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How can you tell when you’ve outgrown your legal counsel? The following questions may help you decide if you need to make changes on your legal team.

There are basically two types of business lawyers, litigation lawyers and transactional lawyers. Litigation lawyers specialize in handling lawsuits and courtroom proceedings, while transactional lawyers handle contracts and other general business matters.

You’ll want to hire a litigation lawyer if you’re involved in a lawsuit or criminal proceeding. Otherwise, a transactional lawyer can probably handle all your business needs.

- What services do you feel you need that you aren’t getting now from your present legal counsel?

- Has the nature of your legal work changed recently where your current legal team can no longer meet the needs of your business?

- Has the volume of your legal work increased (or decreased) where you need a bigger (or smaller) team?

- Has the legal work become more complicated where it requires specialized knowledge or skills?

- Have you recently automated your systems and your current counsel is still doing things the old fashioned way?

- Does your current attorney seem overwhelmed with the amount of legal work you’re generating?

- Has the relationship broken down for personal reasons or a personality conflict?

- Do you feel that you’re not getting good value for your money? What areas do you have specific complaints about?

- Do you always have to chase staff down to try and get answers to your questions?

- Is your current attorney always late in getting paperwork and reports to you on time?

- Do the costs you’re being charged seem excessive?

- Is your current counsel short-staffed?

- Do you seem to spend a lot of time managing the legal staff and dealing with their problems?

- Is your current legal counsel too busy to take your calls?

Once you determine that a new legal team is the right decision for you, here are a few pointers for hiring the right attorney for your business:

- Look for a law firm that specializes in the expertise you’re looking for

- Ask for references from other clients

- Ask about potential conflicts of interest with other clients

- Set appropriate terms for the engagement

- Estimate engagement costs before deciding on hiring a specific firm

- Specify which lawyers you want assigned to your case, and pay only for those lawyers you pre-approve

- Require a full description of conferences between lawyers and the matters discussed

- Require that a designated partner review and sign-off on all invoices

- Designate who will take and review depositions

- How will photocopying be handled?

- Explain your budget for fees and costs beforehand

- Insist on periodic, timely billing

- Establish milestones for engagement and budget review

- Communicate your expectations clearly so there are no misunderstandings

- Establish a maximum fee for the engagement and stick to it

…and finally, be a good client! The relationship with your legal team should be a collaborative partnership. To ensure quality results, be sure that you are clearly communicating with your legal team. Don’t keep them in the dark about changes in your business strategy or tactics and do immediately communicate when you have questions or concerns about their work. Choosing a legal team is hard work and well worth the effort to nurture the relationship once it is established.

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Most of us take our health for granted until something goes wrong. Even a small amount of pain can dampen your day, so a serious injury can quickly rearrange your whole life. When that injury is not just an accident, but the result of your doctor’s poor choices or negligence, trying to overcome the experience can be incredibly frustrating. If you suspect that the behavior of your medical professional actually hurt you rather than healed you, you may be eligible to pursue compensation for your loss.

Any area of law is full of complications and details, and medical malpractice is no exception. In fact, these cases are among the most difficult to win. So if you have questions about whether your situation may be eligible, read on for a simple explanation of the main factors at play in your potential medical malpractice lawsuit.

Firstly, it is important to understand that not every imperfect outcome of medical treatment qualifies as medical malpractice. Due to the delicate and often mysterious behavior of the human body, medicine is considered almost as much an art as a science when it comes to the law. There can be multiple ways to go at a problem, often with no route ‘better’ than another. Doctors and nurses are expected to use their best judgment, but even this does not guarantee ideal results. Responsible and irresponsible behavior can both have negative results, which is what makes negligence so incredibly difficult to prove.

However, despite the subjectivity that is often a part of the medical process, there are still many standards within the medical profession. Since there is usually no hard line between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, malpractice is generally measured based on the accepted standard of care for a medical professional’s peers. This means that while doctors have some leeway to perform as they see fit, they do go through medical school for a reason and are expected to heed what they learn there.

So, for example, if your doctor takes 8 months to correctly diagnose your illness when their peers would have taken 2, or if your doctor prescribes a drug that is known as harmful to patients with your condition, malpractice may have occurred. If other doctors are willing to stand up and show that your doctor behaved in a way that deviated from the standard of care, you have the first of the two major components necessary for a medical malpractice lawsuit.

