Fortune Cookie Says "You are independent politically"

I have found that usually my horoscope is right, weird things happen on a full moon, Friday the 13th is rarely a day I should get out of bed and fortune cookies hit the nail on the head. Today at lunch, my husband and I went to the Chinese buffet and ended the meal with the same fortune in our cookie. Now while this is a rarity, it does happen to Aaron and I quite a bit. But today it hits home because we're both ready to offer commentary on a variety of issues.

I think my issue today is why lawyers are such arrogant dumb asses. In our line of work...pause for a brief commercial moment... (Custom Bail Bonds- serving the Richmond Metro, Northern Neck, Middle Peninsula, Tri-cities and almost the rest of the state of Virginia)...end pause...we run across different types of lawyers, but most of them we end up having to talk to are just a little off. I guess it's about par for the course when Virginia doesn't actually require lawyers to have a law degree. Which I have always found interesting...did you know that anyone off the street can be a lawyer, all they have to do is pass the Bar Exam? So that means Slappy from the corner can take the test, pass it and be practicing law the following week. Now that doesn't mean I have a hatred for all lawyers. In fact, I think there are a lot of great lawyers out there who do a wonderful job, however even they have to admit there are some that crawl out from under their rock every morning swearing up and down that they know everything there is to know about how the court system works. I would venture to say those are the lawyers we run into and remember.

An example of this type of lawyer is a man, who will remain nameless because after all he is a lawyer, who tells his clients not to go to court. Now here's the problem I have with this... The defendant does not have any reason not to trust the lawyer, often my clients will say they thought the lawyer knew what he was talking about...and I can't blame them for that, after all they are paying the lawyer to look out for their well being. So the lawyer tells the defendant that they don't need to go to court, that the lawyer will take care of it. To me, I see several problems with this:

1. The lawyer cannot testify for you. So if you aren't there, then how are you going to face your accuser and defend yourself?
2. The lawyer is not the one who has to go to jail for Failure to Appear (FTA).
3. The lawyer does not have to pay the bondsman again for the additional charge of FTA.
4. The lawyer is not the person who will have the FTA on their record.
5. The lawyer does not have to do the time for a guilty verdict because the defendant wasn't there to defend themselves.

And the ironic thing here is that the lawyer will most likely charge the defendant's family for all the time he spent running back and forth to correct his mistake. So, I'm thinking that could get really expensive and time consuming.

I guess what I'm really saying here is that if you ever end up being accused of a crime and need the services of both a lawyer and a bondsman, go to court no matter what the dumb ass lawyer tells you. I have seen so many good people get f*c$$% because they listened to someone who told them going to court wasn't necessary. If you have a court date associated with your name, you need to make sure you appear in front of the judge. The judge doesn't want to see anyone but you...if you don't believe it, waste a few hours in jail thinking about it after you're picked up on an FTA. Now that's a day that's going to suck.