Posts Tagged ‘Lawyer’

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Don’t people watch TV anymore????

Monday, September 27th, 2010

I like to watch TV.  I admit it.  I watch a lot of different types of shows, but Law and Order _____ (fill in the blank) and CSI _____ (fill in the blank) and just about every other law enforcement/lawyer/spy show that is around are among my favorites.

They are all a little different, but they all have one thing in common.  They should all teach you that if you are ever arrested, you should say “I want a lawyer” and then you SHUT UP!

Do you know what ‘The Closer’ does when someone says they want a lawyer?  She walks out of the room!

These shows also teach you that police-persons sometimes lie.   The Police-person will tell you that ‘I can’t help you unless you tell me the truth’, but that is a ploy to get you to tell them what you did (and yes, it is legal for them to lie to you).

We get clients all the time that want us to find a way to get them declared innocent of some criminal offense, or help them with a plea bargain, but they’ve already made a confession, or a number of confessions.

I had a client tell me that the only reason he confessed is that they kept asking him questions for 4 hours.  First of all, any mother of a sick infant could do 4 hours of police questioning ‘standing on her head’.  Secondly, if you had asked for a lawyer at the beginning, there would not have been four hours of questioning.

Going into court for a client who has already confessed to the crime is like playing a world-series baseball game….only you start in the 9th inning with 2 outs, 2 strikes against you and you’ve never seen this pitcher before.   The odds are really stacked against you.

Please don’t misunderstand my motives.  I think criminals should be tried and they should get the punishment they deserve.  And I think that the police and prosecutors should do everything they need to do to convict the guilty.  But I also think that the laws are there for a reason and if someone has given you your ‘Miranda’ warnings, you should listen and take advantage of them.

So, I”m going to say something most mothers never say.   Maybe we should watch more TV!

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Posted in Crimes | No Comments »

I think I want to start my own business….

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

I get calls from people who say they think they want to start their own business and they want my help. Of course I can help them, but there are some steps they should go through first.

Before you even get to the point of deciding on a business name, or whether you should be a corporation or a partnership or a whatever, you first need to develop a mission statement and a business plan.

Let’s start with a mission statement.

A mission statement is a short, one paragraph statement of what your company will be. Think about where you want to be in 3 to 5 years and what you want people to say about your company. Do you want to be the ‘global leader’ in something? or do you want to be ‘the place where local people ….’? By clearly writing your mission statement, you are setting a goal for where you want your company to go.

It’s kind of like getting in the car to go on a drive, first you need to have a goal or you won’t know what direction to go first. If you want to end up in New York, you’ll drive North (from here in Virginia). But if you want to end up in Florida, you’ll drive South. Those are in opposite directions! So if you don’t know where you want to go, you might be driving a long time in the wrong direction.

You don’t want to do that with your new business.

So start with a goal. And formalize that goal by writing a mission statement.

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Don’t I need a trust?

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

You’ve probably heard that ‘everyone’ needs a trust. And that’s just not true.

The right answer is ‘it depends’.

It depends on what you own. It depends on what you want to do with what you own. It depends on why you might want a trust. It depends on your tax situation.

Anyone can give you a trust document. You can even fill out some fields online and have one printed for you for very little cost.

The big problem with this approach is that you don’t get the advice that you need to make an informed decision. It may be that a trust is just not right for your situation.

That’s why I recommend seeing an attorney and taking the time to explain what you really want. And then the attorney can customize an estate plan to fit your needs and wants.

It may cost a little more now, but it can save a lot later…..in money as well as in confusion and frustration.

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Posted in Estate Planning, Trust | No Comments »

Is it really junk mail?

Saturday, October 31st, 2009

We all get junk mail. I get tons of it in as email and a fair amount in my physical mailbox. Sometimes, I don’t want to waste the time to read it, so it goes straight to the trash. I don’t do that as often anymore because I’ve found that throwing stuff away without at least looking at it can be dangerous!

I got a phone call from a company asking why I had not cashed the refund check they sent me. (the check was for over $100 for a book that I had returned). I realized that since I had decided to stop ordering books from that company, I had just been throwing all of the mail from them straight into the trash. Bad Idea!

I got a call from a client who found a note on his door from the person who bought his house in a foreclosure sale. When I asked about being notified about the sale, the client said that he usually just threw away mail from people he didn’t know.

Sometimes, the mail we think is junk mail is just that — junk.

But sometimes it is really important!

Now, I open each piece of mail I receive. Sometimes I spend about 1.5 second glancing at the contents to make sure it really is ‘junk’ before it goes into the trash. But on that one time when I find something important, it is worth the extra time!

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Posted in General Information, Uncategorized | No Comments »

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