The second necessary component is to show that your doctor’s action (or failure to act) is a direct cause of the ultimate injury. Because the body can be unpredictable, and because patients often have multiple conditions and factors at play, this can also be quite difficult to prove. As with proving negligent behavior in the first place, a medical malpractice attorney can draw on research and peer testimony to establish a connection between your doctor’s actions and your injury.

In sum, if your doctor behaves in a way that their highly-trained peers perceive as inappropriate or misguided, and if that behavior ends up harming you, you may be eligible to receive compensation for your doctor’s negligent actions. But keep in mind that this is only an introductory explanation. It is always advisable, if you suspect you have been harmed, to speak directly with a New York Medical Malpractice Lawyer about the specifics of your case.

In some cases, what may seem like a strong case may turn out to be, in which case an experienced attorney will give you an honest answer. But in many other cases, you may find that you have more recourse under the law than you first expected. As a parting thought, remember that if ever you suspect your doctor is not giving you the treatment you deserve, it is never a bad idea to seek a second opinion from another physician.

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It’s been a bloody year for law firms, and all signals indicate that it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. Even before last week’s mass layoffs, the lateral market was slow. Those who have been considering a move may decide to stay put for now, and those who were laid off are facing some tough decisions.

Even in a difficult market, though, competition will always exist for top legal talent. Some lawyers will remain hot commodities regardless of hiring freezes and layoffs.

Possessing abilities far beyond mere legal skill, these highly marketable lawyers know a single secret that other lawyers overlook. Not all of the lawyers who use this secret could identify or explain it, but every successful lawyer practices it. Overlook or ignore it, and the consequences can be dire.

What’s the secret? It’s deceptively simple. Here it is: whoever you are, whatever your specialty, wherever you practice, whether you hung out a shingle or are working in a firm of thousands, you are a sole practitioner and you must operate accordingly.

What does it mean, in this context, to be a sole practitioner? Most importantly, it’s a mindset. (And, incidentally, not all sole practitioners necessarily hold this mindset - only the successful ones.) Having the sole practitioner mindset means that you accept full responsibility for your practice. You’re responsible for how you spend your time, how many clients you have, the quality of your clients, whether you enjoy your practice, how much time you spend in the office, and so on. The sole practitioner mindset leaves no room for a victim mentality: the lawyer is either satisfied and working to improve or dissatisfied and working on change.

Junior lawyers may struggle with this concept because it seems facially ridiculous. A second-year associate, responsible for the quality of her clients? You bet. Suppose that Kimberly works in the corporate law group of a large firm and hasn’t received a significant assignment since December, when her team’s top client filed for bankruptcy. How could she possibly be responsible for being slow? If Kimberly views herself as just a cog in a large wheel, she’ll feel powerless and unable to do anything but wait for the lead partner to secure more work for her to do.

But if she recognizes that she’s responsible for her practice, she has numerous opportunities: perhaps she could offer to do work for another team or group, or she might write an article or draft a CLE presentation, or she could study up on a new area of practice that shows promise for an upturn in work. Although Kimberly probably can’t rush out and recruit new clients today, if she accepts responsibility for her practice, she can ensure that she completes some activity every day that will fill her time usefully. She might be included in a lay-off if the slow times continue, but taking responsibility for her practice reduces the chances of being laid off and increases the chance that she will compete successfully for a lateral move. These are the benefits of adopting sole practitioner mindset.

Of course, mindset is of little value without accompanying action. The sole practitioner mindset prompts a variety of beneficial activities, including relationship building (with a special eye to business development since study after study shows that clients hire lawyers, not law firms) as well as intentional professional and career development. Lawyers with the sole practitioner mindset are also more likely to consider themselves to be leaders and to develop those skills.

What changes would you see if you were willing to accept full responsibility for the following?

Your workload
Your collegial relationships
Your business development success
Your professional development
Your practice and career
Your client relationships
Your pro bono work
Your professional reputation

One hint: taking full responsibility for all of these aspects of practice returns to value creation. Although no one is required to make a change simply because he accepts responsibility (look, for instance, at smokers who know that they’re putting their health at risk but continue to smoke anyway), very often accepting responsibility does lead to change, which in turn leads to an effort to build value. Create value for your clients, and you’ll build a successful practice. Create value for yourself, and you’ll build a satisfying practice. Create value for your clients, yourself, and your community, and you’ll build a sustainable practice.

