Michigan Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
In part 1 of this article, I took a break from my typically informational article about what I do, as a Michigan driver’s license restoration lawyer, and began decrying what I see as a wave of unknown lawyers trying to substitute a website name with the words “license restoration” for any real experience, or anything of real value to offer the reader. I began this article because that angers me. I went on to point out that my special practice makes me part of a small group, admittedly “competitors” to me, of real Michigan driver’s license restoration attorneys. I noted that these lawyers are all good and honest and skilled people who do good work. Indeed, it is at the level of our shared experience that I define (as well as differentiate) myself. It is this new crop of cyber-opportunists pretending to be part of this smaller circle about which I am complaining.
I guess my point is that having a website name with the buzzwords like “license restoration” doesn’t make someone a genuine license restoration lawyer. As I noted at the outset of this article (in part 1), the website that got me all riled up in the first place didn’t even identify a lawyer by name or provide an actual location for an office, but it sure used the words “Michigan” and “license restoration” and “lawyers” all over the place. It was made to sound like the greatest, most successful operation you’ve never heard of. What scares me is that I can see right through this because I’m in the field, but someone who doesn’t know what I know, and has a degree of trust to offer, may not.
Trust is an important element in the lawyer-client relationship. Trust is only worth anything when both the lawyer and the client are honest with each other. I like to put the exclamation point at the end of anything I say about myself by pointing out that beyond my own self-descriptions, and instead of wasting my time writing up summaries of my successes, I simply guarantee that I’ll win your license back. That makes things easy. If you call me and you’re really sober and I take your case, you’ll only pay me one time to win back your license. That’s clear and direct; there’s no real risk. And while it’s important to know that I stand by my clients, it’s probably more reassuring to understand that I make my money by winning these cases the first time, not by having to come back and do “warranty work.” In other words, I am genuinely invested in your case.
I recently published an article about my passion for this field. I truly believe that my passion for everything about the field of driver’s license restorations is unmatched, but I also know that the few other lawyers I consider real competitors also have real passion for this field, as well. That kind of passion is completely missing anywhere on the websites of the “Johnny come lately” crop of opportunists who are trying to substitute the style of a search engine optimized website name over the substance to be found in real content.
In that regard, this article marks the 221st license restoration article I’ve published. Most of these articles run about 3 or 4 single spaced pages. That’s more information about the Michigan driver’s license restoration process, by an order of magnitude, than you can find on all the other websites, combined, including the Secretary of State’s. If you take the time to read my stuff, you won’t need any help finding the “passion.”
If it sounds like I’m mad, then you’re getting the picture. I work damn hard at what I do. These 221 articles took tons of time to write. Like my bona-fide competitors, I am in business to make money, but I want to be able to actually help people as part of earning my income. I don’t just have my hand out to accept a fee. In fact, part of the whole “guarantee” of mine requires that a person must first have truly quit drinking before I will accept his or her case. That only makes sense, as the 2 legal issues in a Michigan driver’s license restoration or clearance case is that, first, your alcohol problem is under control, and second (and really the meat and potatoes of a license appeal), that it is likely to remain under control. Sobriety is the whole point here. That’s why I formally study it, and why I really require it of my clients.
You won’t see that mentioned in the kind of sites I’m ranting about. In fact, you won’t see a lot of anything of any real substance on those sites.
If there’s one point I try to make on my site and in my articles, it’s that I know all about the profound changes that a person goes through when he or she gets sober. Anyone can pay lip service to the idea of recovery, but a few hollow congratulations aren’t the same thing as a fundamental understanding of the global changes a person undergoes in order to get, and then maintain sobriety. It’s a process. We could spend a lifetime talking about what leads up to the decision to really quit drinking, and why the one decision really “sticks” while all the others that preceded it didn’t. I get it.
We could spend another lifetime examining all the changes a person has to make to stay sober; from ditching the drinking friends to changing where they go to play and hang out; how they deal with stress and how they deal with pleasure; how they deal with going out to dinner, and the offer of drinks, as well as invites to parties and ballgames and celebrations where everyone will be drinking; feeling better physically, and emotionally, and losing some of that anger; improving the relationships with those people that really matter, and thereby regaining their trust and respect; picking up the pieces of lives that have been stalled by drinking, and doing things like going back to school, or getting a new job, or a better job, and all the other innumerable things that come together when a person really quits drinking. This is why when someone who has made the transition from drinker to non-drinker, and then looks back to who he or she was when they were drinking, they don’t even recognize that person.
I get it. I understand what it means to celebrate sobriety.
Many of my client’s identify with how I describe these things. For some, it’s a simple gut reaction; others see that I understand all this on multiple levels. I think that matters a lot, and I think I am unique in this regard, but I know that absolutely none of the new crop of clever name websites even touch on these subjects. That some person who has actually put in all the work to achieve and maintain sobriety could get swept up in that kind of slick marketing bothers the hell out of me. Remember, if you lose your license appeal, you cannot file again for another whole year, and unless you have a guarantee, like I provide, you’ve lost your money, as well.
I know all about the law regarding license appeals, as well. This makes me uniquely able to make sure that your story is told in proper clinical and legal terms. We need to recapture some of the drama that made your life unmanageable and led you to say “enough is enough,” when you quit drinking, but we also need to fit that into the proper legal template required to win a license appeal. If you’ve tried on your own and lost, then you know how complex this all can be.
If you’re really sober and you need a driver’s license restored, I want you to call me. I want your business, and so does my competition. If I’m not going to get your case, however, I certainly don’t want to see some cut-rate bargain operation or some slickster who comes up with a clever website name get it; I’d at least rather see your case go to one of the other bona-fide driver’s license restoration lawyers that really invests his or her time and effort into his or her cases and clients. If I’m going to get passed over, I at least want to be passed over for someone who is really in my league, rather than someone who just pretends to be by using catchy website name (URL) and a site that may have some style, but lacks substance.
Whatever else, you certainly won’t read anything like this on some website that’s best offering is a name designed to get hits every time a search is done for a real Michigan driver’s license restoration lawyer.