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“Lawyer Advertising in Spain” or “A Lot of Bull”

I am a guest in Spain. I love my host country and I am loathe to say anything critical about it. However, I was a lawyer for nearly 40 years, and I am compelled to observe one way in which the American legal system is superior to the Spanish system.

Virtually anywhere you go in the United States you will see lawyer advertising on billboards and on TV. This is very handy because it lets people know who to call should they be lucky enough to be catastrophically injured. Spain seems not to appreciate the virtues of lawyer advertising. I have yet to see a lawyer’s name or face on a billboard or on TV. Spanish accident victims have no way of knowing whether a particular lawyer calls himself The Strong Arm, The Bulldog, or The Law Tiger, and therefore lack the fundamental data needed to know whether an advocate is any good.

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A Week of Clarity in Barcelona

Antoni Gaudí was a Barcelona architect who lived from 1852 to 1926. He had a one-of-a-kind style that incorporated many colors and elements (e.g., metal work, carpentry, tile, stone, etc.). Critics said his designs were “over the top,” even “gaudy” (people debate whether the word’s modern meaning is derived from Gaudi’s work). This picture of a town home he remodeled offers some justification for both fans and critics.

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“Sentient Nails Worry About Hammers” or “Notarizing Documents in Spain”

Our house in Manitou Springs went under contract before we moved to Spain. It still has not closed. That’s because real estate transactions move slowly so the prospective buyer has time to hire an idiot home inspector.

I’m not saying that all home inspectors are morons. That would be unfair to the home inspectors I have never met. I’m just saying every home buyer has a fundamental right hire an idiot inspector, if that’s what the purchaser wants to do. Most home buyers seem to exercise that right. Our buyers certainly did, but that’s another story.

Our story today begins in Spain. We have satisfactorily addressed all the inspector’s idiotic objections. The title company emails a dozen documents needing our signatures. Over half of them require notarized signatures.

Now you are sitting up in your seats. “Notarized signatures, you say? Please, Dan, don’t stop now! Tell us how you got your documents notarized!”

Your sarcasm is not unexpected. However, this story involves a pretty girl, assault weapons, and an Ambassador named “Duke.” I am lucky to have survived to tell the tale.

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Questions Answered!

We have been inundated with questions! We couldn’t possibly answer them all. To be fair we wrote the questions on small slips of paper. We put the slips in a hat and selected questions randomly. This proved unwise because for some reason we tended to draw the really stupid questions. So we decided not to be fair. Here are ten of the most intelligent questions, each one submitted by a bright and incredibly good looking reader:

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The Incredibly Weird Spanish Bureaucracy

It was a couple of days after arriving in Spain. Denise and I were strolling down a beautiful tiled walkway, restaurants and cafes to our left and the Mediterranean on our right. People were walking towards us, and also in and out of the adjacent businesses. Denise looked at me and said, “These Spanish women are gorgeous.”

“Really?” I arched a quizzical eyebrow. “I hadn’t noticed.”

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