Your assignment, if you choose to accept it: ask whether you’re willing to accept responsibility for the all areas of your practice, career, and life. If so, what opportunities do you see? What changes would you like to make, and what changes would you be willing to make? What investments of time, energy, and money would you start, and which might you discontinue?

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In fact, her father explained the fundamental principles to my father over 30 years ago: A renewable energy source that’s not subject to Arab oil embargoes or Mid-East wars … cleaner fuel for the world’s automobiles… more jobs… less pollution.

Now, that future is here:

Every country on the planet wants to see more of its automobiles running on renewable fuels like ethanol. And with 600 million gas- and diesel-burning cars and trucks on the road today, that implies the most massive transformation since the industrial revolution.

Every major government is implementing policies that stimulate ethanol consumption. And with hundreds of billions of public money pouring into research and development, this is not exactly a temporary fling.

Wealthy individuals, large banks, major mutual funds are all looking more seriously at ethanol. And yet, the big flows of investment money into ethanol have barely begun.

Why the Hesitation?

I Count Three Reasons …

o First, some investors seem to think investing in ethanol is strictly for environmentalists. They don’t believe global warming is a man-made phenomenon, and they don’t agree that cars should have to shift from gasoline to biofuels. So they don’t see much future in ethanol.

Big mistake! The shift to ethanol is not just about burning cleaner fuel. As Elisabeth’s father pointed out over three decades ago, ethanol is also about reducing our dependence on petroleum imports … slashing our vulnerability to wars and revolutions in oil-rich regions of the globe … and gaining firmer control over our own destiny.

o Second, investors have focused on the fact that gas stations in the U.S. are resisting alternative fuels, making it almost impossible for ethanol to reach American consumers.

But as I’ll show you in a moment, the consumption of pure ethanol (the kind that is being resisted in the U.S.) is not the primary source of demand today. Moreover, the U.S. is just one of many growing world markets.

o Third and most recently, some investors have hesitated to move into ethanol because they see petroleum prices coming down. If oil prices don’t go up, they figure, ethanol won’t make it either.

We disagree. The price for crude oil could fall to $40 per barrel, and it would barely make a dent in a massive global transformation to ethanol that’s now under way.

Most important, their hesitation is your opportunity. It has helped bring down the price of some of the leading ethanol stocks. And it has opened a brief time window to jump in.

I’ll show you where in a just moment. But first, join me on a brief global tour — so you can see for yourself how broadly based the ethanol revolution has already become.

A New Mega-Industry Is Born

For at least two decades — from the early 1980s to the early 2000s — the ethanol industry was largely stagnant.

Ethanol production in the U.S. and Canada was growing, but only gradually. Brazil’s ethanol output was actually sliding. And worldwide output was stagnating.

Then, at the turn of the new millennium, two things happened: The U.S. government and industry began to push ethanol more forcefully. And Brazil, still the world’s leading producer despite the earlier decline, took off!

Result: Worldwide ethanol production has nearly doubled in five years … the surge in volume has triggered the development of new, more efficient technologies … and a new mega-industry has been born.

Right now, the only country with cars running on pure ethanol is Brazil. But a mix of ethanol and gasoline is used in the U.S., the European Union, Mexico, India, Argentina, Columbia and, now, Japan.

Here’s a country-by-country rundown …

Brazilian Ethanol:

World’s Richest Investors

Are Starting to Pile In!

George Soros’s Adeco has recently bought a major ethanol plant in Brazil. Bill Gates acquired a share in three new plants in Brazil’s western state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Even Google’s Larry Page and Sergei Brin have revealed plans to invest in Brazilian ethanol.

International companies are one step ahead of them: Infinity Bio-Energy, which trades on the London exchange, already operates Brazilian ethanol plants valued at $200 million and plans to invest another $500 million in five more plants by year-end. Evergreen, a British group, has recently bought Cridasa, a major ethanol producer in Minas Gerais. And the French group Tereos bought 6% of Brazilian ethanol producer Cosan and owns three plants.

