By Harvey Schwartz

The following article is reprinted from the September/October 1997 issue of Hope Magazine and the October 1997 issue of The Summation (Escambia-Santa Rosa Bar Association newsletter) with the permission of the author.

Buy Zolpidem No Prescription, My name is Harvey. I'm a lawyer, a trial lawyer. No, this isn't the introduction to a twelve step program. Zolpidem pharmacy, I'm proud of what I do, but I'm saddened by what lawyering has become.

My kids know all the lawyer jokes. They tell me the latest about lawyers crawling under snakes and I smile and moan, but it really doesn't feel very good. I don't like my own kids putting down what I do with my life, Buy Zolpidem No Prescription. I'm proud of being a lawyer. What is most frightening, order Zolpidem no prescription, though, is acknowledging that there is some truth in lawyer jokes.

Maybe we lawyers should accept some of the blame for the public perception that the first place to look for a sharp lawyer is under a damp rock. As an example of how far things have gone astray, let's look at a nursery rhyme from a lawyer's point of view.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Online buy Zolpidem without a prescription,

Humpty, Dumpty had a great fall,

All the King's horses

And all the King's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

If you're a lawyer, or, even if you're not, take a moment to reflect on what your first thoughts might be were the Widow Dumpty to show up at your office and recite this tale of woe.

"Must have been a problem with the design and construction of the wall that caused this great fall, buy Zolpidem online cod. We'll need an architectural expert to testify about the poor quality of the mortar holding the bricks together."

"Great fall, huh. Buy Zolpidem No Prescription, You can only have a great fall from a great wall. Just how great was this wall. Sounds like the wall owner is a deep pocket. Order Zolpidem from mexican pharmacy, How do we sue him. Could the Great Wall be an attractive nuisance?"

"What's all this with the King. Might be a sovereign immunity problem, Buy Zolpidem No Prescription. Can we sue the king's men in their individual capacities. When is the deadline for notifying the king about the widow's claim?"

"Horses. What were they doing using horses to put him together again. This could be a med-mal claim, Zolpidem from canadian pharmacy. Do we need a veterinary expert?"

Buy Zolpidem No Prescription, "I wonder if Dumpty suffered before he fell to pieces. That could boost the value of this case."

"How much can I make on this case. Will I make more if I keep it, or refer it to somebody in the city?"

Would it enter most lawyers' minds to tell the grieving Mrs. Dumpty that she doesn't need a lawsuit at this time in her life, Buy Zolpidem online no prescription, that she should stop looking to blame others and just admit that she was married to a guy with an eggshell skull who should have known better that to sit on high walls. How much business should a lawyer turn away because he or she thinks the case is silly - even though there is money in it. Or do we find these two concepts to be contradictory, that a case that can make us some money is by definition not silly?

There was a time when lawyers were considered counselors-at-law, wise persons to whom others turned for guidance about difficult problems, Buy Zolpidem No Prescription. Now we are often seen as hired guns who have a license to threaten to do unpleasant things unless our target pays the person who hired us lots of money. Could it be that we are not regarded as respected professionals because we aren't acting like professionals?

Professionals exercise discretion and judgment. A gas station doesn't hire a professional to pump gas. It hires a kid who'll pump the same gas into every car that stops at the pump, buy no prescription Zolpidem online. Buy Zolpidem No Prescription, If we are to be professionals, we have to do something more than just pump out litigation for every person who shows up at our offices with a tale of woe, money in hand, or a deep-pocket defendant in sight.

