Hammargren & Meyer, P.A. (1996-2015)

Hammargren & Meyer, P.A. (1996-2015).    The place where I practiced with fervor, grace,  and devotion for many years.   And then one day the doors  simply closed.   Forever.  Now only ghosts pass through these once bustling and even hallowed halls.  I know.  I was the last one to turn out the lights.  I saw myself hovering there as I turned to leave for the last time.  In mid air.  That’s me.

 

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Best wishes to all of the fine folks who once graced this place.   Deb.  Gretchen. Mel.  Liz.  Ben.  Jason.  Gary.  Jamie.  Jeanne.  Patrick.  Dave. Jim.  Paul.  Jennifer.  Rob.  Paul.   Brenda.   Sarah.  Adina.  Chris –  rest his soul.  Tony.  Tommy.  Bridget.  Matt.  Lisa. Andy.  Chanel.  Cassie.  Kristen. Tanya.  Even Lurch and Cousin It. And  Dan, Carly, Eric, Scott and yes,  Jon too.  I know that I am missing more than a few names and for this the ones I’ve missed  are likely grateful.

 

Fine lawyers. Solid paralegals.  Top shelf staff.  Great people all.  Some say that change is good and that nothing lasts forever.  The love of my life, Miss Linda, once softly spoke these words to me. Words that will forever ring true in so many walks of our lives.  “How so lucky we  are to have had something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”   Good luck folks.  Keep in touch.   RIP H&M.

A brave new world … .

Hi folks.  Welcome to Cook Law & ADR, PLLC.    We are still in the process of unpacking boxes, learning the phones, ironing out the technology bugs, setting up the website, and hanging near anything but certificates, licenses, and dipolmas on our walls.   It has been a rat race and a whirlwind for the last five hundred and sixty days or so.  It’s a long story that might someday be told.  Of course, it’s no longer important to the tasks at hand.  At Cook Law & ADR, the future is bright,  the coffee is fresh, the lawyering is solid,  and our  goodwill runs deep.  We’ll focus on your legal matters and keep you well  apprised.     If we can’t help you, we’ll help you find someone who maybe can.  No promises, other than a commitment to do our best with your  facts.    No bullshit, at least not extraordinarily so.   The law is tough.  Find someone whom you can trust.

 

This is our very first blog post. It  is made, first, to thank those who are with us and to welcome those who will soon be with us.  Frankly, it  is also made, mostly,  to see if this blogging link works.  Building a website is tough without the weight of a big marketing department behind building a  brand.

 

Hey, it’s a Friday night!  Leave your legal woes on the floor or at the door for the weekend.  Life is short.  Go dancing.  Or out  to a high school football game. LIsten to the band.   Get some exercise.  And oh yes,  hold your loved ones close. Real close.  We never know what tomorrow might bring.  We know this always and especially tonight, what with  the tragic news  out of  Greenwood.

I would rather pay my lawyer …

How many times have I sat in mediation and heard these words that come from frustration, anger, and sometimes outright blindness to the oncoming broadside hit barreling  straight down the old turnpike?    “Sir,thank you for your effort but  I will much rather pay my lawyer a dollar before I will even consider paying my unworthy opponent one thin dime!  Tell him that I  shall see him in court!”    Hey, there is nothing wrong with standing on principle, at least  where and when principle can be found.  It’s one of the things that make this country great.  Principle.

 

Free will.  Free enterprise.  The American justice system.  The right to have our grievances aired in front of a jury of our peers.   Okay.   we  get this.  It’s all true.   However, is it really the best thing for you?   Probably not.   Having practiced for thirty years,  I’ve seen more than a few snit shows.   I’ve even been in the center of  one or two of them  myself.  There are not many things in litigation that hold true.  Here are two.  Most often, with all things considered, only bad things happen in court.  And, of course, the only sure winners in court are the lawyers and the experts.   We generally get paid win, lose, or draw.

 

As the  jury handed down its guilty verdict to the criminal defendant who had turned down a decent plea bargain before trial because he badly wanted  his day in court, the man turned to his lawyer and asked, earnestly.   “Well, that was wrong.  They just didn’t get it. So, where do we go from here?”   His lawyer, packing up her briefcase, looked at him and  responded quite matter-of-factly.   “Well, I am pretty sure that I am going home to have dinner with my husband and my children and you, sir, are going to jail.  You should have taken the deal.  You could be going home too.  We’ll talk later.”

