Reprise: Show Me the Money!
September 25, 2014 § Leave a comment
Reprise replays posts from the past that you might find useful today …
SHOW ME THE MONEY!
March 10, 2011 § 1 Comment
As a judge I can tell you it’s hard to capture every detail in my trial notes. Sometimes the witness just speaks so fast that I stay three sentences behind, trying to catch up, and just can’t get it all. Sometimes the significance isn’t clear until much later in the trial or even when the judge is writing the opinion, and then it’s too late. Sometimes a verbose witness will bury the critical info under an avalanche of mostly meaningless words.
Next time you have an equitable distribution case, why don’t you sit down with your client during your trial preparation and work up a spreadsheet that shows how she wants the marital estate divided. You already have it in part with the joint property list that is included in the pre-trial order. Why not just rearrange all those assets into the manner that your client wants them divided. Once she identifies it, offer it into evidence, and the judge has the graphic depiction of how your client wants the case to go rather than just a gob of words. Instead of devoting your time (and the judge’s wayward attention) to a painstaking item-by-item approach, you can zero in on how your client justifies a greater share of the marital estate, and concentrate on the several important items she just has to have. With the preparation of a simple document you will have sharpened the focus of your case and made it more efficiently compact at the same time.
Or, if your client wants the financial assets divided a certain way, you can show the division he wants AND add a column with reduced values for tax penalties, etc., assuming you have that proof in the record.
Or, if your client has a claim for reimbursement of medical bills, why not create a table or spreadsheet itemizing all the charges, showing dates, providers, amounts charged, amount paid by insurance, and balance, with totals.
Or, if your client wants specific visitation, why not spell it all out in a proposed schedule.
Here’s how you get them in:
You: Let me show you a document and ask you what it is.
Witness: It’s a table showing [my proposal to divide the marital estate/the financial assets and how I want them divided/a summary of the medical bills/my visitation proposal].
You: Does this table accurately reflect the [marital assets/financial assets] that are already in evidence? Or: Is this the schedule you wish the judge to adopt?
Witness: Yes.
You: Now, let me ask you a few questions about this …
When you put all those words into an exhibit, you are saving the judge all the work of trying to make notes of them at trial, and you are making sure that everything you want to say won’t be missed by the judge. The judge will have a document to look at rather than having to ferret that information out of his sheaf of notes.
In other words, the easier you make it on the judge, the more probable it is that your client will be very happy with the outcome of the case and the job you did.
Point of Personal Privilege
September 23, 2014 § 7 Comments
Having reached what I consider to be a personal milestone on this date, I am taking a point of personal privilege to set out a few conclusions that I have reached:
- Life is complicated. It makes me laugh to hear the talking heads, pols, and other simpletons who claim to have the answer in a platitude or two.
- Rigid, inflexible, judgmental, dogmatic people tire me out.
- Needed in much more abundance: Joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, faithfulness, and goodness. Gal. 5:22
- Needed in much less abundance: cynicism, egotism, hatred, dishonesty, self-gratification at the expense of others, unwillingness to empathize, cruelty, willful ignorance, and self-righteousness.
- We need less religion, and much more of God.
- The devil does not come as a creature with horns, dressed in a ridiculous red suit, carrying a pitchfork. The devil comes in the fulfillment of our deepest cravings and irresistible urges.
- As my time on this divot of the universe winds down, I am less and less willing to devote any of my personal time to what I find unpleasant, hurtful, or meaninglessly confrontational.
- If we could look truly dispassionately at most of the everyday concerns about which we are most passionate – things such as sports, possessions, politics, competitions – we would realize that they are really trifles, lighter than a feather, compared to what should really capture our passion.
- Do not trust people who are harsh and punitive.
Check back in fifteen or so years, and if I’m still around, these may have changed, and I may have more or fewer.
You may now return to your usual activities.
