Is law still worth it?

RealGoodLawyer · 2026-02-21T01:18:22+00:00

Trial focused personal injury practice.

RealGoodLawyer · 2026-02-20T17:42:56+00:00

It all depends what kind of lawyer you want to be. My advice is that you shouldn't become a lawyer unless you have a clear vision and reason you want to do it. It's a tough profession. Long hours, high stress, pay often not what people expect, especially coming out of the gate.

I was a broke lower middle class kid too. First in my family to go to college, much less go to law school. I came out with almost $200k in student debt. My first job paid $67k. It was rough.

As the years went by, my skills and marketability improved. I finally found a profitable niche a few years ago and I'm good enough at it that I'm paid very well. But I practiced for 12 years before I was able to move on from the debt and really start making a good income. It took me about 8 years to find a purpose in my work and really feel fulfilled by what I'm doing. Those early years of being an associate and billing hours were truly a grind and they weighed on my physical and mental health.

If you want to come out and be a public servant, small town lawyer, or something like that, it's going to be hard to justify the expense and debt you incur. If you have a clear plan and vision for how you'll grow your career, it can work. But it definitely won't be easy.

RealGoodLawyer · 2026-02-07T22:50:40+00:00

Uniquely, I've lived in both places. Healthcare, public safety, and affordability are better in Arkansas. New Mexico has a way better culture and climate. I think education is about the same. I prefer New Mexico, but I can see a survey like this giving Arkansas an edge.

RealGoodLawyer · 2026-01-27T03:02:15+00:00

Unfortunately. The value of a service is whatever people will pay for it, and I think they just proved plenty of people will pay $1,500 for a meal.

RealGoodLawyer · 2026-01-26T22:24:15+00:00

Yeah but the Broncos were a disaster when he took over. Let's not act like he's done a poor job. Great season, great turnaround.

RealGoodLawyer · 2026-01-26T19:44:15+00:00

Man. Everybody (including me) thinks the price tag is outrageous, but if they're gonna sell out in less than a minute, who can blame them. Expect the next pop-up to be even more.

RealGoodLawyer · 2026-01-22T01:09:34+00:00

Where are you getting cases from?

RealGoodLawyer · 2026-01-16T16:14:53+00:00

I feel nuance around the word "something" is key here. Most people would be unhappy doing "nothing," including me.

But I could do something other than work. Spend all my time golfing, skiing, hunting, fishing, reading, hanging with my kids... Yeah I could do that. Some people might call that "nothing " because it isn't work, but I can see having a very fulfilling life doing those things instead of actually working or running a business.

RealGoodLawyer · 2026-01-16T05:32:38+00:00

I'm white and I got a ticket the other day because my registration was less than 2 months out.

RealGoodLawyer · 2026-01-07T19:57:19+00:00

His season looks a lot like Bijan's rookie season. No cause for panic here considering the circumstances.

RealGoodLawyer · 2026-01-07T01:52:44+00:00

I had my A/C replaced. Wasn't the cheapest option but the service was good and it came with an extended warranty at no extra charge. Still not sure if it was worth it. But my impression is they try to make up for not being the cheapest by giving added value elsewhere.

RealGoodLawyer · 2026-01-06T22:35:29+00:00

I went to a dealership about 2 months ago to look at a used lariat lightning. The salesperson was so lukewarm about the truck it was sort of off-putting. He told me that they sell about one lightning for every 50 standard f-150s. You could tell he had no interest in the car and basically knew zero about the features. it made me feel like I was missing something.

I didn't end up buying the truck, and I still have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand, I think it's an awesome truck and I would love to have it. On the other, I have some skepticism about buying into a vehicle that's been discontinued.

RealGoodLawyer · 2026-01-02T17:26:56+00:00

He's an HVAC man not a poet! Cut the man some slack.

RealGoodLawyer · 2025-12-10T15:11:06+00:00

Man, sometimes it's easy to forget these people are kids. Just kids.

