Issue 17Nothing here is sponsored
Useful detail on decisions that are hard to reverse.
14 dispatches in this drawer
A case study in settling one estate shows that the decision to hire counsel usually turns on the institutions holding the assets, not on whether the heirs agree.
Rosalind Ntuli1,061 wd
Most people judge a settlement offer against what they are owed. The number that actually decides it is what the dispute costs you each month it stays open.
Desmond Falk918 wd
A decade ago the first meeting about a traffic citation was mostly clerical. At a larger firm with an intake team, that work now happens before you talk to an attorney, which changes what you should bring.
Desmond Falk1,063 wd
Two defensible ways to handle a legal problem, the conditions under which each one wins, and the household paperwork that makes either route work.
Rosalind Ntuli910 wd
A file assembled while a matter is still live is worth several times one built afterward, and most of what it holds takes minutes to obtain at the right moment.
Rosalind Ntuli1,223 wd
Front line agents are constrained by policy rather than by attitude, and knowing the tiers above them turns a repeated call into a resolution.
Sylvia Achterberg932 wd
It is the most useful document in ordinary consumer and contract disputes, and its power comes from being specific rather than from being threatening.
Rosalind Ntuli784 wd
The expensive part of a small dispute is rarely the filing fee, and households that account for the time reach the settlement decision earlier and better.
Sylvia Achterberg1,114 wd
Intake staff handle far more first conversations than the attorneys do, and they describe a consistent set of things callers would benefit from knowing.
Rosalind Ntuli808 wd
Consent rules for recording conversations differ by state, and a recording made under the wrong rule can be inadmissible and separately unlawful at once.
Sylvia Achterberg1,047 wd
Complaints about contract work succeed or fail on sequence, because each stage produces the record that the next stage needs before it will act.
Desmond Falk1,082 wd
These courts exist for modest sums, clear facts and a party who is not paying, and the sorting rule that separates them from a civil filing is simpler than it looks.
Sylvia Achterberg1,203 wd
A first meeting with an attorney is a working session with a fixed length, and how much direction comes out of it depends almost entirely on preparation.
Sylvia Achterberg1,107 wd
The figure quoted at a first meeting is measured against a defined set of tasks, and most of the distance between it and the final invoice is predictable in advance.
Rosalind Ntuli1,488 wd