A BOOK ON U.S. APPLICABLE LAW
Deacon San Nguyen
CHOICE OF LAWYER
The United States is a law-governed country, so people tend to interact with one another in a manner that gives room for less sentiment than reason, which is quite different from our Vietnamese people’s way of interaction based on the “forgetting-about-it” philosophy.
There are lots of cases where litigants almost have no good legal arguments against their opponents, or they well understand that their claims are almost impossible to win but will decide to go ahead with the litigation. There are cases where the plaintiffs are big losers and suffer paying expensive litigation costs and high lawyers’ fees. However, no matter how costly this might be, these litigious people chose to litigate before the court solely for their personal pride. Abraham Lincoln, a late US President who also was a famous lawyer put it that “Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often the real loser in fees, expenses and waste of time. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this”.
It is the “forgetting-about-it” philosophy of our Vietnamese people that has resulted in our suffering some disadvantages should conflicts arise among us. Mischievous children unintentionally littering on neighbor’s properties, loud birthday or anniversary parties, for example, are the basis for lawsuit for disturbing the peace. Therefore, even though involving in lawsuits is the last thing we want to do, we should do as Romans do when in Rome, just in order to protect ourselves when running the risk of litigation to enjoy the due process of law. To cope with this situation we first have to look for a particular lawyer specializing in the legal problems in which we get involved.
As a matter of fact, the US judicial systems are so complicated with a great variety of different laws such as the Constitutional law, the Federal and state laws, district laws, county laws, municipal laws, township laws…. Lawyers who want to do their legal profession successfully and to avoid violation of the ethical standards which possibly make them subject to discipline, including temporary suspension or even disbarment, they are required to abide by the Model Rules of Professional Conduct adopted by the American Bar Association.
Law may be classified in several ways: by system such as common an civil law, by source as constitutional, statutory, case law, by substance as civil and criminal law, or by function as substantive and procedural law. So, when someone takes action against us, the first thing we confront is to find a lawyer as a specialist in the areas involved as traffic violations, contractual or commercial laws. Of course, lawyers whose area of expertise and experience do not meet our requirements are of no avail. Let’s take an example to well illustrate this: a prospective buyer signed a contract with a real estate company to buy a new house on condition that the purchase became effective only after he had successfully sold his old house within a term of 90 days and this condition was clearly stated in the agreement. At the end of its term, he could not sell his old house and as the result, could not buy the new house. The real estate company threatened to sue him for breach of contract, causing big monetary damages to the company and hold him responsible for the losses. He was very much worried about the possibility of being sued so he tried to unsuccessfully seek legal law advice from two lawyers who had no expertise in the real estate area, one specializing in immigration and another in traffic violation. Finally thanks to recommendation from a friend, he went to a real estate lawyer for assistance, who successfully helped him not only be brought to the court but also get the refund of the deposit of $500 which he had put on the house.
From the above example, conclusion can be drawn out that the lawyer’s area of expertise and prior experience are the most important facts to decide the winner of a case.