 

It’s a helpless feeling, yes it is.  Going to jail that is.  Thank God you are likely dealing mostly, if not only, with money.   Helplessly throwing increasingly big dollars at a case that you  might just not win.  Remember, there are at least two sides to every story and the only “truth” that ultimately matters is the one handed down by your judge or your jury.  About  that jury of  peers that you want so badly?  Well, they probably will not  look, walk, or talk like you, and they just  might not  much like you or your story. ‘Tis true.   Be careful for what you wish. Bad things might be coming your way if you do not get your case settled today.

 

So, do not  be so bold to declare that you would  rather pay your lawyer a dollar before you will pay a dime, or maybe a good number of dimes, to bury your grievances  at mediation.   You are a smart person.   You are successful.   You have better things to do with your time and money than to throw them down the courthouse trough.   Come to mediation.   Control your deal.  Sure, it  will aggravate the heck out of you for a few days.   But then you will be done.  Resolution is always a good thing.   There can be no argument with resolution.  So ends today’s lesson on just a few of the many benefits of ADR.

Another dispute bites the dust.

Out there on the horizon was  yet another job gone bad.   Payments were owed, or at least some said.  Liens were threatened, and then recorded.   Others were indignant, claiming that if anything was  owed it was owed to them.   Delays.  Defects.  Slow pay.  No pay.   Lousy contract documents and even worse communication.    It was a boiling cauldron of adversity ready to spill over into the district courts where it would soon waste everyone’s time and money.  Maybe even eat some youngsters.

Lawyers with calmer heads got together and smartly said to each other, “Hey, let’s call Tim Cook over at Cook Law & ADR, PLLC!  He’s a sharp tack and a hard-working guy.  And he has a great assistant in that Miss Linda lady! Let’s call them and  see if he can get this mess sorted out before we all spend a fortune with a lawsuit.”

 

Smart lawyers, those folks.  Phones rang.  E-mails were exchanged.  A date was confirmed.  A pre-mediation exchange of  documents and information was had.    Rather than spending time and effort on depositions and motion practice, the lawyers helped their clients prepare for mediation.

 

That day soon came.  Folks arrived with their game faces on.   They were greeted with a smile and ushered to  their private rooms.  It was a big crowd.  Four or five parties.  No problem.   At Cook Law & ADR, we have  plenty of room.   When we do not, we are willing to let others host and will travel at no charge.  Sorry, we digress.

 

The coffee was brewed fresh.  The  water and soda pops were ice cold. A big plate of the finest donuts this side of the river were at the ready.  Magazines on near all interesting  topics, and interesting but  not overly expensive art, were all around to bring the blood pressures down.  If those did not work, the heart start paddles were at fully charged  and  not far away.   We were ready to get things done.  The sleeves were rolled up. We started on time.  We did not waste  time.  At least not much.

 

The project players  were angry that day my friends.Tim Cook  worked hard.  So did everyone else.     All positions had some degree of justification and righteous indignation.   No one is ever completely right.  No one.    No one expects a job to go bad either.   Having not  called Tim immediately for some project claim mediation at the time, that job  went from bad to worse to near impossible.  And now it was time to vent, to reason, and to resolve. Voices were raised.  Tables were pounded.  Eyes were rolled.   Crying towels were passed around.   Doses of the cold hard truth were administered.   After a hard stretch, agreement was reached.  Yes, the gripes were over.  The dark scepter of bad things in court was gone.

 

A final mediated settlement agreement was drafted, reviewed,  revised slightly, and signed.   Business relationships were preserved.   Lawyer and expert fees were kept in a reasoned range.   The men and women who arrived in combat gear left in reasonably good cheer, and with the remaining few donuts in hand.     Sure, no one was immediately happy with the result.   But they would soon realize that they could box up their files, close their claim folders, and spend their lawyer money on more productive matters looking to the future rather than trying to change the past.

 

Collectively, those mediation participants  privately sang the praises of the fine folks at Cook Law & ADR for helping them get to common ground.   All the way home and some more the next day.  Hey, you can sing these praises too.  To  be clear,  mediation is not always successful.  Sometimes there is simply not enough  room for compromise.  Sometimes, people just do not  want the drama of a lawsuit out of their lives.  However, these are the exceptions rather than the rules.