Overall, investments in Brazil’s ethanol industry are surging. In 2005, they were about $6 billion, including new plants, acquisitions and expansions. In 2006, they’ve surged to nearly $10 billion. And by 2010, even if there’s a recession in the U.S., they should hit at least $15 billion.

The main attraction: Ethanol is transforming Brazil’s economy, and Brazil’s ethanol technology is about to transform the world.

The key factor: Innovative ways of lowering the cost of production.

Back in 1980, it cost Brazil’s ethanol producers over $2.60 to make just one gallon — not exactly competitive with gasoline!

But now, Brazil is churning out ethanol for a meager 75 cents per gallon. And Brazil’s science agencies are funding a raft of new R&D to drive the cost down even further. So even if petroleum and gasoline prices fall further, Brazil’s ethanol will remain extremely competitive.

Already, nearly every single car rolling off Brazil’s assembly lines has a flex engine capable of burning either ethanol or gasoline. So when we’re driving in Brazil, we can fill up with whichever fuel happens to be cheaper. And when our tank is half empty, we can even mix the two fuels at will.

The flex engine has far-reaching implications. And although it’s going to take time, ultimately, I see nothing that can stop it from spreading to the world’s largest fuel consumers — the U.S., Europe, Japan, China and India.

Even before that technological shift takes place, Brazil’s shipments of ethanol to overseas markets are surging. Late last year, it jumped 91 percent to 144 million gallons from 76 million gallons a year earlier. Plus, Brazil is negotiating with Japan, China, India and the EU to export still more. Even Brazil’s ethanol exports to the U.S. are growing despite a huge, 50-cent-plus tariff per gallon.

U.S. Ethanol Industry

Starting to Ramp Up

As you well know, in the realm of petroleum and gasoline, production in the U.S. has been stagnant, with virtually no new refineries built in the U.S. since 1976.

Not so in the ethanol industry! Even while America’s oil refineries were aging, over 100 new ethanol production facilities have been built in the United States.

And that was mostly before August 8, 2005, when President Bush signed the Energy Policy Act — a renewable fuels standard that should double the use of ethanol and biodiesel by 2012.

Indeed, even the normally cautious U.S. Department of Energy predicts that ethanol could put a 30% dent in America’s gasoline consumption by 2030.

But those projections are probably low, especially after the Democratic takeover of Congress this week, which opens the door to a bigger-than-expected push for ethanol.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed a doubling of the amount of ethanol required by law to be blended into gasoline by 2012.

Collin Peterson of Minnesota, who has just taken over the House Agriculture Committee, says he will also be more aggressive in seeking ethanol subsidies.

And other House Democrats say they plan to establish a dedicated fund to promote renewable energy and conservation, with a lot of the money going into research for making ethanol from sources other than corn.

Japan: Ethanol Sleeper Wakes Up

Until recently, Japan was the world’s largest sleeping giant with respect to biofuels. Now it’s wide awake and leaping forward.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to increase consumption of biofuel for transportation to 3.15 million barrels by the end of 2010. He will boost the ethanol content of regular gasoline to as much as 10 percent. And as a result, Japan’s purchases of ethanol will rise to as much as 44 million barrels per year.

Nippon Oil and other Japanese refiners have set their goals even higher. They want to replace 20 percent of Japan’s gasoline and diesel consumption with biofuels.

That’s why we’ve seen so many Nippon Oil executives in Brazil in the last couple of years. And that’s why they’ve created Brazil Japan Ethanol Corp., a joint venture with Petrobras, Brazil’s only major ethanol exporter. The company will start shipping ethanol to Japan in 2010, aiming for 37.7 million barrels by 2012 — not only for consumption in Japan, but also using Japan as an ethanol sales hub in Asia.

Meanwhile …

Australia has had voluntary goals in place to blend up to 10% ethanol by 2010. But now it looks like it could meet its target one or two years ahead of schedule.

Canada has provided tax benefits for ethanol since 1992, while various Canadian provinces have similar mandates.

Argentina requires use of 5% ethanol blends over the next five years.

India mandates 5% ethanol in all gasoline.

Indonesia aims for 10% biofuel use.

And this is just the beginning.

