When Do You Really Need a Lawyer?

Dr_Harm asks: "I recently had the misfortune to encounter a CEO who had just received the Klez virus. Apparently, he believed the 'From:' header and accused me of not only authoring the virus, but deliberately and maliciously targeting him and his organization. Normally, clueless people like this don't bother me, except he was inclined to sue me and report me to the FBI. Of course, he's got more money and lawyers than I do, and could probably have made me miserable even though I'm completely innocent... but it raises the question: How do I know when I need a lawyer?"

"Clearly, once I've been served with legal papers, a lawyer is necessary. But I'm guessing that there are situations where having a lawyer before it gets to that point would be helpful. I'm interested in some general guidelines for when I should pick up the phone and call a lawyer. I'm especially interested in tales of 'I waited to long and got burned' as well as 'I got a lawyer so early it was smooth sailing'. Like most people, I make a decent living, but I cannot afford high legal bills for very long.

For those who are interested, the CEO in question decided to simply report the incident to the FBI. My guess is that the Feds logged the complaint for their statistics and then dropped the matter. However, the brush with someone with enough money and power to drain me financially has left me distinctly shaken..."

Comments

Who needs a lawyer...

[myov]

... when you could just /. him instead?
No klez, in fact, no internet

I've got an easy answer to your problem

[Ilan Volow]

If you're kinda handy with Sendmail, and CEO stubbornly refuses to believe that SMTP From: headers can be faked, guess how surpised he'll be when he receives an email from gwbush@whitehouse.gov giving you a full pardon.

Just ask Slashdot!

[njchick]

it raises the question: How do I know when I need a lawyer?

You need a lawyer if you ask on Slashdot and none of the comments with score 3 and above answers your question.

It's funny 'cos it's true, Marge.

[realgone]

Here's a old, old joke that has more than a little truth to it:

Q: When do you need a lawyer?
A: When you're talking to a lawyer.

Which is to say, if you ever need to deal with someone else's attorney in any offical capacity, no matter how trivial, you're best served by having your own on-call as well.

Don't do that, but do something similar.

[gnovos]

I would caution against using the President's address, because we all know what a great sense of humor the Secret Service has, right? Instead, send him an email "from" himself. Something like "Hi me, If you will notice the 'from' address, this email is being sent from you to you. Since it is impossible to forge headers in your mind, this must have been written by you while you were sleepwalking. Basically I'm your subconcious telling you to drop the case."