Lawyers

It is nice to know that lawyers are the same the world over. I have paid lawyers, but have always had my lawyers take my money and either do nothing, or side with the opposition ('You may be paying us, but we are officers of the court, and are working for justice.')

The US regularly reports that condemned prisoners had lawyers who asked for the death penalty, even when the prosecution was reluctant to do so. I spoke with one criminal lawyer, who said he knew all his clients were criminals, and he not only wasn't about to defend them, he would try a 'plea bargain' for more than they would have gotten if convicted.

Civil suits in the West are about the same. If the suit has a chance, the lawyers will take the case on contingency. If they don't, it means a) the case hasn't a chance; and b) after taking the retainer, they don't intend to waste any of their time pursuing the case.

So a friend in the UAE has filed a lawsuit because he put down a deposit on a villa. 'What about the broken windows?' 'They'll be fixed before you move in.' (They weren't.) 'What about the fact that the A/C doesn't work?' 'It will be fixed before you move in.' (It wasn't.) My friend refused to move in, since the promised work hadn't been done. 'Sorry, your deposit is non-refundable.'

My friend, furious, went to a lawyer who said, 'I need a retainer of €2,000.' That was the last my friend heard from the lawyer. Calls went unreturned.

So my friend went to another lawyer to sue the first lawyer to get his retainer back. He gave the second lawyer a retainer of €2,000.' That was the last he heard from the second lawyer. His calls are not returned.

Now he's planning to get a third lawyer to sue the first two lawyers and the original landlord. I wish him the best of luck. But the lawyers here seem exactly like the ones I met in the West.