I had a long conversation the other day with a lawyer I greatly respect. She was referring a case to me - a man who had been fired by a large corporation. We discussed his situation and she and I concluded that he had no legitimate legal claim. And then this well respected attorney suggested that we write to the corporation's general counsel and propose negotiations about a settlement. "They'll give him something to make him go away." she told me. "They'd rather pay him than pay their big law firm, Buy Zolpidem No Prescription. Purchase Zolpidem online no prescription, Let's see what we can get for him." I declined, but I'll freely admit that from time to time I've gotten settlements for clients on some pretty precarious claims. And I'll admit that she was probably right and I was probably wrong. I was wrong because we could have gotten some money for this poor fellow who'd lost his job, and probably needed the money more than his former employer did. The corporation most likely would have paid him something to make him go away - actually to make me go away, where can i find Zolpidem online. Buy Zolpidem No Prescription, And it would have been a wise move for the corporation; it would have cost less to pay him than to pay its lawyers to defend a lawsuit. This sort of decision making has become bread-and-butter legal practice for lawyers on all sides of the issues.

But I really wonder how this situation differs from extortion, differs from the gangster telling Mom-N-Pop groceries that, for a little protection moolah, they should buy "fire insurance" from him. Buy cheap Zolpidem no rx, It would make as much sense for Mom-N-Pop to simply pay up as it would for the corporation to settle a frivolous claim cheaply. "Joe the Legbreaker" made his demand in order to line his pockets, as do we attorneys. Of course, what we do is, by definition, buy Zolpidem in canada, legal, while what the gangster does is frowned upon, and because of that we run little personal risk in making our demands. But speaking theoretically for a moment - is writing a demand letter "just to see if they'll pay something" a totally different creature from suggesting payment of protection money to avoid something undeserved-but-awful happening to your business, Buy Zolpidem No Prescription. Of course, Buy Zolpidem from mexico, this doesn't apply to legitimate claims, real harm, real violations of law, real cases where writing an initial demand letter is just being polite, and one intends to go the full route if need be. We should pursue these cases vigorously, where can i buy cheapest Zolpidem online. We should still be conscientious and creative, venturing into what William Schwartz, a former professor of mine at Boston University Law School, used to call "the idea frontier." Such cases don't lead to lawyer jokes. Australia, uk, us, usa, canada, mexico, india, craiglist, ebay, paypal, What I'm talking about are the cases brought "to see what we can get." Extortion cases.

If we are to be "counselors at law," one of my favorite letterhead phrases, shouldn't we be doing more counseling and less gunslinging. Buy Zolpidem No Prescription, Just because our licenses and skills enable us to get money for a client - or to assist a client in avoiding paying money shouldn't we instead consider counseling the client to back off and not do what he proposes to do. There was a time not too long ago, when this country was run by lawyers: lawyers as lawyers and judges, lawyers as legislators and mayors and governors, online buying Zolpidem, and lawyers as business counselors, the people you went to when you had a sticky problem. Lawyers sold - or gave away - wisdom. Lawyers told business people when not to do something wrong - not how to do it and get away with it. Rx free Zolpidem, We need to do more counseling. We need to tell the people who come to us for our wisdom not to do something that we know is wrong instead of working our hardest to help them get away with it, so long as there is some money in it for us too.

I had a client once who told me my job was to tell him just where the line was .., Buy Zolpidem No Prescription. and then how thick it was, because he wanted to shove his toes right up to the far edge of legal behavior. We used to laugh about that. Looking back, however, where can i order Zolpidem without prescription, what I should have done was tell him to put his shoes back on and back off from the line. Maybe he wouldn't have made that last nickel, but he wouldn't worry about whether he'd danced over the line when I wasn't looking. Buy Zolpidem No Prescription, I should have counseled him about doing good, not advised him about how he could be as bad as he could be without getting caught.

We can be a great force for truth, justice, and honesty in society. Most of what many lawyers do is pretty noble. Order Zolpidem online c.o.d, And while they can hate us and joke about us, society is, in fact, better off with us. People who complain the loudest about lawyers often want representation by Ghengis Khan, Esquire when they get into trouble.

The way law is practiced today contributes to much that is wrong with society, buy Zolpidem no prescription. By empowering victims, primarily, we encourage a victim mentality. By creating excuses for everything we absolve people of responsibility for anything and everything, Buy Zolpidem No Prescription. By taking money or making money to do whatever our clients ask us to do, Buy cheapest Zolpidem, we prostitute our professionalism.

