Thanks!

I thought the stress of taking the bar exam would alleviate afterwards, but now it's just a different type of stress having to wait nine weeks for results.

None of which is stress compared to the first time you stand at a podium and say, "Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I am honored to address you today," or something like that.

The Clinton Affair show on A&E from the fall is fascinating. I was like 12 when it was all happening.

They all just take turns being the worst, in my experience. Here in Oregon, GEICO is generally the worst to negotiate with (it's not even worth negotiating pre-filing), and their in-house office is an understaffed revolving door. USAA is the worst when it comes to PIP denials, but they roll over when you sue them (which includes attorney fees).

My firm lost our PI paralegal a few years so my PI caseload has decreased significantly (probably about 10% of my practice compared to 40% formerly). Gotta say, PI is a lot more fun when you only have to pick the "good" ones.....

Trying to negotiate a commercial lease with a commercial tenant who is representing himself in the negotiations. Tenant is a two member LLC.

He calls himself a sophisticated tenant but does not understand basic commercial real estate terms.

He asked me to explain the different to him between "option A" and "option B." It is in landlord's best interest to negotiate option A, it is in tenant's best interest to negotiate for option B.

It then becomes really awkward to tell him that conflict of interest rules prevent us from giving him legal advice.

So I did Barbri test banks for UBE for like 15 hours. ~70% correct on the multiple choice portions.

Can I just skip the actual classes? I kind of want to start work early and just take two days off to take the bar exam itself rather than go through the bar prep classes for two months. This is for NY bar.

no

Are you a first time taker? If so, definitely wouldn't recommend it.

I do know people who took a second bar exam in a different jurisdiction, only studying nights and weekends, and passing. But they had already studied for the UBE when taking the exam in their original jurisdiction and really only had to brush up on state-local or MEE's.

But definitely don’t physically go to the classes, to be clear.

I am planning to just finish the test banks and brush up on whatever I screw up then get Barbri to grade some essays.

I am pretty sure it will be fine.

Yes. You can also try and predict the essays and focus a greater majority of your studying on those topics. I correctly guessed 5 out of the 6 MEE topics. Don't know if it was plain luck, but it was kinda obvious that certain topics weren't going to be tested 3 straight exams or whatever and ones that haven't been tested in a while were going to come back.

It should come out soon if it hasn't already, but Feb's exam was Torts/Civ Pro/Trusts/Partnership & Agency & LLC's mixed/Crim Law/Secured Trans.

Anyone testified as a character witness at a disciplinary hearing? Friend from law school is possibly having law license revoked due to some misconduct.

Fwiw, friend has admitted guilt/checked into rehab for help with the issues. Nobody was seriously harmed, so I doubt license will be taken, but I think a 1-2 year suspension is expected punishment.

I want to help out and I'll be testifying as a character witness. Other than the obvious witness strategy/tips, anything special to these types of disciplinary style hearings?

I've never been to one/didn't know anyone irl who has helped out. I assume it will be pretty laid back, as I said, they've admitted guilt, but are hoping to keep the discipline relatively minor.

Also, in my own news, will be most likely handling my first true civil jury trial soon. Case I've discussed previously about OP's causing emotional harm to CL by running into CL's house with their cars. Settlement talks just aren't close.

I'm excited, but nervous. Seems like you aren't a real trial attorney until you've had jurors in the box. I'm looking forward to checking that off the "to do" list of items.

I am earning 16 credits this semester working 500 hours at a local public defender's office.

As a person with a privileged upbringing from the suburbs, this has really opened my eyes to: (1) how often cops lie in court (2) how often prosecutors lie about readiness for trial (3) how under trained the police are in the law (meaning they arrest people for what they think are crimes, but in fact the conduct was not criminal because an element was missing).

Really crazy system of criminal justice we have.

I like you and don’t want to lol at that, but it’s hard not to lol. It’s good that you’re now aware at least!

It is lol worthy.

It has made me seriously want to pursue some type of criminal defense advocacy in practice.

Don't really know how that fits into my plan because I am launching a firm with my father in the fall that is going to focus mainly on small business and consumer civil litigation.

Maybe I'll see if I can donate some time to the local PD's office. Even if it's just help with writing motions or something a couple of hours per month.

it's pretty crazy once you see the inside of the system like that. i've worked both sides and it's completely eye opening to say the least, even as someone that was always a skeptic of the system but i was still upper-ish middle class and white from a rural area that had had very limited police contact.

It’s also pretty crazy how little effort is put into decreasing recidivism. So much of the system actively mitigates against minor offenders in poverty even in NYC, which I have been told is one of the more progressive systems.

A lot of it is that the system is just overloaded and many of the offenders need help more than jail. It’s pretty clear the public defenders and the judges are just reading the files and accepting the pleas and facts as given to them. There really aren’t enough resources to do discovery due to the sheer number of cases.

In NYC, judges are really just prosecutors in robes.

Seems there is a push in the legislature to get some reforms through. Discovery reform is badly needed because it's trial by ambush right now. Public Defenders are getting 250 page Rosario material 5 minutes before a hearing. My office has a new policy when that happens, (and client is out) they don't go forward with the hearing.

June 3rd start date.

Not completely insane so will take February bar. I will just bang out test banks and send Barbri essays for grading. This gives me more time to get the probono hours I need too.

Finally time for real full time work. It’s been a long time. Actually, it’s gonna be the first time in my life. Lol.

Why not take the bar in July? If you fail can always do Feb. You could just not study for July and take a shot and it wouldn’t be any different.

Have an auto case. CL does soft tissue work for 4 mo, elects for surgery on doctor's orders, has to delay surgery due to an unrelated incident for 2 mo, so ends up with surgery in month 8, not month 6.

We send in demand package to StateFarm. Statefarm offers us meds only and says, "CL delayed surgery in order to run up the medical bills."

I sent them a letter memorializing that statement with bad faith language and immediately filed a Complaint.

Is this normal? I mean, I have some experience over last 2 years doing Plaintiff PI, but every single adjuster I've had so far has just been the nut low.

Everyone says trial experience is impossible in civil realm now, but I'll be picking 3 juries in 2019 alone and two defendants are statefarm, 1 progressive.

I honestly can't tell if they're just playing games with me because I'm new or if they're just playing games because they are trained to play games.

Yeah, you know what, I should do this. I was thinking more along the lines I don't want to take a week off in July so soon after I start working.

Better register asap. It’s a good idea though.

It sounds like you are already doing better than average on the multiple choice. Your only issuing is losing the few hundred dollars or whatever it is if you fail. Most likely the work of applying to re-take is half of what it was applying the first time and includes the stuff from the first time.

I think if you crank out some sample essays and read the provided answers to make sure you covered all the key points, you should have the process down and have a good shot at lucking your way through it and passing in July. For me that was the biggest thing on the essays, figuring out that it's just a formula of IRAC or CRAC (or whatever they say you should use) and applying it to each question. They can only ask so many questions with so many answers, and things tend to repeat themselves at least a little.

I know a lot of people who do the defense side of this work, and I've been told that an important factor in the size of the initial offer is the experience of plaintiff's counsel.