New Companies Jumping

Into The Ethanol Industry

A few small companies are coming up quickly …

VeraSun Energy Corp., a small startup in South Dakota, has quickly emerged as America’s second largest ethanol manufacturer.

Pacific Ethanol of Fresno, California went public in 2005, making headlines with an $84 million investment from Bill Gates. The company plans to build five plants in the state by mid-2008 and has raised a total of $111 million.

Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings, now the nation’s fourth largest, is also ramping up.

And Denver-based BioFuel is building two ethanol distilleries and plans three more, each of which will be able to produce 115 million gallons of the grain-based fuel a year.

But despite all these plans, U.S. investors are still leery, especially with the lack of ethanol at gas stations. That’s one reason Global Ethanol Holdings, an Australian producer of sugar-based fuel, scrapped its IPO last year.

And it’s also why it may be too soon to jump into small U.S.-based companies.

Instead, I see two better vehicles for U.S. investors interested in ethanol:

Vehicle #1.

Archer Daniels Midland

Archer Daniels Midland is pumping out more than a billion gallons of ethanol per year. As such, it’s the agricultural giant whose future growth is more tied to ethanol than probably any other major company in the U.S.

Ethanol does not account for more than 5 percent of the company’s $36 billion in annual sales. But it’s generating almost a quarter of the operating profit. Plus, the company is expanding ethanol production by 50 percent, or 500 million new gallons of annual production capacity.

CEO Patricia Woertz sees the company as uniquely positioned at the intersection of the world’s increasing demands for both food and fuel. We agree.

And although the stock is still in a primary, long-term uptrend, it’s down substantially from the peak it made in May, opening a window for new investors to get in.

Vehicle #2

The Leading Brazil ETF

Brazil’s ethanol industry is helping to strengthen Brazil’s economy in more ways than one — with more export revenues, more fuel-efficient cars, and more local jobs.

Moreover, by cutting new natural resource mega-deals with countries like China, Japan and India,

Brazil’s newly re-elected president is gearing up for another growth spurt in Brazil’s economy, even without an ethanol boom.

Brazil’s stock market is already anticipating this trend. That’s why the iShares MCSI Brazil Index (EWZ) recently challenged the highs it made last year, and after a mild correction last week, could easily exceed them.

My view: Even though ethanol is just one component of Brazil’s overall success, EWZ is a worthy vehicle.

Elisabeth’s older sister Christina, who now runs the family’s sugar cane plantation in Brazil, summed it up nicely when she represented ethanol farmers at the United Nations last year:

“As fossil fuels become economically, environmentally, and politically unsustainable, agroenergy is today’s future. Farmers can play a critical role in planning for — and meeting — the call for renewable energy and, hence, energy security needs.”

For the world, it’s a solution.

For investors, it’s an opportunity.

Good luck and God bless!

Martin

About MONEY AND MARKETS

For more information and archived issues, visit http://www.moneyandmarkets.com

MONEY AND MARKETS (MaM) is published by Weiss Research, Inc. and written by Martin D. Weiss along with Sean Brodrick, Larry Edelson, Michael Larson, Nilus Mattive, and Tony Sagami. To avoid conflicts of interest, Weiss Research and its staff do not hold positions in companies recommended in MaM. Nor do we accept any compensation for such recommendations. The comments, graphs, forecasts, and indices published in MaM are based upon data whose accuracy is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Performance returns cited are derived from our best estimates but must be considered hypothetical inasmuch as we do not track the actual prices investors pay or receive. Regular contributors and staff include John Burke, Amber Dakar, Wendy Montes de Oca, Kristen Adams, Jennifer Moran, Red Morgan, and Julie Trudeau.

Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D.

Martin Weiss is one of the nation’s leading providers of information for investors. As editor of his monthly Safe Money Report, author of The New York Times best-seller, The Ultimate Safe Money Guide, and editor of the free daily investment newsletter, Money and Markets, Dr. Weiss has helped empower hundreds of thousands of readers to make better financial and investment decisions.

He boasts a well-trained team of technical analysts providing continuing support in the selection and timing of specific investments.

Dr. Weiss has been continually active in pro-bono public service efforts to provide testimony, analysis and data to the U.S. Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Global Settlement, the investment publishing industry and others.

