USAA offers a release form for minors in certain situations. If a minor is a beneficiary of a life insurance policy or has a custodial account, USAA may require a release form in order to distribute funds to the minor.
The USAA release form for minors typically requires the signature of the minor’s legal guardian or custodian, as well as the minor if they are of a certain age. The form may require information about the account, the minor’s information, and the purpose of the release.
Dan Snyder is easy to mock. I will probably do it in this post. So when he filed his lawsuit against the Washington City Paper for defamation, I instinctively rolled my eyes. So did you. We all did.
On Monday, I wrote about the plaintiffs’ lawyers’ flawed economic model.
Now, an ABA Journal survey tells us that social media does not help clients find lawyers, and blogs don’t work either. Okay, our law firm is heading back to the Yellow Pages. No, wait, the ABA Journal says the Yellow Pages are beyond awful now (only 8% would use the Yellow Pages).
So how do you get cases? Apparently, “trusted sources” are the most popular way for consumers to find an attorney. Forty-six percent surveyed would ask a friend, family member, or colleague for an attorney referral; 34 percent say they would contact someone they know or whom they have used before.
This strategy works great in picking a good movie or restaurant. It is the worst way to pick a lawyer for a serious personal injury case.
I read an interesting article in the Washington Post yesterday about the downfall of big Washington, D.C. law firm heavyweight Howrey, who closed its doors earlier this month. It is an unbelievably steep fall for a law firm that had $570 million in revenue in 2008.
In my heart, I really wished and wish this law firm and all the people in it the very best. It’s true, scout’s honor. But every plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer gets a little feeling of validation for their career path as news continued to percolate about the demise of big defense law firms.
But that validation got stopped in its tracks when I read this sentence:
Revenue in the litigation business tends to be lumpy. You get paid only when there is a case to be tried and then often only after the trial is over. Howrey, in particular, had come to rely increasingly on revenue from such contingency fee cases, which rose to $35 million in 2008 and then fell to $2 million a year later.
Quickly, I had to jump off my high horse. That’s our business model. Continue reading
A lawsuit has been filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest – fancy name – against McDonald’s in the liberal bastion of San Francisco. The lawsuit alleges that McDonald’s practice of including toys with its Happy Meals is deceptive advertising. From now until the time this lawsuit is dismissed in eight years, people will call it the McDonald’s Happy Meal lawsuit.
I will focus group this lawsuit. Hold on. I’m back. Jury’s back. Everyone thinks it is stupid. Notably included in that group are mainstream progressives like myself. We are not libertarians. But liberals are Americans, too. (A few tort reformers heads just exploded but let’s move on.) We are a people who are historically opposed to others deciding for us when we have all the facts available for us to make our own decisions and most of us think the behavior is okay.
The Insurance Journal reports a rise in legal malpractice claims. Incredibly, there has been no hand wringing about increased malpractice rates for lawyers or fears that lawyers can no longer keep their practices open as their insurance rates rise. We have never had a legal malpractice claim yet our rates continue to increase. No one cries for us.
A part of the rise in the number of legal malpractice claims is countersuits against lawyers who are suing their clients to pay their bills. But I think the larger problem is what the article calls “door law,” a phrase I have never heard before but I like. Door law is when lawyers take any client who walks through the door who might generate a fee. When law firms step outside their areas of expertise, bad things will happen. Continue reading
Above the Law provides an interesting link from a South Carolina family law firm that I can bet you is experiencing a real spike in web traffic. The firm lays down the law to its clients on its website, warning them to wait patiently for return calls (they are busy), not to call on weekends, stop by unannounced, or even to expect that they won’t make mistakes.
I have never handled a domestic case in my life. I couldn’t. I could never bear the bitter pettiness that comes with domestic battles. I deal well with people who are suffering from an injury – including emotional injuries that stem from a physical injury or a death. Pain, physical limitation, loss of someone you 
love? I can get my mind around that. Your bitterness because your husband cheated on you? Day in and day out, that has to be a tough road to hoe. But there was a sign-up sheet out for family law lawyers and these folks signed up. The job description would include dealing with a lot of stressed-out clients who will be upset when you make a mistake and may want to talk to you at odd times.
I do not intend this blog post to criticize this firm. Any law firm can set any policies for client expectations that they want. I am more interested in the answer to this question: would you ever hire this firm? I have no problem with their policy of not working on the weekends or with some other boundaries they set (except for their mistakes policy, which I will get to in a minute). But the brazen tone and tenor with which they announce these policies strikes me as odd.
You are going through a tough divorce. You think you need someone is really in your corner. What are the chances this firm will go the extra mile for you compared to Firm B? Maybe they would. They might be spectacular lawyers who fight to the end for their clients. But given the limited amount of evidence you have when looking for a lawyer on the Internet, what are the chances this firm, given this introduction, will be your choice?
There is a nice state-of-the-art car wash near my house that I would love to use. But when you pull up, the first thing you see is a huge laundry list – in all caps – of my obligations to them, followed by a clear statement that they have no responsibilities towards me, even if one if its employees comes up and socks me in the face. I’m fine with the terms, actually. And it might be a great car wash and the car wash owners may be very reasonable people who just feel compelled to lay out the rules unambiguously. But I just can’t stand that they are shouting at me before my car touches an ounce of soap. Sadly, my car stays dirty. Continue reading
Personal injury lawyers’ blogs are proliferating the web like Lindsay Lohan’s legal problems. It is hard to find any of us now without a blog.
I think a lot of personal injury lawyers see this and think the door is closed, and that it is too late to build up a readership base and develop a quality presence online. But I think there are lots of room for quality blogging on personal injury-related issues. In fact, I think the quality personal injury lawyer blogs of 2020 will include bloggers who have not yet written a single post. Why? Because most of what is out there is complete junk. There is a real demand for good, high quality personal injury-related blogs. If you are writing one, tell me about it because I’m always looking for new blogs to read.
If you are a regular Maryland Injury Law Center reader, I want to keep you. I’ve read so many good blogs that I stopped reading because I just kinda forgot about them.
This is one more way to subscribe.
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