The Defence Brief

The sharp-eyed among you may have noticed the deliberate Americanisation of the word "defence" in the title.  That's because I wanted to share this interesting and amusing piece called The Truth About Hiring a Criminal Defense Lawyer , which was written by an American lawyer called Brian Tannebaum. I don't agree with every word, but for the most part I think it's spot on.   I just wish that UK lawyers could charge such huge fees for our work (minimum of $5,000 for a guilty plea drink driving case over there, while today I represented an Ambasador's wife for assault and was paid less than £500 for her guilty plea)... oh well, I can dream.

Hertz car hire has some nice cars This morning the postman dropped a letter through my door from a US attorney in the case of Sobel et al v The Hertz Corp et al , which was sent to me by my in-laws who are asking me what they should do about it. Basically, the notice informs customers of Alamo Rent a Car that they could be entitled to compensation for a charge that was erroneously added to a number of bills between 2007 and 2009.  This is called a class action and it seems that my in-laws must actively exclude themselves from the action to avoid having anything to do with it. According to the notice three teams of attorneys have worked tirelessly on this case for four-years and will be claiming fees that come to a little over $1.4M from the defendants.  The total compensation they have negotiated is one $10 voucher off any future car rental taken in the next 18-months per customer. Brilliant, so for a fee of $1.4M they have negotiated a settlement worth $10 to ea...