There are various ways in which lawyers can run into legal-related problems or issues of legal ethics including civil lawsuits, legal malpractice, and breach of fiduciary duty or lawyer criminality and its consequences for discipline.
Topics: legal malpractice, legal ethics, civil lawsuits, fiduciary duty, lawyer criminality, and discipline.
LEGAL FEES — MEASURING REASONABLENESS — THE LODESTAR METHOD
Texas Subtleties in Using the "Lodestar" Method Michael Sean Quinn** Texas Disciplinary Rule of Professional Conduct 1.04 is recognized as providing some of the criteria for judging the reasonableness of fees....
LEGAL FEES BILLED BY THE HOUR
REASONABLENESS OF “HOURLY” LEGAL FEES--A SUMMARY OF SOME CONSIDERATIONS, THOUGH NOT THE SUM, OF THEM ALL Michael Sean Quinn, Ph.D., J.D., Etc.* See the end Lawyers are fiduciaries of their clients. Lawyers have duties to their clients at the “fiduciary level.” This...
Discovery Phraseology: “fail to reach out” versus. “mistake,” etc.
ON USING THE PHRASE “REACHING OUT” Michael Sean Quinn, Ph.D., J.D.* Often in depositions and/or trial testimony—more frequently depositions, of course, a lawyer (“L”) asks a witness (“W”) whether s/he contacted another person for some important purpose. Here are some...
Legal Ethics, Sanctions in Litigation, General Morality
UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE(S) OF ACCEPTABLE LAW PRACTICE Michael Sean Quinn, Ph.D., J.D.* The following words come from Leroy Haeger v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., CV-05-02046-PHX-ROS (D.Ariz). November 8, 2012). Indeed, they are the opening...
LEGAL MARKETS AND THE NEW ADVERTISING OF CLIENTS
LAWYER MARKETS AND CLIENT ADVERTISING Michael Sean Quinn* What happens in and to a market when the prices of those selling goods and services rise beyond consumer expectations and/or consumer tolerance? How might all this happen in the market place for legal services...
Lusitania: Bemis and the Minister
THIRD LUSITANIA BEMIS SALVAGE CASE: Irish Administrative Law and Litigation—Part XIV Michael Sean Quinn* This blog essay is probably the last of a whole series of Lusitania pieces. the last one was entitled Lusitania Salvage Part XIII, and it was dated 8/5/15...
Crime Against Divorce Lawyer: Hacked by Husband with Hatchet
REVIVING OLD, NON-DIGITAL, MEANINGS FOR THE NOW--PARTLY--CYBER-“WORLD” WORD, “HACK” Michael Sean Quinn* Not exactly. But close. The problem is that the word “hack” has at least five meanings. Some are related, but not all of them. One of them is a verb that...
Lawyer(?) and Certainly Paralegal Crime: Stealing and/or Forging Judges’ Signatures
CRIMES OF A PARALEGAL AND MAYBE A LAWYER Michael Sean Quinn* Imagine a law firm (PIF) the principal work of which is personal injury litigation. Now suppose that it/they have a large number of cases involving settlements. Sometimes these cases involve many plaintiffs,...
Lawyer Crime Charged: Murder and More
SELF-DEFENSE THAT LED TO ARREST Michael Sean Quinn* L, 31, is a tenants' rights lawyer. His group, Eviction Defense Collaborative, had a male Swiss-British "Intern" or "Law Clerk" ("In"), 21. To celebrate the end of his internship, a group from the firm--or maybe...
LAWYER TEMPTATIONS AND HOURLY BILL
"BLOCK-BILLING" DESPISED, BLOCKED AND REJECTED. . . .THOUGH NOT FORGOTTEN Michael Sean Quinn* There is a group of generally and universally accepted, obligatory principles and standards for determining the acceptability of legal fees when the lawyer is billing by the...
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