Legal Advice is a tremendously popular (and therefore manipulated) sub on Reddit.
However, it is run by law enforcement and friends of the court and they will jump on certain issues that are controversial. Censorship is rampant. And, while decent advice usually makes it to the top, there is a lot that is deleted.
There is an astroturfing effort supported by the Bar Association, as well, that pushes the advice "get a lawyer," and suppresses answers that detail how to do things without a lawyer. This is frustrating for users who are not in a position to get a lawyer and are, thus, asking the Internet in the first place.
There is a lot of advice for the average person that a lawyer can have nothing to do with, as well. Keep in mind, there is a lot of good advice that a lawyer simply can't give you because of their rules.
When I was young, I happened to encounter a very interesting lawyer who somewhat solved a murder mystery. A man had written a movie script that revealed the Marines went to Panama to get the blackmail Noriega had on the Bush family and to make sure the "dungeons" were pulverized into dust. This man's vehicle was found off Interstate 15, with a corpse inside that had his hands cut off.
This lawyer was, eventually, disbarred for using a stun gun on a bodyguard at a deposition and so his perspective, as a disbarred lawyer, is one of value and interest because he isn't as mind controlled as those who pass through law school, the Bar exam, and are forced to adhere to certain political norms because they are always at the mercy of the judges.
I tell you this, because, if you are here actually looking for legal advice, you need to understand that a client, a lawyer and a judge all have three very different mind sets and you are not aware of what the specifics are, making it difficult to act properly.
Rule One: Stay out of court.
If you can help it, always try to find a solution that keeps you out of court. Lawyers and judges are not sympathetic to the emotional roller coaster you are going through. They are not pained by the injustice you are suffering. While living in a situation where you are maligned, it feels emotional and complicated. You are not going to be able to suck a lawyer or a judge into your emotional frame. Do not ever tell a lawyer or a judge "it's complicated." Your case may feel complicated to you, but you should always paint it as a simple, cut and dry issue.
Rule Two: Find the RIGHT lawyer
Absolutely, positively, 100% do not go with the first lawyer you talk to. Schedule at least 5 (10 is better, 100 even better than that) consultations.
If, for some reason, you have been unable to avoid staying out of court, your first order of business is to find a lawyer who is familiar with the judge, bailiff, clerks, etc, that will be involved in your case. Sometimes, this means going to the courthouse and sitting a few days in the court room you will be in. This is a great place to approach lawyers and schedule consults.
Watch the court room and learn which lawyers the judge is familiar with. Start with them.
Rule Three: Research the legal history of your type of case
You are not going to really have a clue, your first time, knowing what you are reading. However, if you pour over enough cases similar to yours, you will be able to build your own case. A lawyer's job will be to know the history behind your type of case. Your job is to know your case. Nobody knows your case better than you, usually, so don't let people talk you out of good ideas.
Start at your best law library. They are far superior to anything you can find on the Internet. Look for "published" cases, which you can use in your case as a reference to established case law. Also, read as many "unpublished" cases as you can, to see how far your situation can jump the shark. Write down every relevant case and why it is relevant to you.
Read the law. Say you are forced to enter into a probate case. Go ahead, buckle down, and read the probate code in your state line by line, and write down every single code that you think is relevant to your case. Then, look up the defense used against each of those codes so that you can shoot it down or use it yourself, as needed.
One example is "Contempt" motions. For whatever reason, I can never get a lawyer to file a contempt motion. This is mind control on the part of lawyers. This is a result of their "frame" where if they filed a motion for contempt every time someone perjured themselves or violated a restraining order, the system would be overwhelmed and the lawyer would be stuck on your case, alone.
However, in filing contempt motions, myself, I have had tremendous success. Nobody is going to hand out justice freely, you have to ask.
Rule Four: You will never get anything that you don't ask for.
Every petition requires a "prayer for relief" which means that you need to specify what type of solution you need. If you get sued, and you are the defendant, you are going to still need some type of ask in your filing.
If a great injustice is done to you, in court, nobody is going to stop and fix errors by a judge. You will have to do it, yourself. No judge is going to give you an award of more money than you asked for. Sure, it happens, it's just not going to happen to you.
If you are being reverse bullied, and your stalker files a restraining order against you, you are not going to win the case and earn yourself a restraining order. You have to ask for one. Occasionally, the police will do it for victims... in certain cases. They aren't going to do it for you.
Dirty Tricks
If you are being targeted by a vexatious litigant, then you can expect to experience dirty tricks that never would have occurred to you. The only reason I know about a lot of these dirty tricks, is because they've been done to me.