 

Today’s lesson from this rambling sometimes incoherent recollection of yet another one of Tim Cook’s many successes?   Give ADR and mediation  a chance.   You’ll be glad you did.    Of course, we’d love to see you here at Cook Law & ADR.   If not here, there are many other fine men and women who are qualified ADR specialists.   Make sure that  they have the fresh donuts.  And the good cheer.  And a reasoned value.  And a firm commitment to do all that can be done to have your dispute  bite the dust.   We do.   Have a great week.

Trust me … . Write it down.

Trust me.   Those famous last words that end up breeding so many disputes in our lives.  “What the heck, don’t you trust me?”  Whether in friendship, marriage, business, or politics, much of our lives is  built upon the foundations of trust.  Merriam Webster’s defines “trust” as  the “assured  reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.”    Hey, there is nothing wrong with trust.   But only when  you are absolutely rock solid in knowing with whom you are about to do business.   And that, my friends, is really only about 1.5% of the time, if that. Trust me.  ‘Tis true.

 

“Hey buddy,  trust me.  How long have we known each other? C’mon.   I would never screw you out of anything. C’mon. I know what I am doing. You know this. This deal  is going to be great!   Let’s do it!   Just give  me your time, your talent, and your treasure.  That’s all we need to ramp up and take off.  We’re gonna be rich!”

 

The next thing you know, you find yourself  drunk with the  promises  of a dishonest or an entirely incapable man.  You  change your position in reliance on a friend or business partner who proves to be a lazy lout or, worse, a charlatan.  For those of you who don’t like fancy words, a dirty  snake.   You contribute  great acts of labor or  large sums of money, or both,  in a business venture,  a property purchase, or some other grand plan.   You  do so on a handshake or, if you  are at least partially awake, with a few words scratched on a napkin or on some vague language in a text or an e-mail that you will later  be lucky to find.  You  are trusting and confident.  “Who needs a lawyer?” you ask yourself.  “I don’t trust them.”

 

And then, inevitably, things go south.  At least for you.  The charlatan spirals out of control.   He gets amnesia, claims credit and profits for himself, and suggests that you were nothing more than an employee or that the terms of “the deal” are not as you remember them.   Nice.  Now it is  time to do what is really aggravating in life.   Time to go and see that  lawyer.

 

“Let’s take a look at your contract documents,”  your lawyer says.  “Uh, I don’t really have any, or many.”  “What?  Are you kidding me?  How in the holy hell did you get this far, and go that deep, with this guy without any documents?”  “Ah, er, I ah trusted the guy … .”   Cripes almighty. Strap in and hang on.

 

Of course, there might be several  reasons why you  don’t have documents. Trust is the  leader among them.   Perhaps your business partner played the “Hey, I am a Christian, I would never screw you” card.  Lots of people in this world are Christians.  Most of these people are good and decent people.   However, those few who actually have the gall to play the “I am a Christian” card in a business deal invariably should be ignored.  Run away from these jokers.    Now.  And fast.  There, this is your snippet of free legal and practical advice on the CookLaw blog for today.  No need to thank me now.

 

Trust.  We govern our lives by trust.  On many many fronts.  I trust that you are not going to drop your end of the heavy safe that we are moving into my basement so as to crush  my toes.   The loves of our lives trust that we will remain faithful and true until the end of our days.  I trust that no one will steal the Milky Way bar that is patiently waiting for me in my freezer.  You trust me when I say that I will be at your house on time to safely get you to the airport, and that I will not have to stop for gasoline or a sleeve of Ding Dongs along the way.  Trust is a good thing.

 

However, one place where blind trust should not be placed is in a business or a real estate deal.  For the protection of everyone, reduce your agreements to writing.  Get  names and signatures on contracts, deeds, accounts, and other documents that evidence interest,  ownership,  and authority.  Having these protections may go a long way in protecting your legal rights.  In some situations, the law requires a writing.  The Statute of Frauds, for one example.  For those of you who are junior aspiring attorneys, go look it up.  For those of you who are smart business men and women, call your lawyer instead.  We are trained professionals.  Work with us.  Money spent up front may prove invaluable if that  day should ever  come when the  reptile who is your business partner reveals his true scales.

 

Written documents may not always give you bulletproof protection from heartache and loss.  But they can and will go far in helping you, your business partner  and, heaven forbid, a court of law to sort out the mess.