Call me “T”

My name is Tireas Rexx Hogan. Please, call me “T.”

My father was a lawyer with a classical education and an overactive sense of humor (I sometimes think). So he wanted me to be “T-Rex,” as in, short for Tyrannosaurus Rex, the giant, ferocious dinosaur. Maybe he wanted to give me something to live up to in later life, too.

My mom, also educated but a little more practical, insisted that I be called “Terry” or “T.R.” when I was growing up. She’d roll her eyes whenever dad called me, you know, that other name.

Sometimes I have to give my dad credit, though. “T. Rexx” really is a name you have to live up to. And as I became a lawyer myself and began representing ordinary people, I became more and more convinced that a few of those ferocious, meat-eating traits were actually helpful.

I graduated fairly near the top of my law school class and began practicing law in 1991. Sometime in 1994 I formed my own firm, and I practiced until 2007. For the last several years of my legal practice I represented consumers being sued for various things, including old, sometimes very, very old, debt.

I eventually came to realize that although I could handle more than a hundred cases per year, the debt collectors were suing hundreds of thousands. And the people who could hire me, let’s face it, were the ones who could afford to hire a lawyer. How could I help more of the people being sued?

I decided I could do it by getting out of the practice of law and writing a handbook for people willing to stand up for themselves. This area of the law is not that complicated, and I always thought that most of my clients, with a little education and coaching, could have represented themselves. And so I wrote my Litigation Manual, changed some of the forms I had been using in my cases, and made them available to the public at an affordable price.

I hope you will find them useful. I know you will if you use them. They’ll work even if you aren’t one of the most feared predators in history–they are that powerful in themselves–but they’ll work better if you decide you don’t want to be taken advantage of by the debt collectors any more.

And they’ll probably be even that much better if you try to take a little bit after the real T. Rex. The debt collectors will be sorry to see you coming.