How arborists are like lawyers...

[treehumper]

Maybe I've got too much time on my hands but this article about affordable lawyers struck a cord with me. We are similar in that we work based on billable hours and it's hard to say what it will cost to do our jobs.

Lawyers are not trained to be business people yet they face the demands of business and serving the marketplace. Much of the market for legal services, like ours, is priced out of it. How they are looking at it and the ways in which they're trying to solve the problem could spark some ideas for us as well. Interesting read or just too much time on my hands.....

 

[marlinspiker]

We should also be selective with our language in report writing. Risk reduction is a far better term then "safe". Might save you a law suit as well.

 

[treehumper]

Yes, know who your potential audience will be for anything you write. Those reports can and do end up in the hands of lawyers. And they just love arguing over the meaning of a single word in its context.

 

[CreTree]

Deems good drugs. No?

 

[treehumper]

They were. Now they've taken me off the Toradol and I'm starting to swell. Not swell.

 

[CreTree]

Ice ice baby.

 

[treehumper]

I'm thinkin' I'll just go down the hall and stick my leg in the ice machine.

 

[CreTree]

Have that button nurse carry you.

 

[DruidCarol]

I wonder if the glut of new lawyers in the market will change the dynamic in time. Many solo practices are having to struggle to be barely profitable; most went to law school thinking a job awaited them in large firms and even medium firms. I keep thinking of the very old practice of apprenticeships in certain fields. The irony is the sue-happy nature of our society has probably been a major contributor to the high costs of insurance and bonding for arborists--sometimes, shit just happens.

I also kept thinking of the storyline of Charles Dickens' novel "Bleak House" that revolved around a missing will and after a few generations of family passed arguing it in court, and a viable will was at last found, the judge solemnly declared that, unfortunately, the entire estate was eaten up in court costs to the bickering advocates representing their clients and not a penny was left.

 

[Nish]

What if lawyers were cheaper? Might this not feed the sue-happy nature of our society?

I'm not so hopeful about this glut of underemployed lawyers. Maybe we should be re-training them to climb trees.

 

[BuckmasterTreeService]

Thanks for posting that article. It was well worth the time to read.

 

[treehumper]

Might this not feed the sue-happy nature of our society?

What feeds this is not the cost but the structure of the American legal system and how laws are enforced. The system encourages, nay expects, litigation. In essence it's not wrong until someone sues in court. Take for instance the law that the Hudson River Fishermen's used in the 1960s against polluters of the river. The Refuse Act was enacted in 1899 yet never applied to these companies. It took litigation to cause the law to be enforced. This is but one example, there are millions of them.

 

[Nish]

What feeds this is not the cost but the structure of the American legal system and how laws are enforced. The system encourages, nay expects, litigation.

In relation to arboriculture, do you have better alternatives in mind? Perhaps you imagine dramatic changes to tort law?

 

[treehumper]

Perhaps you imagine dramatic changes to tort law?

My wife works for a law firm. There's no way tort law is about to change. It's not tort law, its law enforcement I think is lacking. Laws get put on the books but there's never the resources or, political will, to really enforce them. In arboriculture we see this with with every law or regulation that governs us. Due to lax enforcement, there's little will to actually comply. Those that do, do so out of a higher ethical belief.

What I really meant by posting this article is a novel means of reaching a portion of the market that is under served or worse yet, served by people willing to throw out any sense of lawfulness. The fly-by-nights, hacks and pick up truck crowd that undercut us are the ones that we need to target with innovative ways of providing a safe and legal service.

 

[Bucknut]

I'm not so hopeful about this glut of underemployed lawyers. Maybe we should be re-training them to climb trees.

That's funny. I used to wonder if I was the only guy in America dumb enough to pay for a law degree and then climb trees for a living. It's very possible.

I don't worry about it anymore. A friend gave me a new perspective. I was basically explaining how stupid I felt sometimes for wasting 3 years and many thousands of dollars on law school, only to come back and work for the family business. He looked at me like I was crazy and just said, "Dude- it's your family business. It's what you do." Sounds simple, but he has no idea how that view helped me wipe the slate and focus on the future.

Anyway, as far as serving the class of customer who is priced out of our market: The general rule is that if they can't afford you, you shouldn't be chasing them as customers. Nor should you lower your standards or prices to the point of losing money. A crew and truck costs what it costs to run, no way around it. That said, if we're looking to lawyers for comparison, there's nothing wrong with a little pro bono work now and again. It's strongly encouraged by the ABA in the legal profession, although they see their services as very much more important and noble than ours!

And if it happens to land you a pic and writeup in the local paper for your sense of community and kind heart, whaddya gonna do?

 

[treehumper]

An education is never wasted. I've met quite a few law grads doing anything but law. The training prepared them for critical thinking.

About chasing customers. your right about chasing customers, lowering prices to the point of losing money. But that applies no matter who the customer is or what they can afford. A client once told us, the answer to the question, "Can you give me a better deal?", is NO. He went on to explain, that his training as a business person leads him to ask the question. He was happy with the price but, had to ask.

The point of this is there is a huge untapped market that it would serve to spend a bit of time figuring a way to build a business model that allows a company to tap into it profitably. It could be something as simple as an installment payment program or a collective approach. Where there's a will there's a way.