EOC Week 2: What Do You Think of Lawyers?

In my experience lawyers have been opportunistic people who represent others with the intention of a big pay day. Logically speaking, as an attorney it makes a lot of sense to want the big pay day; law school isn’t cheap. But does that justify the extent some attorneys go to in order to secure their own interests? This thought process brings to the forefront of my mind the film “Law Abiding Citizen.” A fictitious story about a District Attorney who cared more about his conviction rate than the pursuit of justice, that was until the victim of one of the criminals he made a deal with forced him to see the other side of things. I have never needed a defense attorney to mitigate an alleged criminal offense. I have never needed a lawyer to sue someone, though I am considering jumping on board a class action lawsuit against the prescription drug Accutane. My personal experience with lawyers is limited to having an attorney write an intimidating letter to a Magazine company. In this experience I was scammed into signing up for a sweepstakes, which sounded too good to be true. It was too good to be true, in fact. I signed up for 3 magazine subscriptions and soon realized that the rate I was paying was much higher than the newsstand price. I decided to become self righteous and refuse to pay them anymore, but they told me that I signed a contract and if I didn’t pay I would be taken to collections. Sure enough, a few months later, I received a notice from a collection agency. The amount they were claiming I owed them, including an “early termination fee,” was $800. I attempted to settle the issue without the need for a lawyer, but they wouldn’t have any of it. They forced me to seek out the aid of an attorney. The attorney wrote them a letter and no more than a week later I received a notice informing me that all costs were forgiven. The general population may think of lawyers as greedy, evil people, but I know that is not true. Sometimes it’s nice to know a lawyer.