Years ago, I received a telephone call from Igor, a Russian emigre taxi driver. Still new to this country, he had already learned about personal injury litigation. "Harvey, Zolpidem price," he said breathlessly. "got big case, worth million dollars. Buy Zolpidem No Prescription, I was standing on curb and truck came by and almost killed me, just missed me by one inch. So, Where can i buy Zolpidem online, what do you think, big case?" "Igor," I replied. "almost got killed ... almost big case. Nothing happened to you." But this wasn't Igor's first foray into the tort system, Zolpidem for sale. He'd learned the language, Buy Zolpidem No Prescription. Undaunted, he dropped what he thought was the big one. "Emotional distress, Harvey. Buy Zolpidem without a prescription, I've got so much emotional distress." "Igor," I said. "if that truck had hit you, then you would have had no more emotional distress ever again. Buy Zolpidem No Prescription, Until then, you're going to have emotional distress every day of your life. Live with it. Forget the emotional distress, Zolpidem over the counter. Instead of suing somebody because they almost killed you, take your wife out to dinner and celebrate that you're still alive." That was the last I ever heard from Igor. I expect somebody else settled his emotional distress claim for him for some amount, a token amount, Order Zolpidem, but enough for Igor to pay for dinner with his wife.

There's nothing wrong with saying no to a client. No, I won't file this suit just because it has some settlement value and you and I can make some money, Buy Zolpidem No Prescription. No, I won't drag this plaintiff through years of humiliating discovery just to wear him out for a settlement. No, I will not help you get around this law, which protects people, Zolpidem samples, but costs your business some money.

If lawyers are to regain respect, we must act more professionally. We are, after all, Buy generic Zolpidem, officers of the court, and that means something. We are given powers and abilities far beyond those of "mere mortals." With a stroke of our pens we can compel people to drop what they are doing, come to our offices, and answer endless questions. Buy Zolpidem No Prescription, We can force people to give us their most private records. We can command deputy sheriffs to go to peoples' doors and deliver threatening documents to them, purchase Zolpidem online, demanding a response within twenty days. Our licenses empower us to extract huge sums of money from the wealthiest corporations. The most humble of us can compel the U.S. government itself to come to court and answer our allegations.

Lawyers are made different by the power society bestows upon us. Lawyers have been given these gifts, these powers, because, historically, lawyers have been wise in their use of power, Buy Zolpidem No Prescription. Lawyers wrote the Constitution and formed this country. Lawyers sat in Congress, made up the presidents' cabinets, advised and counseled titans of industry. Lawyers earned the authority society gave them. But the system has broken down. Buy Zolpidem No Prescription, Those in business now view lawyers as gumming up the works instead of lubricating the gears of commerce. We are like the archetypal heroes who misuse their special powers. Some say we have succumbed to the dark side.

We can work our way out of this hole. We can begin to advise our clients that they should obey the law even when they are not likely to get caught breaking it, as silly as that may sound. We can advise people to take responsibility for harm they have brought on themselves, rather than blame everybody else for the hand that life has dealt them. If we are professionals with at least a modicum of responsibility to society, we can decline a few opportunities to make money just because they present themselves to us, Buy Zolpidem No Prescription. Respect for the legal profession - which translates into respect for lawyers - can be restored. We can put our Humpty Dumpty back together again. But we won't do it by blaming the king's men and the king's horses. We'll do it by accepting the blame for what we've done to ourselves, acknowledging the role of conscience in our work, and changing our own behavior.

Harvey Schwartz is a Boston civil rights lawyer and a partner in the law firm of Schwartz, Shaw and Griffith. Although the subject of his article does not deal directly with the issues of addiction and recovery, it was felt that the values and opinions expressed in Mr. Schwartz's article are so closely intertwined with those that FLA members try to incorporate in their programs as recovering attorneys that publication of the above would represent a service to our readers. [Editor]

"If someone else had done to me what I've been doing to myself, I would have killed them!"

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