For Lawyers Reading this Blog
September 12, 2014 § 9 Comments
A few chancellors have told me that lawyers have been citing my blog posts as authority in their arguments. One judge told me (laughingly, thank goodness) that she had stated her understanding of the law, and the lawyer responded, “No, judge, that’s not right; Judge Primeaux says …”
Well, as flattering as that is, let me set things straight.
I am not the authority here. I am merely pointing you to the authority. And what I am posting is my opinion of the authority. You should read the case or statute or rule for yourself, understand how it fits your particular case, and cast your net out for any other authority you can find to help your case. Your opinion may vary from mine.
I am not a legal scholar like Professor Bell, nor is my blog a hornbook. It’s a starting place. A place where you can go to be reminded of something you might have forgotten, or to have something called to your attention that you didn’t know about. From that basic point it’s up to you to turn that into something of benefit to your practice.
My ruminations here are no substitute for the exercise of your own legal skills. Take what I have written and let it lead you in a productive direction, keeping in mind that it will take you only so far until your own legal ability and talent must kick in to formulate the best approach and presentation for your client.
Don’t cite me or my blog as the authority. Cite the authority.
“Quote Unquote”
September 5, 2014 § Leave a comment
“Knowledge is proud that he has learn’d so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.” — William Cowper
“Wisdom does not show itself so much in precept as in life — in a firmness of mind and mastery of appetite. It teaches us to do, as well as to talk; and to make our actions and words all of a color.” — Seneca
“The question is, whether, like the Divine Child in the Temple, we are turning knowledge into wisdom, and whether, understanding more of the mysteries of life, we are feeling more of its sacred law; and whether, having left behind the priests and the scribes and the doctors and the fathers, we are about our Father’s business, and becoming wise to God.” — Frederick William Robertson
The Concepts of Incompetence and Incapacity in Chancery Matters
August 22, 2014 § Leave a comment
As the population ages, attorneys are increasingly faced with issues of the elderly. Adult guardianships, conservatorships, powers of attorney, health-care directives, and estate planning all involve to some extent determinations of the competence and capacity of individuals so that appropriate decisions may be made.
Attorney Tom Freeland, IV, of Oxford, prepared a paper entitled, “Difficulties in Talking About Incompetence and Incapacity,” to present to the North Mississippi Rural Legal Services annual Elder Law Seminar at Ole Miss on August 1, 2014. The program was sponsored and presented by the NMRLS Elder Law Project, of which Ms. Jennie Kilgore is the Director, and the Three Rivers Agency on Aging.
Mr. Freeland has granted me permission to serialize his paper here, and you can read it beginning Monday.
Reprise: Improving your Probate Practice
August 21, 2014 § 1 Comment
Reprise replays posts from the past that you might find useful today …
FIVE TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR PROBATE PRACTICE
April 19, 2011 § 6 Comments
- Always accompany the executor, administrator, guardian or conservator to the bank or other financial institution to open the estate account. That way you can make sure that the funds are properly deposited into a restricted account, and that the fiduciary does what she is supposed to do.
- Always ask that a duplicate bank statement be sent to you for the estate account. If the bank balks, direct that the bank statement be sent to you and not the fiduciary. Review each bank statement promptly when you receive it to make sure that no unauthorized disbursements are being made. Also, when the next accounting comes due — Voila! — you have a complete set of bank statements.
- Have your secretary or paralegal call the fiduciary every couple of months to inquire how things are going, to remind of upcoming deadlines, and to ensure that the address and telephone info in your file is accurate. This is not only great client relations, it’s one of the best means possible to discover and address problems in their early stages.
- Accompany your fiduciary to inventory that safe deposit box, and, if possible, bring a witness. It seems that there is often someone lurking in the wings ready to allege that there were all sorts of valuable items in there that the fiduciary is not accounting for.
- Do an inventory even when one is not required. Inventory establishes the baseline for accounting. It also can help neutralize the claims of many disgruntled heirs and sideline-sitters.
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