Filing a grievance against a lawyer 10: my response

I’ve just received a copy of my entire Dinkes & Schwitzer file — all the documents that should have been sent to me regularly during the course of this personal injury lawsuit, but were not.

Here’s how I got it. I responded to Dinkes & Schwitzer’s answer to my grievance. Their answer was sent to the Disciplinary Committee and, per the Committee’s protocol, I received a copy and was given twenty days to respond, if I had any objections. I did have objections.

Their answer took several digs at me.  One was that although I’d been told my entire file was waiting at Dinkes & Schwitzer’s office for me to pick up personally at my convenience, I hadn’t done so.

And I hadn’t. I had been irritated that they were demanding that I, their client, physically arrive at their offices to shlep my own file, when I had originally asked that they send it. A further dig at me — the answer sneered that I had apparently lost interest in getting my file — really pissed me off.

So, even before finishing and delivering my response, I sent a certified letter to William Schwitzer, making reference to this dig and demanding that he immediately send me the entire file. Because Dinkes had never indicated that they had any relationship with any mailing entity, I generously informed Schwitzer that he could use USPS, UPS or FedEx, that all delivered in my neighborhood and I was available to accept delivery.

And then, just as a return dig, I included that letter to Schwitzer as an extra exhibit attached to my response. Now, I’m pretty sure no lawyer would have done something like this, but then I remember Eowyn who, after the Nazgul king she faces in battle sneers, “No man can kill me,” whips off her helmet and declares, “I am no lawyer!” … No, wait, actually she says, “I am no man,” but you get the point. Laymen like me can occasionally do things that lawyers wouldn’t do.

Still, I was slightly surprised that I got my file. It’s a pile of papers standing exactly six inches high. What I’m going to do now is enter every single document into my 9-page fact chronology — which will thereupon expand into being a time line plus document log — using my CaseMap software.

I’ve already pretty much decided what I’ll do to get my settlement, but first I’ll want to look through the entire chronology, if only for the pleasure of having the whole story summarized in one document. And, of course, to see if I can discover any further mistakes or mistaken statements.

This entry was posted in The Facts of Life and tagged , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.