He holds a doctorate in cultural anthropology from Columbia University and is fluent in eight European and Asian languages.

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A DUI charge against you can haunt you for the rest of your life. It can become a permanent part of your record and can make getting a decent job, for example, quite difficult. It can be the main reason why your application for an insurance policy will be rejected. It can be the cause of why some employers have second thoughts of hiring you. A Driving Under the Influence mark on your personal history can be the worst burden you will ever have. I know that all you ever want is to make it disappear and leave you alone forever.

Fortunately, there is a way on how to beat a DUI. There is still a small glimmer of hope for people like you. But remember that drunk driving should always be avoided. It does not do anything good to any of us. It only causes accidents in which a lot of people can get hurt and even die.

In the United States, DUI charges are like the biggest source of income of the government. All fifty states are strict when it comes to implementing this law. Authorities are firm in making sure that every citizen abides to the law. There is even a political lobbying group called Mothers Against Drunk Driving that is in favor of making more DUI arrests.

If you are arrested for DUI, “how to beat a DUI” is probably the only question that runs in your mind day in and day out. One thing that you can do is to hire a very good DUI defense lawyer to help you clear your name. These attorneys can lower the penalties and decrease the sentences for individuals charged with DUI. If you cooperate and everything goes well, they can even get all the charges dropped, leaving you with an unblemished record.

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For the people it can be much harder to find the perfect law personnel of their own being affected by the accident or the personal injury. Personal injury is the case that can happen at any point of the time, as people move along with the time. The most comprehensive cases for the personal injury involve automobile injury, boat accident, slip and fall injury and most of the all medical negligence or medical malpractice. If the people are dealing with these cases of dreadful injury in the state of the Florida, people must contact the competent and reliable Florida attorneys. Like the most other states of the United States affected people and the person who is at fault are bound by the law. All these cases are subject to proceed by the lawsuit and the compensation.

Among all the personal injury cases the most frequent injury case is the automobile injury. The rates of the automobile injuries have gone up to 25% in each year. People may be victimized by the carelessness, recklessness of the person who is at fault. Most impressive thing about the Florida Injury Lawyer is that they pay their sophisticated attention on the every personal case that comes to the accordance. When a person is involved in an accident or injury, they become snowed under with the injury, medical bill, insurance, lost wages, physically undone and the most of all mental anguish.

Making a compensation claim can look like a daunting task if the affected people have either been physically restricted by the accident or are suffering from emotional shock, so a home-visit from a Florida Car Accident Attorney eliminates the need for taking that painful first step towards compensation: making the effort to meet an attorney.

Florida Accident lawyers

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In the United States every single year, there are over ten thousand reports of spinal cord injuries. This isn’t a laughing matter, because a serious cord injury can mean the end of life as you know it. The spinal cord is what allows is to walk, run, move, etc, in fact, it’s attached to our central nervous system, and therefore a vital part of life. Imagine being healthy today, being able to walk anywhere you want, play football, walk the dog, hug your five and children, then suddenly you’re in a car accident, or injured at work…and suddenly, those things are impossible. A cord injury has rendered you completely inert, and it’s all you can do to just talk. Maybe you were lucky, and you were only paralyzed from the waist down, but even so, your life has been shattered.

If it wasn’t your own fault, then someone out there has ruined your life, and chances are, you know who it is. Now that you’ve gotten all the hospital bills, and it’s sunk in that you’ll never be able to walk again, you’ll want to seek an attorney. So check the internet, or seek out lawyer offices in your area. It’s best to find an attorney that specializes in spinal cord injuries. Chances are they’ve handled this type of case hundreds of times before, and they’ll know exactly what to do, which can involve lengthy paperwork, up to and including the filing of the initial lawsuit, which can take a long time to process, especially if parts of it weren’t filled out correctly.

Getting compensation for your hospital bills will be a good start, but remember, your life has been turned upside down, so you’ll need a lawyer who can squeeze the maximum amount of compensation from those who are responsible. They know how to represent your case in court, and they know how to prepare all the paperwork. They will guide you through the process, and make sure you get everything you deserve.

The good news is, that many lawyers will only accept compensation if you win the case, meaning there will be no immediate payment on your part. With this assurance, you can just worry about your case, and not your current financial situation, which has probably worsened with you not being able to move. So if you ever find yourself in this situation, make sure to seek you a reputable spinal injury attorney, and get everything that’s coming to you.

