Creative Legal Solutions: The Case of Harry Truelove*
You may not think of law as an inherently creative profession. The stereotypical lawyer uses big words, dresses conservatively, and carries a really ugly briefcase. I actually call my litigation case “The Big Ugly.” It is a black nylon monstrosity on wheels, and it is dead practical.
Personally, I have always found traditional creative endeavors to be dreadfully dull. I do not craft, and I have absolutely no talent for art. I don’t even doodle. If you see me drawing idly on a piece of paper, I’m probably just writing my name over and over and over again. Not artistic.
But, the law is a highly creative outlet for me, and bringing creativity to the law practice is a really fulfilling challenge. Creativity is one of our core values at Rhodes Law. To me, it is the most exciting aspect of working with families and their conflicts. Here’s an example of how creativity works in a case:
Rhodes Law had a case a few years ago involving two former lovers who fell quite decidedly out of love. Unfortunately, before the fall, they bought a big, expensive house together. If you’ve ever had a bad roommate, you can just imagine how it felt to be in that house. “Walking on eggshells” doesn’t touch it.
When Harry Truelove called us about his house of hate, we had to get creative. Harry and his housemate weren’t married, so they couldn’t get a divorce. Divorce is a nice, simple, easy way to get sort out joint property ownership. But live-in lovers don’t have that option. How do you get someone out of a house that they own? You get creative.
Creative Step 1: The Nasty Letter
First, we tried what I call the “Nasty Letter.” A Nasty Letter is a basically a warning shot. We send a letter defining the problem, proposing a reasonable solution, and stating our client’s legal position. We also usually threaten legal action at the end. That’s the “nasty” part.
Nasty Letters never work, but Harry wanted to try it before investing the big legal fees required to get Suzi Psychopath** out of his house and out of his life. I don’t recall exactly how she responded to our Nasty Letter, but it was along the lines of “Go to hell.”
Creative Step 2: Force a Deadline
Suzi wasn’t going to respond to reason, so we decided that the best path forward was a real estate partition action. A partition is a civil lawsuit against a co-owner of a piece of real property, and the Court has the authority to force the sale of the property if the warring property owners can’t otherwise work out a solution.
Once the lawsuit was filed, Suzi faced a legal deadline to respond to the lawsuit. She would either have to come to the negotiating table or fight the case.
It worked.
Creative Step 3: Make Someone Else Do the Dirty Work
Getting Suzi on a deadline forced her to hire her own lawyer. And that lawyer had the unpleasant task of explaining to Suzi that 1) she couldn’t afford the house on her own; and 2) the Court could and would make her get out.
Creative Step 4: Strike a Deal
After some haggling, we were able to negotiate Harry’s buyout of Suzi’s interest in the house. Harry got his life back and learned a very valuable life lesson. We were delighted to get to come up with an effective, creative way to help Harry get where he wanted to be.
*Not his real name
** Definitely not her real name