{"id":50,"date":"2010-09-07T10:30:38","date_gmt":"2010-09-07T14:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=50"},"modified":"2012-03-19T15:26:03","modified_gmt":"2012-03-19T19:26:03","slug":"who-am-i-to-be-telling-you-all-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=50","title":{"rendered":"Who am I to be telling you this?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[S]He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad. \u2013 Rafael Sabatini, Scaramouche<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

That’s who I am.<\/p>\n

Did you know that the swashbuckling character called \u201cScaramouche,\u201d with whom I claim a shared spirit, was by profession a lawyer? Indeed, he was; indeed, I am not. From your point of view as a troubled potential plaintiff, I\u2019m much, much better.<\/p>\n

Unlike lawyers, who view a case from the exclusive citadel called The Law, I\u2019m experienced in every phase of a lawsuit from everybody\u2019s perspective. I am possessed of philosophy, politics, lawyers\u2019 secrets, a naked assessment of my own fuck-ups, empathy, funny and agonizing stories, psychotherapeutic and physical tools and techniques.<\/p>\n

I muck around with one foot outside the citadel.<\/p>\n

I drew up a fine case status chart that elaborates upon every stage of a lawsuit from the lawyer\u2019s perspective. From my own perspective, I know how to spy on the enemy and do enough legal research to challenge lawyers without behaving like a lunatic and making them resent me any more than lawyers ordinarily resent their clients. Which I can tell you they do.<\/p>\n

How do I know so much? For sixteen years I was the legal administrator, paralegal and great friend and supporter of a couple of big-time attorneys on a large number of major cases. Really major cases.<\/p>\n

Loved that job. I worked on entire lawsuits, from the first client meeting through boxes and boxes of discovery documents and, eventually, onto the settlement checks. Every day I wandered into \u201cmy\u201d lawyers\u2019 offices to ask questions, to listen to their stories and strategies. To learn, to contemplate what I learned, and then to apply the knowledge.<\/p>\n

So, long before I became a litigant myself, I had lived through every stage in the legal process and had asked the questions you, as a plaintiff, wouldn\u2019t know to ask.<\/p>\n

Okay, so I know lawsuits. And I know what goes on inside lawyers\u2019 offices and inside lawyers\u2019 brains.<\/p>\n

But even before I became one, I empathized with plaintiffs.<\/p>\n

Since ours was a small firm, I was usually the person who answered the phone. Thus, I became the default responder to our distressed clients. Quickly I came to realize that what most upset plaintiffs \u2013 after the injustices that caused them to become plaintiffs in the first place \u2013 was their sense of helplessness. They didn\u2019t understand what was going on. Not knowing can drive anybody crazy.<\/p>\n

And they weren\u2019t going to learn much from their lawyers. Even brilliant lawyers \u2013 and \u201cmy\u201d lawyers were brilliant \u2013 are by nature bad, brusque, condescending communicators with anyone, such as a client, who isn\u2019t another lawyer. So I, the non-lawyer with my head in law and heart with our distressed clients, found myself interpreting for plaintiffs, converting legalese into vernacular English, explaining the steps, the abstruse minutiae, the lingo and the bewildering digressions that are always part of the legal process.<\/p>\n

Understanding lawyers while simultaneously understanding and explaining things to their clients is much like holding two opposite ideas in one\u2019s head at the same time. If it doesn\u2019t make you nuts, it makes you wise.<\/p>\n

And I am not nuts.<\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because of my background as legal assistant and litigant, I know how to talk to plaintiffs about lawsuits. Lawyers don\u2019t. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1175],"tags":[4,5,3],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-facts-of-life","tag-interpreting-lawyers","tag-talking-to-plaintiffs","tag-understanding-lawsuits"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t