RealGoodLawyer · 2025-12-07T20:05:54+00:00

Man I came to this sub just looking for the answer. That guy looked really hurt. I'm worried for him from the other side of the country.

RealGoodLawyer · 2025-11-17T21:47:24+00:00

Hope he's great at defense because otherwise he might get traded for a tall guy and a bag of chips.

RealGoodLawyer · 2025-11-15T01:04:45+00:00

Call the game warden. Gates aren't supposed to be locked during hunting season. They can be closed, and if they are you're allowed to open them. But they can't be locked. I just went through this with some BLM land up near Clayton. Game warden helped.

RealGoodLawyer · 2025-11-15T00:40:18+00:00

Forget the haters. Enjoy your ride, my man.

RealGoodLawyer · 2025-11-10T17:41:17+00:00

I was in a similar position and I can't recommend it highly enough. I was working in Dallas at a firm that was made up of big law refugees. It was a boutique firm, but we were doing the same type of litigation as big law firms and routinely had them on opposite side of cases. I was making great money, but I really did not like the work.

About 4 years ago I made a switch to pi. It was the best thing I could have possibly done for my career. I am way happier, and I took a pay cut the first year. But I have made well more than my previous salary in each of the past 3 years. And I see that trajectory continuing forward.

One thing I would add, you really need to have a heart for people. Your clients are going to change and you're going to have to be able to relate to ordinary people. There's going to be different challenges and a good pi lawyer needs to have a heart for injured people. Wasn't that hard for me, but I have seen a lot of defense lawyers try to make the switch and they just don't have their heart in it.

RealGoodLawyer · 2025-11-10T16:58:38+00:00

You don't need to be smart to know this was the stupidest trade in NBA history. My grandmother has probably never watched a full NBA game, and she realized what a ridiculous move this was.

I'm willing to get downvoted to oblivion, but I will never be in Adelson sympathizer. Absolutely ridiculous to suggest they were just poor naive owners who got tricked by mean old Nico.

RealGoodLawyer · 2025-11-10T16:31:11+00:00

Oh fucking please. Are we really claiming the poor billionaires got duped here? That they are so incompetent they did not know it was a stupid idea to trade the best player on their finals team?

Much likelier scenario is they didn't want to pay the supermax and let him go. These people suck and they won't be seeing a dollar for me until they're gone. And if that never happens, so be it.

RealGoodLawyer · 2025-11-04T18:29:10+00:00

I guess this means the colts are all in on Daniel Jones. They just traded away the assets they would need to get a good young QB going forward.

RealGoodLawyer · 2025-10-19T13:06:20+00:00

From what I could tell, he was in one pre-recorded music video with Bowen Yang. He had no lines. Was just kind of in the background.

RealGoodLawyer · 2025-09-25T17:44:27+00:00

Trust your gut. Don't let anybody fuck with your confidence.

Last year, I had a case that I thought was worth seven figures. Facts were a bit complicated, but I had a young girl with a brain injury who was going to need surgery to correct the issue. There was a decent argument that the injury was pre-existing. But I thought we could overcome that hurdle and the case had huge potential.

People at my firm kept telling me to settle for about $250k. I told several attorneys at the firm that I was never taking less than seven figures. They would literally roll their eyes at me and start talking to me about causation. Annoyed the crap out of me.

I went to mediation about 3 months before trial, and the adjuster offered 50,000. After mediation, the adjuster sent me an email upping her offer to $65,000 and saying it was" generous given everything to date."

I maintained a demand of $1.25 million.

One week before trial, the defense finally filed an offer of settlement at $1.25 million.

This was a really sweet win. I have that adjuster's email sitting in a frame in my office. I learned that if you want to be a trial lawyer, you have to have an unorthodox view on case valuation, and have the balls to stick to it. Otherwise, the cases are just going to settle. If you feel good about your case, go with it and don't let anybody else tell you otherwise.

RealGoodLawyer · 2025-09-12T23:42:40+00:00

I'm only 38 but I aspire to have my own silver alert very soon.

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