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Comment by gualang | Hacker News Reader

Suing lawyers as side income. we all know most lawyers are scummy using all sorts of deceit to gain advantage. However in the increasing documented world, it is a matter of digging(using text search) to find fault with the offending lawyer's deceit and then file a DIY action in court.

I am involved in estate litigation since 2016 where I discovered collusion by many lawyers with the estate administrator to defraud the estate. Our laws for anti corruption are stringent in my country where a lawyer causing a beneficiary damage as the estate's lawyer is liable for 20 yrs imprisonment and 5x penalty fine for the gratification received.

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Don't you think this might not be a safe side income for you?

It is as safe as filing any valid cause of action in law. Submissions in court is not much different than presenting for a budget in large corporate. Law is not mysterious, it is just plain ability to find case laws that fits your particular sets of circumstances (authorities) - what we devs call pattern matching. Like chess,prepare your defenses while you plan your offensive. Playbook is just like MCO("chess") but be prepared to stay motivated for the long haul.

You could get powerful enemies, and also risk losing a lot on any particular case. Best of luck.

I have to ask though, do you think “most lawyers” fit your description? I would hope they do not.

yes, the possibility of making powerful enemies (the Bar) but like any activism - "having skin in the game", the law exist to be relied on. 95 to 98% is my personal observation. My own sister(Yale sheepskin) included. I am in tech solutions not reliant on the Court circuit to earn my income. I do see an opportunity for a Notion based litigation tool for time saving to easily organize and retrieve the myriad of documents in a case. coupled with case law access and template - A DIY engine for Litigant in Person saving hundreds of thousand in legal fees. AI vs weasels. Game on.

I think the question was more about any out of court consequences – 20 years imprisonment is a lot, and seems you're dealing with people who aren't particularly law abiding to begin with. Aren't you worried of someone trying to go after you?

I agree there are elements of risks in such activism. Like reporters bringing the corruption to light exposes the reporters to retaliations. It is a lot less risky than being all in as a startup founder or diving to 150 ft below surface with a 45 min tank. The Professional indemnity insurance comes into play to compensate. The jail time element is incentive towards settlement or compensation.

How much time per week do you spend on that?

It doesn't really seem like a side thing to my I don't know the law eyes.

Courts are very slow moving. The cartel known as the Bar makes it difficult for litigant in person.But once you have to tools (case law database access) and templates for the documents to file it is like writing up aproject proposal in corporate office. The digitally filing process is quick(after you physically present yourself at a court to hand over the CDRom to the court registry and filling in paper forms). The cartel(Bar) in my country however prevents litigant-in-person access to the digital filing system(reserved for licensed practitioners only) I do not bill the estate for my hours so I have no idea but it can be absorbing as a chess game.

Don’t doxx yourself but can you link to an example, public case? One you weren’t involved in maybe?

Can you elaborate more how such fraud happens? Also, how would you even get access to court record for these estates? Would these records not be private to the party at hand?

Fraud happens when someone does something dishonest to gain unlawful enrichment mostly by fraudulent misrepresentation. The administrator may embezzle and hide the accounts for example, then the scum lawyer try to dissipate all assets in dishonest assistance when exposed the lawyer and administrator had corruptly abused their position of trust. As beneficiary we can file suit for accounting of the estate. Non accounting usually a big red flag. (applies to most countries) - disclaimer - I am not a lawyer. Comments here not legal advice to be taken in any form or shape. YMMV.

So you have to be a beneficiary to file? I can't imagine that happening more than two or three times in your life... are you helping others with their cases?

In my country, we do not ,as I am told, have courts that allow 3rd party lawsuits, so this knowledge cannot be leveraged to represent others to sue by absolute assignment of rights("chose in action"). I am one of few that I am executor of both my parents estate and may become administrator for my grandmother's estate. The asymmetrical financial power of the misbehaving Personal Representative of an estate (having resources of entire estate to resist removal) is something that can be solved by 3rd party financing. Framework of transparency in estate administration may be a digital solution where the court supervise the administration of an estate digitally in fine grain and in realtime instead of beneficiary initiated lawsuits. There is a need for professional estate administration or avoid probate process altogether. Most executors are once in lifetime newbies and are easy targets of scummy lawyers to manipulate into unnecessary and prolonged litigation (milking the estate) by colluding lawyers.

Wow. Did you go to uni to study law I take it? Or was this all DIY?

Logic 101, yes, CS,EE, yes, law no. Maybe I shall do night school on law. I started small win because forced into litigation but first appearance in court ever beat a 15yr exp litigation lawyer on rules of court(civil procedure). Some/many lawyers are amazed by ctrl-f in pdf reader or browser so I can search through entire rules of court in 1 second while they are still flipping pages. small wins fuel more research. I believe high cost of litigation is a life threatening risk so all must learn a bit of law. Or build a AI powered DIY tool for litigant in person.

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