About Legal Jive

Our Mission

Legal Jive’s mission statement is to help people understand the legal quagmire by reading opinions of clients who have experienced the legal system. The legal process is a loaded deck of marked cards. Legal Jive is not giving legal advise, merely providing a platform for the clients to judge the players in the legal system.

We want clients to share their legal experiences, tell their story and let others know what was positive and negative. Was your lawyer successful in prevailing for you? Was your Judge fair, attentive and interested in your case? Was your special  co-trustee, mediator or arbitrator effective in finding a quick and just end to your case? Or did your legal issue get dragged out and create more legal fees than were reasonable? Was your lawyer worth the money? Was the legal experience worth the time that you can never get back?

Legal Jive’s platform of sharing will put the power of the critique into the hands of the client and not the rulers of the legal process. Help others know what you have experienced in the legal process, so, they can find justice. You be the Judge and jury.

How it Started

I created Legal Jive because of a painful legal experience thrust upon my wife and I.  I ran a real estate brokerage in Portland, Oregon for 38 years and never was sued. In 2002 my dear mother gave me Power of Attorney of her affairs. In 2012 my mother made me her Trustee. My sweet mother wanted to live in her home for the remainder of her life. My father who was killed in a airplane crash left my mother plenty of liquid assets and real property to grant my mother's wishes.  As my mother's health failed my brother and sister found a slippery but effective attorney to stop the expensive in home care my mother was receiving. They wanted to protect their inheritance and sued their mother. She died two weeks later. A second lawsuit was filed against myself and my mother's assets. The lawsuits basically claimed too much money was spent on my mother's healthcare. Sounds ridiculous, it was but just wait, there is much more.....

 

I decided to hire one of the largest law firms in Portland, Oregon. This powerful law firm laughed at the " frivolous lawsuits " and the strip mall attorney who had filed these complaints. They told me, "Do not worry" claimed the $900 per hour law firm "this will be over quickly."  WRONG!!   A settlement was reached in May of 2021, 7 YEARS LATER.  During those 7 years ridiculous requests were made by opposing counsel just to generate billable hours. My lawyers did nothing to stop this fee generating tsunami.  Example, opposing counsel wanted to know where DEPOSITS to my mother's checking account for $49 and $67 originated. These were deposits NOT withdrawals that had occurred 2 years before her death. Who complains about deposits? Just that request alone cost about $1,500 in attorneys fees.

 

After 7 years approximately $1,500,000 in attorneys fees, "Special-Co-Trustee" fees and mediator fees have been spent by people who were not intelligent enough to realize what was being done to them.  The attorneys and their "associates" never let go. If I had not found a way to stop this madness it would still be going on until the money well ran dry. This is why Legal Jive was created. We can share our knowledge. We can sort the good from the bad. I know as fact that the intention of the legal system was meant to be fair yet it rarely is because of human nature and greed.