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It seems like the term DUI is everywhere. Almost every weekend you see stories on the news about police task forces that are targeting the rising number of DUI cases. In fact, the truth is that throughout the years the rules have gotten significantly more stringent, and these days it can be quite easy to end up with a DUI.

However, the frequency of it should in no way minimize the seriousness of the offense. The truth is that with the strict rules surrounding a DUI offense, the consequences are just as serious. Of course these consequences vary from state to state and offense to offense. However, in many instances it may mean that you can be sentenced to large fines, suspended licenses, and even probation or jail time.

When you are initially arrested for a DUI you may be overwhelmed, but the first thing that you need to do is to get in touch with a great lawyer. You see, as penalties vary quite a bit it would help to have a seasoned professional behind you that can help you navigate the complicated avenues of the law.

To challenge any DUI accusation you are going to need a strong defense. This is where a lawyer, such as a Seattle DUI Attorney, can come in to help you. They are aware of the necessary and allowable types of evidence that you may introduce in a trial. The truth is that not all of the evidence that the police may have gathered from you at the scene may be correct.  In fact, there are large margins of error in breathalyzer tests. Additionally, witnesses of the events may be able to help refute some of the evidence that is presented. To come up with all of this on your own would be very daunting, but a lawyer is trained in how to go about this.

You also want a great lawyer to deal with your DUI because there may be more lasting consequences than you realize. The price of your car insurance may be affected for years, and it could potentially be an offense that is permanently on your record. Instead, with the aide of a top quality lawyer you might be able to work out an arrangement with the courts that would allow your record to be expunged of the offense after having fulfilled your sentence.

It may be tempting to try to go it alone when you are accused of a DUI. However, that is not the best choice. By doing that you are simply setting yourself to navigate uncharted territory blindly which can possibly saddle you with more severe consequences than needed. However, with the help of a great lawyer you can get out of a negative situation in the best way possible, and that is completely worth the price of their service.

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A lawyer taking a pro bono case means that they are providing legal services voluntarily. They are representing a criminal defendant without requiring any payment for the job. This is their way of rendering public service as required by the different bar associations if America.

Pro bono criminal defense attorneys are available country-wide. In Texas, pro bono services are widely promoted. Attorneys and paralegals are always invited by the State Bar of Texas to contribute to the society legally.

If you an aspiring attorney or a paralegal moving to Texas and would like to know what you can contribute as part of your pro bono service, here are the different ways how:

Be a Part of the Texas Lawyers Care. This is the main support project of the State Bar of Texas. This institution offers training, assistance, and resource materials to the staff and all other pro bono volunteers. They are also the backbone of the Texas Access to Justice Commission, the main committee looking after the poor people of Texas to receive proper justice.

Volunteer Your Criminal Defense Expertise. As a lawyer serving pro bono hours, you can take in a couple of cases in a year to help people who are short of hiring the best lawyers to represent them. You can either provide your services for free or you can charge a very minimal amount.

Mentor Younger Lawyers. You can also do pro bono services through teaching fresh-out-of-school lawyers know their way around real courtroom scenarios. You can fill them in with the current trends of the judicial system, as well as the proper techniques to win a case, given the judge on the chair. You can also second chair a particular case. That way, you can easily integrate your own expertise along with your apprentice.

Educating the Youth. Texas State Bar also hosts a lot of educational programs aiming to reach young people who are aspiring to be a lawyer. Classroom curriculums are also developed to for high school and college students so as to expose them to the legal world. Legal information, research materials, and case studies are also made widely available to interested parties.

Offering Clerical and Administrative Services. As a part of your pro bono service, you can also help by serving as a clerk for the Texas Courts as well. A court clerk serves as a professional adviser to the magistrates. Although court clerks do not take part in the judicial decision making process, the job is still a challenging one for your level of expertise.

These are just some of the things you can do to serve the required pro bono hours in the state of Texas. Practicing law in Texas is quite appealing, as its State Bar aims to promote its people, rich and poor alike, all too effectively.

Signing up for a pro bono service is quite easy as well. All you have to do is to log-on to the State Bar of Texas website and fill out the necessary forms. A lot of information could also be obtained about membership requirements from there.

