Category: Attorney & Consumer Trust

What not to tell your lawyer is a much shorter list than most people expect. In fact, the honest answer is that you should tell your lawyer almost everything, including the parts that embarrass you or seem to hurt your side. Two separate protections usually keep those conversations private. The…

Learning how to fire your lawyer starts with one fact that surprises many clients: in general, you can end the relationship at any time, for any reason, and the lawyer must step aside. The harder parts come next. You need to protect your case during the handoff, get your file back and sort out…

A lawyer not responding to your calls or emails is one of the most common complaints clients have, and it is usually fixable before it turns into a bigger problem. Sometimes the silence means your lawyer is in trial or simply disorganized. Other times it signals real neglect. This guide explains…

Learning how to check if a lawyer is licensed takes about five minutes, costs nothing, and works the same basic way in every state. Each state licenses its own lawyers and keeps a public record of who can practice there. That record also shows any public discipline the lawyer has received. Many…

If you want to file a complaint against a lawyer, the place to send it is your state’s attorney disciplinary agency, not the American Bar Association and not a court clerk. That surprises many people. It also matters what you expect from the process. A disciplinary complaint can lead to a…

Free legal help is available in the US, but where you find it depends on two things: whether your problem is criminal or civil, and how much help you need. If you can’t afford a lawyer in a criminal case where jail is possible, the Constitution generally guarantees one. In civil cases, such as…

Yes, a creditor holding a judgment can reach both, but federal law treats the two places very differently. Money still sitting with your employer is limited by a specific federal formula. The same money, one day later in a checking account, is not. Whether a creditor can garnish your wages or bank account is really…

Yes, a debt collector may call you at work. “Can a debt collector call you at work?” has a blunt federal answer, and it is permissive. Section 1692c(a)(3) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is the provision. A collector may not communicate “at the consumer’s place of employment.” That bar applies only where the…

You dispute an error on your credit report by notifying the credit reporting agency. It then has 30 days to reinvestigate. That much is widely known. What decides most disputes is a second duty. It falls on the company that supplied the information, not on the bureau that published it. The Fair Credit Reporting Act…

Yes — a car can be repossessed without warning, because no federal law requires a lender to notify you first. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, a secured party may take possession of the collateral after default. Article 9 has been enacted, with local variations, in every state, Louisiana included. That part of the arrangement is…