Largo lawyer John Trevena figures the recent hurricanes will bring him more business than they took away.
Sure, the temporary closure of local courthouses stung. "Potential new clients who are incarcerated like to see quick action on their cases," said Trevena, who practices criminal defense. "When you inform them that the earliest you could get them a courtroom appearance is probably next week, they don't like it." Many decided to go with a free public defender instead.
On the other hand, Trevena said, storms "stress people out." He added, "I'm expecting a flood of domestic-type criminal cases . . . crimes of spousal violence, road rage, drunk driving. It balances out."
In Charlotte County, parts of which took a direct hit from Hurricane Charley, many local lawyers lost not only their offices but their homes.
"Clearly, there will be a dip in income," said Robert Koch, president of the Charlotte County Bar Association. "You can't bill people for work that you don't perform."
But Koch, a civil trial lawyer, said he expects a slew of storm-related lawsuits to more than make up for any losses some firms suffer, including his own. "There'll be endless claims between homeowners and insurance companies," he explained.
When Hurricane Frances hit West Palm Beach, staff at Lewis Longman & Walker waited a day to see if power would be restored. When it wasn't, they braved heat, darkness and 10 flights of stairs to retrieve the office's computer servers, then placed them in a Ford Expedition and drove at a snail's pace through flooded areas to the firm's Bradenton office.
The transfer enabled the firm's West Palm Beach lawyers to dial into the office network from home. But they were unable to send or receive Internet e-mail for five days. Overall, chief operating officer David Rubinstein estimated the firm lost $150,000 in potential business.
"You know how it is," he said. "We're statewide, and essentially, we're always trying to guess where the (next) storm will go."