Texas lawyers are known to go above and beyond to make sure that the people of Texas have complete access to the state’s judicial system. As a Texan criminal defense lawyer, for instance, you will be able contribute time, leadership, and commitment to the state’s legal system.

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We have all heard the jokes and negative comments surrounding lawyers but have you ever wondered how it all got started. Just as with any profession, there is bad and good. Are there unethical, incompetent attorneys? Of course! Just as there are unethical, incompetent plumbers, physicians, and restaurant workers. However, for some inexplicable reason, it seems lawyers have had more than their fair share of “bad”. The complexity of the law and the demand for legal services from the boardroom to the coat room validate that the profession does have value, so why the bad press?

Well let’s begin with fees. The hourly bill may just have been the beginning of the end for the legal profession. No one is in a good mood when an hourly meter is running, particularly when you can’t control the number of hours that you purchase! Traditionally, Lawyers have relied on the hourly rate, as their standard for billing. With this billing arrangement, the law firm would maintain a record of everything done for you to include phone calls, written letters, court appearances, consultations, etc. You are then billed an agreed upon hourly fee for all of the time that was spent working on your behalf. In addition, you could also incur additional expenses such as transportation, document fees, even phone calls. While this practice is standard in many professions, many consumers believe that attorneys inflate expenses in an effort to make additional profit.

In truth, most service providers use an hourly rate to calculate a fee. In example, an accountant might quote you a fee of $250.00 to review your taxes. The fee is not out of line with your geographic area and the accountant comes highly recommended so you opt to hire him/her at this rate. What you may not realize is that the $250 flat fee may be based on the accountant’s knowledge that the review will take 2.5 hours of time at $100 per hour.

Many attorneys have become a bit more market savvy and offer alternative billing arrangements. Rather than hourly bills and separate expense charges, they may offer case rates, retainer agreements and other solutions. The key is in providing value for the dollar charged, and creating long term relationships.

Another area that has eroded the reputation of lawyers is the unfortunate lapses in ethical behavior. While most attorneys do in fact adhere to the standards of law, the few bad apples have made it difficult for the public to trust lawyers. For example, in the state of South Carolina a young man was on trial for a murder that most believe he never committed. His family sold their home, cars, and gathered all the cash possible to hire a good defense lawyer. Believing their son was in the best hands possible, they discovered that the prosecuting attorney was married to their lawyer’s sister and that pertinent information had been shared, resulting in a mistrial. As you can imagine, this put a black mark against those attorneys, as well as others who were innocent but within the same community.

Personal injury law has been another source of questionable ethics. Billboard and commercial advertisements abound with the promise of high dollar settlements for your case. This marketing tactic only adds to the negative perception of the legal profession, as it makes them appear as ethical as snake oil salesmen.

Additionally, most of us have heard the horror stories about attorneys collaborating back room deals with physicians. In this instance, an attorney wanting to win a case involving a car accident or injury on the job might send his client to a “special” doctor that will validate and even overemphasize the level of injury. The doctor testifies in court in support of the plaintiff, giving the attorney and case strong credibility. Again, these practices are not standard for all personal injury lawyers but unfortunately the actions of a minority have significantly impacted the majority.

The attorneys that engage in unethical practices deserve to be drummed right out of the profession. Sadly, it is unlikely to happen because just as there is a market for competent, ethical law practitioners there is also a market for the legal underbelly. People that desire to bring forward fraudulent lawsuits, illegal adoptions or even illegal immigrations will turn to attorneys who are willing to work around the established rules of law.

Most attorneys are honest, hard-working individuals who take their work very seriously. Because of this, we see a number of law firms working to change public opinion. There are dishonest “professionals” in any field. We can look to education for current examples. There seems to be a spate of sex scandals involving schoolteachers, yet, the four cases that have been highlighted in the news within the past year does not mean all schoolteachers are sex offenders.

The same is true with lawyers. Yes, we have seen cases in which some are not honest and sadly, those are the cases exploited through the media. What you do not hear much of are stories about the reputable attorneys that solve cases and help improve or even change lives. While the public may not be quite ready to elevate lawyers to hero status maybe, just maybe we can start a kinder, gentler trend of being a little nicer.

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