What I Didn’t Learn In Law School, Pt 2

How to talk to clients. Well, how to talk to indigent criminal defense clients.

Continuing from my last post, where when my client wanted to talk to his girlfriend before making a decision, he asked me if I would have to check with my wife before I bought new rims for me car.

Most of the people I hung out with in law school with were a lot like me. White with a middle class (or better) suburban upbringing.  Our parents were all educated with white collar job.  I had the ultimate white-bread childhood, straight out of Leave It To Beaver. My family is so suburban, I’m now the strange one for not having a screwed up childhood.  Between school in the suburbs, college, and law school, I never had a chance to learn how to relate with the lower classes.

I’m sure there are criminal lawyers out there who just defend white-collar type criminals; the doctors, lawyers, and investment bankers that make up the defendants on Law & Order.  They sit in their penthouse offices, count their stacks of money and plot how to save Martha Stewart from doing hard time.  I don’t think guys like me who live in the sticks of Texas and are only a few years out of law school don’t get those jobs.

Instead, I’m in the trenches, taking appointed cases to represent the people society doesn’t care about, poor and accused of a crime.  I have no idea how to relate to these people though, not a clue.  I generally stick with the weather, football, or the fact that jail sucks.  That should be safe.

Family Decisions

I spent over two hours in County Court today on one client.  He’s there on an Assault Family Violence.  First he doesn’t want to take the plea.  Then he wants to.  Then he doesn’t.  Then he changes his mind again and wants to.  As we’re about to sign the papers, he decides he wants a trial.

And he’s a jailhouse lawyer.  You can guess how much fun I had.

But what I loved, was when he was telling me he wanted to talk his girlfriend, also the victim in the case, before he could made a decision.  As he put it to me,

“It’s a family decision.  I mean, if you wanted to buy a new set of rims for your car, you’d have to talk to your wife.  Right?”

I just looked at him, not knowing what to say.  I understood his point, it’s just not one I can really relate to.

No Happy Endings

A while back I wrote about a kid I had in juvenile court. He’s the bright kid with the parents holding him back.  He’s also the one that everyone (meaning myself and everyone on the State’s side) realized his potential and bent over backwards for him.

Unfortunately, he screwed up again.

He had a really good placement for him and he didn’t want to go.  I certainly understand why he didn’t want to go.  Who would really want to go someplace they had never been, away from their family, because a bunch of people you don’t know say you have to?  So the really good placement is out the window and instead the judge has ordered him to boot camp.

The kicker is, when I talked to him before court, he didn’t give me the usual “why is everyone picking on me” B.S. that most of my kids give me.  He knew he messed up and that he was going to have to pay the piper and he’s smart enough to know that trying to weasel out of it isn’t going to fly.

I don’t know what’s going to happen to him after boot camp is over.  He needs to go to school, he’s easily smart enough to go to college and (for the most part) he’s got the drive to make something of himself.  I just hope that he gets the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty.

Do Not Call

Last night, I had my first late night phone call from someone needing help. It was a lady I had spoke with earlier in the day who wanted to hire me. She managed to call me late at night, since when I called her to set up the appointment, I used my cell phone to call her. Of course, she’s telling me that she doesn’t have the money to hire me, but could I please tell her what to do anyway.

As a rule, I try not to use my cell phone to contact clients. I have some clients that I really wish didn’t have my office number, but there’s not a whole lot I can do about that. There are some that do have my cell number for a variety of reasons, but as a whole I tell people to call me at the office.

My philosophy is that when I leave the office/courthouse/jail to go home, then I’m done for the day. I need to keep a barrier between my job and the rest of my life, I’d go insane if I didn’t. When I’m making dinner, or laying in bed reading (as I was last night) or fishing; the last thing I want to do is be interrupted by work.

So, question for my readership: do you give your personal cell number and/or home number to clients?

License To Breed

In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t have kids, nor do I want them. And I’m at the age where my friends start having kids on purpose (unlike college where they had kids on accident). I have two reasons for not wanting kids. The first is very selfish. I like my lifestyle, and having a kid would mess it up. The second is that I can barely run my own life half the time, I can’t be held responsible for another life.

Where am I going with this? I was in juvenile court today, and if you’ve never done juvenile court, its an interesting experience. Matlock had a good post earlier this month covering just how absurd the juvenile court system can be.The kid today is a good kid. And that’s not some defense attorney B.S., he really is. He screwed up once, got put on probation and has been doing fine since. He’s smart, he gets good grades, he’s a good athlete at school, and he wants to go to college and do something with his life.

The problem is the kid’s family. They’re poor and live in a rural county. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being poor and rural, not my lifestyle of choice, but there’s nothing bad about it. But my kid is determined to not to end up being poor and living in Hicksville, Texas. The kid looks at the way his parents live and says “I don’t want to be like that.”But I swear that these parents don’t want to see their kid succeed. I can’t prove it, but deep down I know it. They have these subtle ways of trying to screw the kid up. I have no idea why they wouldn’t want their kid to succeed. I would think if I was poor, I’d really push my hypothetical kids to be the best they could be, so they can make money and take care of me.

It frustrates me to no end, because this is the only juvenile I’ve ever had who’s told me that he wants to go to college. The majority of them have no interest in anything outside smoking dope and petty theft. When I see one kid that A) has a ton of potential and B) actually wants to do something with his life, it’s just sad that the only people encouraging him people like myself, the juvenile probation officer, and the judge. Basically, people in “the system” not his family.

Every so often I get a kid from a good family who decides to screw up. But with most of the juveniles I get, the parents are well know to law enforcement and the kids are just following in Mommy or Daddy’s footsteps. I know its not feasible, or legal, but every time I go to juvenile court, it makes me think there needs to be some of licensing program to be parents.