Reading through some medical records of a plaintiff: "The patient is notorious for not finishing his antibiotics, therefore I informed him that if he did not take all of his [medicine] his penis would fall off. The patient verbalizes understanding." Well played, doc.
Family law questions: At what age does a child's preference come into consideration for custody? How does someone get an independent evaluator to evaluate the stability of 2 households to help with custody arrangements? Basically my 11 yr old niece is in a shit tier situation where neither parent is capable of working in her best interest
Matter of discretion for the judge, though I'd say teenager is an ok benchmark for serious consideration. Judge will likely adjust the weight depending on the justification for the preference and the kids maturity. Ask for a child custody evaluation by a mental health professional. Lawyer or judge should be able to recommend some people.
Who pays for the child custody evaluation? The person requesting or both parents equally? She's 11 but is pretty mature for her age (school gifted program, well spoken). I'm guessing the justification would be how she feels treated like a lesser person at her dad's house. Basically that dad and his wife treat their 2 biological children better. For example, they said they won't get her anything for her birthday (which was in May) until September because her sisters have their birthdays in June and July. Just a bunch of stuff like that. It could be argued that it's a big reason she's had to get counseling for self harm behaviors. Although her mom shares a lot of blame for some of her issues as well
Also in the judges discretion, but normally split in some manner. Generally close to 50/50 provided the incomes are close. 11 might be too young for much weight from the judge but provided a guardian ad litem is appointed and one should be, (s)he should give that a good bit of weight. Also speak with her counselor to see if they are willing to give an Affidavit and testify.
In MS the preference of a child over 12 is one of many factors a court will consider. File motion for a GAL, GAL may be mandatory anyways. Doesn't sound like grounds for a custody shift to me.
my bad Gaurdian Ad Litem. It's a lawyer that has undergone special training to be a neutral child advocate-basically goes in , investigates both sides, goes to house speaks with kid and parents and then makes a report to the judge and testifies at trial. Here, it can be requested or in certain cases they're appointed automatically , like when there are allegations of abuse. Typically the order appointing GAL will say something like parties to jointly split the cost within 10 days of the filing of this order -usually about $500 per party. The order will also say the parties have to communicate with the GAL and give them all their information and stuff the GAL need to do the report.
I like doing comp. I find that plenty of ppl around here don't do it from the Plaintiffs perspective either. They just want car wrecks. So if you know how to do state comp or longshore work you've got a special skill set that should make you more marketable. Just wrapped up my first Longshore case and was pleased with the result.
Guardian ad Litem. Basically a person who is the courts representative to represent the best interests of the children. And if they're actually playing favorites, then I'm not sure it's not a substantial change. 11 year old girls are pretty unstable psychologically as is, and if they have someone basically instilling that they aren't good enough at home, it can really fuck them psychologically. Plus that she's apparently already in counseling and harming herself is pretty fucking bad. If it's not a sign that some shit needs to change, idk what is. At the very least, it may scare the custodians into making some fucking changes in how they treat the girl.
My client just had her deposition. She's 50 years old and has breast implants (not hot). The breast implants came up during questioning about her medical records. During a break in the deposition when my client was in the bathroom, the court reporter (a guy) was like, "I'd like to know more about those breast implants," and then just looked at everyone for approval of his joke. Everyone was just like uhhhhh
Any of you guys Rule 31 certified for mediation? I just signed up to take the class hoping that it will open doors for better opportunities
The one we use most is a guy. Game show voice. When depos get boring I always hope he has an excuse to speak so I can try and think of a way to incorporate it into a game show dialogue.
1-2 days. But we have a jury trial almost every week and at least one motion to suppress and one bench trial. Our dockets are huge so judges expect us to move cases and not waste their time with long drawn out trials.
The only real time certified person with my normal court reporters office is a guy, so I end up with him for jury selection every time.
I still haven't had a jury trial, almost 2 years in now. Set for a federal jury trial in September and a jury trial in Catoosa County GA in September too.
