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How do you feel about lawyers?; What about the US legal system?
Topic Started: Jul 28 2005, 09:39 AM (1,161 Views)
gvok
Unregistered

Should a doctor cover the costs of his patient's prescription medicine? Should a contractor cover the costs of the building materials?
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Dandandat
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Time to put something here
gvok
Aug 2 2005, 10:39 AM
Should a doctor cover the costs of his patient's prescription medicine?  Should a contractor cover the costs of the building materials?

Once again a doctor has nothing to do with prescription medicine. For a doctor to do his job all he has to do is proscribe medication. If you want that medication you must go else where.

A lawyer can not do his job with out the proper materials which he makes you pay for. For a proper analogy between a lawyer and a doctor. We would be talking about a doctor that charged you for the paper you sat on in the examination room, or the thang depressor he used, the specimen cup and ect.

Contractors like mechanics are in a different category, they set flat fees for their work and you pick the materials you would like them to use. Lawyers in the cases we are talking about do not set flat fees, they take 1/3 off the top of the settlement, a settlement that your incidental cost helped to win, if they are going to benefit off of the incidental costs they should help carry the burden of them, which is why I said they should take their 1/3 after expenses.


Do agents charge their clients 10% plus expenses?
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gvok
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The 1/3 fee is contingent on winning the suit. In other words, the plaintiff does not pay the lawyer a fee if there is not a positive outcome. Generally, only plaintiff lawyers use that pay structure. Lawyers should get paid for their services just like anyone else. The costs of materials is passed along to the client just like in any other profession as well.

Defense and transactional attorneys do charge flat fees or hourly rates.
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Dandandat
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Time to put something here
gvok
Aug 2 2005, 10:57 AM
Lawyers should get paid for their services just like anyone else. The costs of materials is passed along to the client just like in any other profession as well.

And their service requires that they have these materials so they should have the burden of providing it.
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gvok
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Again, they're not doing anything different than any other profession.
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Dandandat
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Time to put something here
gvok
Aug 2 2005, 11:06 AM
Again, they're not doing anything different than any other profession.

I think we went through this a few posts up and I explained how that ascertain is incorrect.
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gvok
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Your explaination is a bit convoluted and unconvincing.
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Fesarius
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Admiral
Quote:
 
Should a contractor cover the costs of the building materials?

In some cases, yes.
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gvok
Unregistered

Fesarius
Aug 2 2005, 10:20 AM
Quote:
 
Should a contractor cover the costs of the building materials?

In some cases, yes.

In some (in many cases) lawyers pay for the costs of their own materials out of their pockets as well.

BTW, this conversation does not even take into account the amount of pro bono work lawyers do.
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Dandandat
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Time to put something here
gvok
Aug 2 2005, 11:20 AM
Your explaination is a bit convoluted and unconvincing.

I do not agree.
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Admiralbill_gomec
UberAdmiral
Dandandat
Aug 2 2005, 08:32 AM
gvok
Aug 2 2005, 09:54 AM
Do you think the lawyer should eat those expenses?

Why shouldn’t they? It should be part of their service with out things like “evidence exhibits” they would not be effective lawyers. At least the 1/3 they take should be calculated after expanses are factored in.

Exactly. I pick up the expenses when I quote a project. Whether that includes software, additional information, subscriptions, or equipment needed to do a job. I'm not even talking about other incidentals, like landing the contract and what is involved there.
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who
Have light saber. Will travel.
Actually when I had minor surgery in a doctor's office I did not get charged for the surgical instuments and all the equipment and materials used. There was just one fee.

When I had to see an attorney I was even charged for filing mail in their office by a paralegal at 1/3 the lawyer's fee.

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Dandandat
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Time to put something here
Quote:
 
It's time once again to consider the candidates for the annual Stella
Awards. The Stella's are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who
spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonalds. That case
inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits
in the United States. The following are this year's candidates:

1. Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a
nightclub in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to
the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms.
Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid
paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental
expenses.

2. Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and
medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next-door
neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard.
The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have
been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who was shooting
it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

3. A 19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical
expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr.
Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car
when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hub caps.

4. A. Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 a! after she slipped on a soft drink
spill and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor
because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier
during an argument.

5. Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had
just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the
garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning.
He couldn't reenter the house because the door connecting the house and
garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr.
Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on
a case of Pepsi he found and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the
homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental
anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.

6. A jury of her peers awarded Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas,
$780,000 after breaking her ankle by tripping over a toddler who was
running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were
understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving
little toddler was Ms. Robertson's son.

7. This year's favorite could easily be Mr. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago
motor home. On his first trip home, having driven onto the freeway, he set
the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into
the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, the R.V. left
the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not
advising him in the owner's manual that he couldn't actually do this. The
jury awarded him $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. The company actually
changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were
any other complete morons buying their recreation vehicles.
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WayneSTOSfan
Lieutenant
EVERY one of them should have been dismissed...AND laughed out of court...
Lawyers...HEROS of the world....... :banghead: :banghead:

#2 is particularly aggravating You enter MY yard, you deserve what happens to you...
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who
Have light saber. Will travel.
This is from the news but I hear there was a settlement of $11 million dollars with the clerk that Russell Crowe threw the telephone at. This just not seem like justice. I wish someone rich and famous would throw a telephone at me.
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