Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Know-It-All

As my mom would say "People who think they know everything are annoying to those of us who actually do."

Some of you know that as part of my law practice I serve as a Family Law Mediator. As a mediator, I work with wife, wife's attorney, husband and husband's attorney to try to resolve their matter. All parties meet at my office in two separate conference rooms. I go back and forth between the two rooms to work on reaching a resolution.

Recently I have been mediating for some parties who do not have an attorney. Generally in these situations one side does have an attorney while the other side does not. Generally I would have thought it would be easier to work with these unrepresented people; however, that is not the case. These unrepresented people always have a friend who has gone through a divorce and so they think the result of that friend's divorce should be the same as their divorce. Even worse, sometimes they google Iowa Divorce Law and tell me what the law really says about their case. I try to have patience when working with these people, but I generally lose my patience pretty quickly.

Of course when I go to the doctor I have already wedmd'd my condition, but if my doctor tells me different, I listen and follow his or her advice. If I think I have a cavity in one tooth but the dentist tells me it my sinus drainage, I listen. And when my accountant tells me my expenses are actually not tax deductible, I go ahead and do not claim them on my taxes. I do not understand why I would pay people for their professional help and then not take it. Am I in the minority of this world?

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