One of the judges here (in Birmingham) has been paying guardians ad litem a rate of $350.00/hr for pro ami settlements. I had one where the gross settlement was $700k, but only $15,000.00 applied to the two minor plaintiffs. The GAL's fee was in excess of $6,000.00. Fucking robbery.
I've never heard of a pro ami settlement or a GAL for a minor settlement. Here a guardianship would be required for the minors, restricted FDIC bank accounts are where the money would be placed, and a Chancery Judge would have a hearing to determine whether the settlement was in the best interest of the minor child. I just had a minor settlement blow up on Friday in front of a judge. Embarrassing but turns out there was more UM than I knew about, there was a whole other policy that I didn't know about. Long story but actually gonna get 50k more insurance, so it's a good thing. Still learning.
Very few states have chancery courts. In Alabama, the circuit court has to approve minor settlements (a/k/a pro ami proceedings). A GAL is always required. You may or may not need a conservator ship, depending on how the money is paid. The typical GAL rate is like $150-200, and all they do is review the records and report to the court whether it's a fair settlement.
I don't mind federal court at all until it comes to trial. Thankfully I haven't had to try any of my federal cases, but no jury selection makes it particularly difficult on Plaintiffs.
I'm taking my first extended (one week) vacation since I started work 4 years ago. I'm horrified to see what my desk looks like when I come back.
I've only been working 9 months and I'm apprehensive about asking my bosses if I can leave at 2 on Friday afternoon.
If you have your work done--don't worry about it. You are a professional and your bosses should not care if you leave a few hours early so long as you have control of your work load. It isn't worth working if you cannot grab a few hours/days to enjoy the hard work.
Yeah I'm sure they'll be cool with it. We just have a lot going on and I never have my work "done." Not because I'm not doing anything, but because I'm the only associate so I get handed literally everything and we have a few trials coming up. I really, really need a couple of these trials to hurry up and settle. Would take so much off my plate.
So much for the GAL protecting the kids' interests if the GAL is taking 40% of the settlement to the kids, which is in addition to whatever the plaintiff's lawyer is getting, which is likely 40% too.
GAL fees are generally paid by the defendant (always if it's an insurance company). It still means that they're going to get less of a settlement when the company knows they'll be shelling out that much in the fee.
we customarily reduce our fees for minors. Usually do a 40% contract for adults but will go down to 33% for minors. Judges don't like a high % for minors. They may ask you to reduce it even more than 33%
Went on a four day vacation and this is my first day back in the office. I got home last night at 7:30p.
Yuuuuuuuup Not to mention the partners get back from their annual meeting tomorrow after being out since Thursday. Shit's going to explode. Also, reviews next week. Fuck. This. Gay. Earth.
Not a day passes that I don't think about leaving firm life, but the money is decent, and all things considered I don't think it's THAT bad. If I didn't have my student loans to deal with, I probably would have been out a while ago.
I was lucky with scholarships so that I had options. I run a legal services clinic now, less money for sure, but a much happier home life. I'd honestly be happy just becoming a professor anywhere.
Yeah, as long as you're getting your hours, nobody at my firm really gives a fuck where you are. We travel a decent bit anyway, so they generally just assume you're working somewhere else.
A weekend face time requirement would be the easiest way to get me to start looking around. I've had plenty of 8+ hour Saturdays/Sundays, but I'm definitely not coming in just so someone knows I'm working.
I have been getting some fucked up cases lately, have a guy who shot his best friend since kindergarten 4 times including the eye for $7000, and the guy lived and doesn't have an eye now. Just got another case where a guy slit another guys throat in the middle of having sex with him. Fucking crazy ass world we live in.
I have been licensed almost 2 years now too. I tried tracking how many trials I did last week but lost count around 30.
yah prosecutors get to do a ton of jury trials. Civil jury trials just don't happen that much comparatively.
That partner can go choke on a whole bag of dicks. I hate people who like to make the big show like they're working so hard just to satisfy their egos. Do your shit and shut up.