File your tax returns!

If you are in the situation where you have paid more than you owe on your Federal Income taxes to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) please be aware that you must file your tax return within the 3 years statute of limitations from when the tax was originally due to obtain a refund. Further, the IRS has a 10 year statute of limitations on collecting any unpaid taxes from the day the taxes were due. The following example may clear up any confusion, if you did not file a tax return in 2007 and you paid more Federal Income taxes than you owe, you have until April 15th 2011 to obtain a refund from the IRS. Because the IRS statute is unambiguous, the chances of obtaining a judgment from a tax court in your favor after the statutory period has passed is slim to none. The only exception to the statutory rule found in the case law is whether the excess payment could be defined as a deposit paid to the IRS to defend against any potential deficiency claim by the IRS. However, the rules and the factual situation required to define any excess payment as a deposit is complicated and may not work in every situation. 

For more information on tax problems and solutions, visit tonyfamlaw.com. 

What are Meta Tags and why they are so important?

In today's world, the internet offers greater access to potential clients than advertisement in the yellow or white pages ever could. We live in a world of instant gratification, where potential clients need an immediate solution to their problems and don't have the patience to fumble through a directory of endless advertisements, names and toll-free numbers. The internet offers solo practitioners a chance to reach potential clients on the cheap, without the payment of enormous amounts of money to advertisers, marketers, or referral services. Starting your own law practice at times can be very discouraging and the fact that you're putting yourself out there without any immediate gains can fill anyone with despair. However, if you use the power of the internet correctly to market your services, you can be very successful and reach potential clients on the cheap.

Quite honestly, I didn't know what meta tags were or their significance. I only knew what meta tags were after I had begun the process of publishing my website and the frustration of not understanding why my website was not being indexed by the leading search engines. Meta tags are like bar codes for a specific item being sold by a store. Search engines are like stores that need bar codes to find the items (websites) to make the sale to the consumer. If you input a meta tag in the HTML coding of your homepage specific to the search engine you want your website indexed at, you'll have a greater chance of using the internet to reach more potential clients. I'm proud to say that my website is now indexed by ask.com, bing, google and yahoo plus numerous other search engines on the internets. Additionally, I know I have mentioned this in the past, but if you're having trouble indexing your website on ask.com then you should try registering your website at the open directory listing. Ask.com does not offer users specific meta tags to input in their HTML coding of their homepage because ask.com believes that internet spammers should not get the upper hand by simply registering their website with the search engine and wants to protect the true information authorities from internet scams. I hope this blog post has been informative. 

Expenses Continued

Purchases made thus far for Tony Fam, PLLC:

1. Certification to be a Notary along with stamp and 4-year bond: $85.94
2. Purchase of a template for a web domain: $63.00
3. Webhosting from godaddy.com plus extras: $129.92
4. Filing Certificate of Incorporation with Texas Secretary of State: $308.10
   
5. Business cards (500): $27.04

TOTAL: $614.00

This is before the purchase of stationary, envelopes and other business supplies. 

Miracle Worker

"You can choose your client, but you can't choose the facts of your case."

I've recently encountered a client that believes lawyers can solve legal problems with little bit of legal research and some ingenuity. However, three years of law school and a couple of months of being a solo-practitioner have proved otherwise. Lawyers aren't miracle workers, we help our clients with their problems and find them solutions according to the applicable law. There are situations where a technicality found in the law may solve a client's problem, but those are few and far between. While writing this blog post, I can still hear my professor's saying, "you can choose your client, but you can't choose the facts of your case."

Uncontested Divorce

In Texas, uncontested divorces offers couples an alternative to a long, drawn out emotionally draining legal battle over the financial assets, custody of children and shared community property. The first step in the short process of obtaining an uncontested divorce is for a spouse to contact a lawyer and set up a consultation about their legal rights, their spouses legal rights and to answer any questions about the uncontested divorce process.

After the initial consultation with a lawyer has occurred and all needed paper work is signed and provided. If the spouse who wishes to file a divorce petition meets the residency requirements, then the retained lawyer may file the Divorce Petition. In Texas, the residency requirements are: 1) the spouse petitioning the court for a divorce must have lived in the state of Texas for 6 months; and 2) the spouse petitioning the court for a divorce must have lived in the county where the petition is going to be filed for at least 90 days. Either spouse who meets the residency requirements may file. The second step of an uncontested divorce is the filing of a divorce petition. The divorce petition basically asks the court for a divorce and lays out a plan.

The third step in obtaining an uncontested divorce is for the spouse not requesting a divorce to sign a Waiver of Citation. The Waiver of Citation speeds up the process of obtaining a divorce by stating that the spouse not requesting a divorce agrees to the jurisdiction and venue of the court, the spouse does not contest the jurisdiction or venue of the proceedings and that spouse agrees that there does not have to be a trial by a judge. The Waiver of Citation must be signed and notarized by the spouse not requesting the divorce.

