I'm going to talk about 'contingency' cases in general; from the perspective of a solo practitioner. If you follow my rules it will save you a lot of time, effort and heartache. Which is not to say you will avoid those things entirely, stuff happens, but it will minimize it.

I've done personal injury contingency cases, I've done Will contest contingency cases, I've done collection contingency cases and I've done contract contingency cases.  So I got some experience in the area. And I've learned some things over the years; I won't say I'm an expert but I have made some mistakes and learned from them, and done some things right and learned from them.

I have a personal injury case of my client, who is a foreign national working and living in China for many years. She is a business person doing business in China. She signed a power of attorney to me after being injured in an accident and then I became her attorney.  I have made policy demand to insurance company.  They came back with a ridiculous low ball offer.  Truly ridiculous.

Defendant has been served with a lawsuit (this week).  However, they are not yet represented by counsel, although I expect they will be at some point.

I am working on a parenting plan for a case.  I represent Dad.  I have a pretty standard one, but this is a concern I have never had raised before and don't know how to word it in the plan.  Dad does not like how Mom dresses the child. This is not micro-managing. His concern is the cap on backwards, the pants hanging below the child's little butt. In other words, like a thug in training. Dad wants the child to dress like a child.

I can't say "appropriate dress" because Mom sees nothing wrong with the child dressing like this. She thinks it is appropriate.   Well, actually she denies doing it, but then posts photos on Facebook of the child dressed like this and her bragging about it. But the Facebook posting is whole other issue. I can't say a belt shall be worn at all times, because not everything the child wears requires a belt. I can't say the child will be appropriate covered at all times, because that doesn't allow him to pay the "skins" side of a "shirts and skins" game.

As a second career attorney, I went solo straight out of law school.

I knew I wanted to do family law and have maintained a practice in that area since.  At this point I am primarily in the appellate court, but undertake a few family law matters from time to time to keep my hand in the practice.

Early on I expanded from trial court work to include divorce mediation and collaborative divorce.  I found many people preferred divorce mediation to the stresses and cost of litigation.  I am an analytical problem solver and found clients appreciated the new options I provide for negotiations and mediation.

I also started with criminal defense as a state appointed attorney.  That provided me with a wonderful opportunity to be before the court on a frequent basis.  I quickly learned that I have no problem appearing before trial judges.

I must confess that it has been a while since I did a full civil bench trial. It's not good for a China litigation lawyer, especially when I often boast that I am experienced!  I thought the one scheduled this afternoon should settle for a specific dollar.  When it didn't O/C and I rather quickly it pulled together for a brief trial (two hours), which ended up in settlement for exactly what I predicted - along with a stipulation for my client that resulted in no issuance of a judgment.

The judge was fairly new, but complimented both of us old war horses for presenting a calm, precise, well represented case.  So both clients were pretty happy at the end of the day.

When I handle divorce cases in China, I often see parties play tricks or tactics when facing assets division.

I'm representing someone in a divorce case whose spouse was moving money around between pre-existing and newly opened accounts in a complicated fashion, to say the least. One of the arrangements (according to said spouse at a settlement conference) is that he receives money via a check from his sister, deposits it into an account in his sole name that he considers a "trust" account, and then writes a check to his aunt's nursing home.

On occasion he has made errors and written the nursing home payment out of the parties joint account but then reimbursed the joint account from the "trust" account. That part appears to check out but is only a small amount of the total. He has not provided proof of invoices as to the amount paid and the nursing home is requiring a re-issued subpoena.

China law office hiring or Legal hiring new support legal staff is always a leap of faith, and it can take some time to find out whether someone is the correct "fit" or whether it's time to move on.  Before you start the interview process, take some time to figure out what's really important for YOU in YOUR law office, not what the experts tell you to look for.  Generic interview questions won't give you the information you need.  Of course you want someone who's intelligent, who can file correctly, who shows up when scheduled.  But there are skills and tasks that are going to drive you crazy if they're not done to your specifications.  Figure out what these things are, and find the person who either has these skills or  is trainable (and make sure you have the time/patience to train them).

After legal hiring your legal assistant, it's a good idea to give performance feedback on a regular basis.  I uploaded a Performance Evaluation to my docs online a couple of years ago.  Change it as necessary to suit the needs of your particular law office. I usually recommend legal hiring on a 60 or 90 day trial period.  This gives you both time to evaluate the situation and decide whether it's going to work, and gives you a smoother "out" if it's not working.  At the end of the trial period, sit down with the new hire and review the form together.  BE BRUTALLY HONEST ABOUT YOUR EXPECTATIONS. 

This is one of my numerous employment law cases representing an employer in China. This case is more difficult than other employment disputes I handled, such as the wrongful dismissal or several pay cases.

My friend (let's call her "FRIEND") owns a tax preparation service  ("ABC Tax Services"). FRIEND's former employee (let's call her "FORMER EMPLOYEE") filed a false lawsuit against FRIEND in federal court.

Also named as a defendant is what we assume is intended to be her company but the plaintiff got the name wrong (let's say "ABC Tax Shinola").  The caption looks something like this:

*FORMER EMPLOYEE, Plaintiff v. ABC TAX SHINOLA, FRIEND Defendants. *