Legal fees - New proposal prevents retainers
A new proposal, supported by the Board of Governors of the State Bar of California, appears to make it illegal for a lawyer to charge and accept an advance retainer in matters involving loan modifications. Do you think that, after the work is completed, the lawyer will be able to get the client to pay the fee?
How similar is this to the new San Francisco City ordinance that forces landlords to reduce their rent if a tenant loses his/her employment?
I thought these matters were the government's responsibility or charities? Perhaps lawyers and landlords are being conscripted now as charities.
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Gee, I wonder if these kinds of ideas which run counter to the business owner's self-interest have anything to do with California's other financial troubles? When are people going to "get" that entrepreneurial business owners are the lifeblood of any productive economy. Is that way today. Was that way throughout all of human history. No reason to think it will be any different in the future in California or on any other planet.
So now that lawyers are prohibited from taking up-front retainers, surprise, surprise foreclosure rates will sky-rocket. And knowing that the borrower won't be able to secure decent representation the lenders will adjust their negotiating position accordingly. Which will of course lead to more properties being taken back by the banks instead of in productive use as homes or businesses. Which will mean a weaker tax-base to support all of California's other "socially progressive" programs and down the spiral will go.
Didn't anyone from The Bar learn ANYTHING from the brown-outs a few years ago, which were the direct-result of some other "nice ideas" that didn't work-out quite so well in this little place the rest of us like to live called REALITY?!?!
Thanks, Ed for bringing this to everyone's attention!
RJON ROBINS
"Because Happy Lawyers Make More Money"