The fourth step in obtaining an uncontested divorce is to wait for 61 days until the Final Divorce Decree is signed by a judge. This period is called the "cooling off" period. During the cooling off period, a couple may negotiate amongst themselves or with the help of the retained lawyer to figure out a plan about how to divide the marital assets, debts and custody of the children. This plan is memorialized in a marital settlement agreement that should be signed by both spouses. After the marital settlement agreement is signed then the retained lawyer will base the final divorce decree off the marital settlement agreement and file a Final Divorce Decree with the court.

The fifth step in an uncontested divorce is having a judge sign off on the Final Divorce Decree and for the lawyer to send the decree to both spouses.

If you need help obtaining an uncontested divorce please contact the law offices of Tony Fam, PLLC at (214) 872-6406, or via e-mail at tony@tonyfamlaw.com.

#7 Expenses 2011

Purchases made thus far for Tony Fam, PLLC: 

1. Certification to be a Notary along with stamp and 4-year bond: $85.94
2. Purchase of a template for a web domain: $63.00
3. Webhosting from godaddy.com plus extras: $129.92
4. Filing Certificate of Incorporation with Texas Secretary of State: $308.10

TOTAL: $586.96

This is before the purchase of business cards, stationary and other business supplies. 

Day #6: Finding a Niche

Before I begin discussing the importance of finding a niche in your law practice, I'd like to go over the troubles and tribulations of having your website indexed by different search engines. My website has already been indexed by google.com, but not yahoo.com, bing.com, or ask.com. I've already requested for yahoo.com and bing.com to index my website but I believe it is going to take some time. For those that are wondering, ask.com does not have a submit url option on its search engine. The makers of ask.com want the "internets" to automatically crawl a website to find its sitemap. It took me a while to understand what crawl and sitemap meant. First, I have never built a website before and understanding the complexity of coding a website and knowing how it all comes together has been a humbling experience. Second, I graduated law school knowing nothing about how to start your own solo practice. You would think that with 20% of law graduates going solo, law schools would equip their students with the tools required to go on your own and be successful. Unfortunately, this is not the case, most of the experience and knowledge you gain in law school occurs outside of its doors. I've gone on another tangent in this blog posting. The whole "law school is worthless posting" will have to continue on another posting. 

Most solo practitioners make the mistake of opening up shop and telling the whole world that they're general practitioners. Last month, when I had a law partnership I made this same mistake of telling the whole world I was a general practitioner. However, I've been browsing how-to-guides and watching informational videos by other solo-practitioners and decided that I need to find my own niche. It is important to find your own niche because clients who have a problem want a lawyer who knows the law applicable to their situation and is knowledgeable enough to provide the client with immediate results (or at least a game plan). Further, other lawyers will refer cases to your firm because they will view your niche law firm as a potential business partner and not as a threat. The whole referral system depends on lawyers referring cases to other lawyers who are specialists in a field of law in exchange for cases in the future. Lawyers are less likely to refer cases to a general practitioner because they will view the general practitioner as a threat. 

First, I choose estate planning because I've always been interested in what happens to your personal and real property after you die. I took every estate planning class in law school and I've drafted several wills for terminally ill patients for a local charity organization. Second, I chose uncontested divorce because it's easy and the dueling spouses will have to reach an some sort of an agreement amongst themselves if they want a divorce. Third, I chose immigration law because I know how the system works because I'm the second generation Egyptian-American. I have lived through the process of my parents coming to America with a green card waiting a period of time before they were naturalized citizens. Fourth, I chose tax law because I spent a year working at the Tax Clinic during law school. If in a couple of weeks, I don't have enough traffic generated to the tax portion of my website then I'll take it done and concentrate on my other niches. 

Today, I'm going to work a little bit on my website and preparing forms for future immigration law clients. 

Day #5

I've decided to ramp up my blogging. I've read on startingalawfirm.blogspot.com that blogging about your professional experiences may increase traffic to your website. I intend to spend 2 hours everyday blogging about my experiences and I'll try to provide insights into the struggles/tribulations of being a solo-practitioner. I know it's going to be hard work at first: there will be days where I wish I had spent the same amount of time applying for jobs, even temporary jobs to provide some sort of income. I believe the benefits of being a solo-practitioner will at least in the long run outweigh the short-term burdens.

Right now, I'm glad that my website has been indexed by google.com and yahoo.com/directory. These are small victories and the fact that my website has been indexed provides a glimmer of hope that my telephone will ring any second now. You should know that I have both my cordless telephone and cellphone next to me this very moment. 

I've read on several websites that lawyers are using the cluster method of web marketing to target a specific audience and their problems. Instead of having a domain with a generic name, insertlastname.com, some lawyers have created websites specific to one particular field of law, such as websites devoted to uncontested divorce or drunk driving offenses. This gives the lawyer more visibility on the internets and higher chance to grab clients. I'm quite interested in this marketing tool because if I play my cards right, I can have a chance to create another website specific to say, uncontested divorce and get indexed higher than my general website. I'm still debating whether I want to spend more money, especially when I only have two clients. 

There is much to work on today. I'm going to brush up on immigration law and prepare forms for incoming clients. 

Day #4

My website finally got indexed. I was wondering why I've been receiving telephone calls out of the blue!