he defaults on the payments the business goes back to her. The first lawyer she hired hasn't done squat to help her out and is very slow to respond to her questions and requests. We both think she should find another lawyer but neither of us know of any. How does one go about locating a good lawyer in their neighborhood and for this type of problem, should she be looking for a lawyer of a certain speciality?

If I were in her shoes, I would contact a large law firm that has a real estate group, and talk to one of them. They would point you in the right direction. This falls into the real estate/contract/litigation category, but mostly real estate IMO. [Mrs. Powernoodle is a commercial real estate lawyer in a big firm, but not in your part of the world ]. My experience (lawyer for 15 years) has been that bigger firms generally give you the level of representation you expect (and deserve). This is not to say that there aren't very accomplished solo practitioners and small firm attorneys, but without any other basis for making such a decision a big firm is a decent place to start.

Consider also contacting the local Chamber of Commerce, etc., for references.

Sounds like your friend may end up owning a liquor store.

peace

All I could think of when I saw the subject is....

What do you have when a thousand lawyers are killed when a ship sinks? A Good Start!

Sorry! Really and truly sorry!

I know this was of NO help!

Also of no help, but I thought "good" and "lawyer" were mutually exclusive.

I am not an attorney, but have worked with probably more than two dozen different ones over the years, from single "operators," to small/mid-sized law firms, to at least one large international firm.

Sadly, I have not been impressed by any of them, and the large, international law firm was probably the worst. They billed the client for hundreds of thousands of dollars, for a case they said was very strong (clear misrepresentation by a seller of commercial real estate). The result? Protracted depositions and negotiations that resulted in a rescission agreement drafted by said large law firm. A worthless rescission agreement it turns out, that to this day has been "unenforceable." It created a "domino" effect that the client never fully recovered from.

Other attorneys have made their share of "mistakes" as well, but none with such dire results.

Bottom line I've found over the years, is that YOU need to keep bugging the attorneys to make things happen, and YOU need to keep on top of everything--in other words, don't depend on the attorneys. I also found on more than one occasion, that the client's gut instinct was better than the advice of the highly educated, experienced, high-priced attorneys.

I like to believe that there are really good attorneys out there, but my experience to date has told me otherwise. So sorry Geepondy, I can't answer your question, but did want to caution you and your friend to be vigilant.

One other thing--even if you have what seems like a "slam dunk" case, if the "other side" has a shark attorney (how is that for redundant???), you could still lose!

I have heard of a big international law firm. They should operate nearly everywhere and aren't too expensive. Their results are pretty good from what I heard. I think they are named Smith & Wesson or something like that...

scnr

PlayboyJoeShmoe said:

killed when a ship sinks? A GoodStart!

Click to expand...

I've found that folks who think its funny to kill lawyers are the same ones who would p*ss themselves with joy if their kid was smart enough to get into law school.

peace

LOL !!

Very True ..... but isn't that more to do with knowing their kid will be making good money having a career in Law ..... than actually having any respect for the profession ?!

Despite how many "bad" lawyers I've heard of ...... I've yet to hear of any poor ones !!

Aside from the unnecessary jokes, thanks for the more helpful thoughts. My friend is raising two children by herself and depended on that money to help start with another very small business.

Easy there PN!!! It is a freakin' joke dude!

but based on Flashfans post, a reality based joke...

:nana:

peace

GO TO THE YOUR NEAREST PUBLIC LIBRARY.

There should be something there called the "Martindale-Hubbell" which is kind of a lawyer registry. It will list the school, specialty, year of graduation, etc for lawyers across the country.

It also has an optional field for the lawyer's standing amongst his peers ("Peer review rating."

It's optional but obviously good lawyers will in. It also notes whether the lawyer has signed a "code of ethics"

It's not perfect but certainly better than just picking one out of the yellow pages.

They are also online:

http://www.martindale.com/

Yeah, sorry. I thought this was going to be a joke thread too.

There are broke lawyers, and there are poor lawyers. There are reputable ones and there are crooked ones. I've not been too impressed by the ones I've hired. Many go into law thinking they will help people (I've known several with very good hearts),

Thanks for the martindale link. I will use it the next time I need legal help.

(I, too, thought this was a joke thread.)

Daniel

unfortunately waiting is a big part of any legal action. Especially when it involves breach of contract or non-payment and repossession or real property and such. It may be that your current lawyer really can't do anything until something else happens or until some deadline is crossed or some local set of terms time out. There may even be common law limits for the amount of time that has to pass without any communication before you can start proceedings to get your property back. But you do have the right to know what you're waiting for and how long it will take and get updates if any of that changes.

If they can't give you any information about what you're waiting for or what the next step in the process is, then get into the library and find a group that can. unfortunately, the best way to get the info on them is to go talk to them and hear what they have to tell you, but they will charge you for this time. I think it's worth the money to spend a few hours actually giving the new guys the info and getting their take on it. Even if you have to do it more than once and pay for it.

PN always gives good advice!

that being said.... personal referrals are always the best if possible.

hindsight is 20/20, but seems best time to consult with an attorney was before the deal was done.

personally I'd NEVER sell an inventory business on payments. especially a commodity inventory that could be liquidated in a hurry.