I recently installed about 30 square feet of tile. I didn’t do it myself because I wanted it done efficiently, inexpensively, or professionally. I was extremely slow. I could have used the time invested to do thousands of dollars’ worth of legal work. And some of the corners are crooked. But I wanted to do it myself. I studied the procedures, gathered the materials, borrowed the tools, and did the work. I went into the project knowing that I might have to undo everything and let someone else do it correctly. But I understood the risk. And I was willing to take it. I wouldn’t have tried to re-wire my house.
If I had hired a contractor to put in 30 square feet of tile, I think it would have been simple, and it wouldn’t have cost very much. It wasn’t a big job or a difficult job. But it wasn’t simple to me, because I didn’t know what I was doing.
There are a few times where the services of a lawyer will be simple, and it won’t cost very much. When that is the case, you are usually paying for convenience and efficiency. You are paying a lawyer to do things that someone else could do, because the lawyer can do it more efficiently and you won’t have to deal with it.
While I enjoyed remodeling my bathroom, you might not enjoy spending a day in traffic court. Especially in a post-COVID world. If you were going a few miles over the speed limit and you don’t want to burn a vacation day on the court date, then you can pick one of the 15 lawyers who mailed you a letter. It will be simple, and it won’t cost very much. But sometimes you don’t need simple or cheap. If you were charged with a felony it would be foolish to pick the cheapest lawyer who mailed you a letter.
Much of what I do every day includes drafting a document of some type. Each document is a tool used to implement a plan. Every now and then a simple plan can be executed with a simple document. Sometimes simple documents can be used to implement a complex plan. And sometimes the plan is simple, but it takes a carefully crafted document to do the job. Every case is different.
Most people understand that you should not try to draft a Special Needs Trust yourself. But you may not understand the consequences of something that seems simple. You can probably pull up every deed that has been filed in your county for the last 30 years. And you may be able to draft a perfectly good deed yourself. But you probably won’t understand why it’s good. And the stakes are a little higher. If you miss the diagnosis, you will make the wrong prescription. And sometimes you don’t get a do-over.
Sometimes the things we do don’t cost very much. But I rarely say that this will be simple. For better or worse, people don’t hire me to be efficient or convenient. All those jobs were taken when I came along. People hire me to be right about complicated issues. If it was simple, you probably would have called someone else.