Fake Filings
The first step to any case is filing the petition. I have seen people serve fake petitions on numerous occasions. The first time I saw it, a panicked woman came running into the clerk's office with a petition that had a bogus case number and date. This poor woman had gone to three counties, that morning, trying to find where the hearing was. There was no hearing.
Fake subpoenas are often issued in this way, as well. Never respond to a subpoena until you have verified that it is legitimate.
Dirty cops will do this, too. They will give you a slip to sign that has your hearing date, but when you show up, it isn't scheduled. I've seen DEA agents raid drug dealers, put everyone in a whole house in handcuffs, assign court dates, then leave with the money and the drugs. With no paper trail, the drug dealers have no recourse to get their money back or even make a case for themselves.
The worst is a combination of this, which was done to me. A person sued me in one county, filed the petition, then canceled the petition and filed in the "right" jurisdiction. Of course, this was all claimed to be a series of mistakes. I was only served the wrong petition and showed up to a case I thought I'd won. Meanwhile, the other party went to work for months with ex parte hearings. It took a long time to unwind.
In this instance, the other party was filing fraudulent proof of service repeatedly. This is super illegal, but I've never seen a court do anything about it except for one time, when I watched someone get hit with "intrinsic fraud" by a judge. If you find you've been fake served, "intrinsic fraud" is the term you're going to need to start fighting it.
When someone plays a dirty trick on you, and you can prove it, immediately sue for "vexatious litigation." Once someone is proven to be a vexatious litigant, they are usually banned from making any more filings.
Special Appearances
Are you poor? Can't afford a lawyer? This is both a solution to not having much money for attorneys, but can also be used as a dirty trick. What you do, is you either write or have someone else write your petition, then you file it "In Pro Per" or " In Pro Se."
If you are squaring off against a much wealthier opponent, this makes it so that they cannot run up high attorney fees against you.
But, you have no idea what to do, in court, so you hire a lawyer to "Specially Appear" in your case. This saves a tremendous amount of money and also catches your opposition by surprise. In order for it to work, you really have to keep your case on the short cause calendar, though. When the judge asks you how long you need for your trial, try to keep it under a single business day. Obviously, that can be impossible with some cases.
Most hearings are procedural. You don't need a lawyer. It's just scheduling or a "case management conference." Understanding the difference between what type of court date is what is important. There is no need to stress yourself out over case management conferences or scheduling hearings. Literally nothing will happen. No decision will be made. Save your energy for dates that will have arguments.
The Lies
This is a huge topic to cover, but the basics are thus:
If you are in a situation where you even suspect you may end up in court, relegate ALL conversations to text message, email... the written word. Keep it polite. You may bait, but keep in mind a judge will see it. Having a specific prayer and a specific goal will help you cut out a lot of noise and needless emotional rollercoasters. Do net get sucked into tribalism. Do not get sucked into back and forth rhetoric.
Social media? Don't do it. Even before a potential legal situation. It's forever. Law enforcement and judges can easily sift through your hateful messages and cherry pick anything they don't like to use against you.
If you have made the mistake of having a lot of social media, change out the identity ASAP, and fill it with random, useless crap to bury what is real.
After you've cleaned up your "voice" online and your "voice" in text messages in emails, you really need to have security and tracking on yourself (spoof the tracking and details, if you must, but always have an alibi). Hidden hunting cameras are cheap and can give priceless results. One for the car. One at home.
This is especially true of family law and restraining order cases. One still can be proof of a restraining order violation, which can mean jail. You will only get this result if you file a contempt motion. The police almost never arrest for a RO violation.
If you've got stills from a hunting camera, it takes out all the guesswork. Hunting cameras are best because you have the discretion to use what is on it, or not, as opposed to something on a cloud account, like an Amazon service that can be subpoenad.
Any time someone makes up a lie, if you have an alibi, and if you've stuck to polite written communications, they are easy to "impeach."
In order to avoid the other party doing "parallel reconstructions" on you, you need to keep every detail of your life private from them, their lawyers and their private investigators.
In Summary
There is a lot to know, but those are the first things to keep in mind.
If you are seeking legal advice, you probably do need a lawyer. Not everyone is in a position to get a lawyer, though. So, you have to start somewhere.
Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not into censoring stuff or getting wrapped up in details on how a sub should be run. But, I will say that if you beat people down with "get a lawyer" without trying to help elucidate their situation, you're probably not the type of help we want around here.
(post is archived)