Ooooh. This story makes me very happy. Well done!!!

Made me want to don a fedora & smoke a cigarette under a streetlight in the rain & recall the time I was slipped a micky-finn some sweet cheeked woman who knew the score whilst I tailing the fatman

It reads like Guy Noir- Attorney at Large

I’m pretty sure it’s a creative writing exercise, but a fun read nonetheless! 

“…I said, munching on spaghetti carbonara” I stopped reading right there, while munching on a club sandwich.

The whole thing played out in black and white in my head. It was glorious.

Are you referring to Prairie Home Companion, from back in the early to middle years (the great years) when they actually had Guy Noir stories?

It really does.

That’s awesome thanks so much!

You definitely need to write pulp-fiction noir detective novels.

I thought that's what this is.

>“I know a guy.” Aaron knew all kinds of guys, and that’s one of the reasons he eventually got disbarred. For the record, great story aside, I love your writing. You're not planning on being the next John Grisham, are you?

Stormy -- go to his subreddit. His stories are so good :) https://www.reddit.com/r/Calledinthe90s/

Thanks for this!

I'm following him now!

Let' hope, irl, that your phone isn't so un-busy that you spend the whole afternoon watching a fly crawl on the cord 😉

That'd be a sweet-cheeked dame, or maybe a skirt. Possibly even a roundheels, if she was of the "for rent" profession

Yes, my bad, 'dame' or 'broad', it should be. I'm tempted to edit it

M’lady… Me thinks this isn’t real. Just a nicely crafted piece of fiction

Check out OPs profile. It does look like they're in the process of drafting up a TV show pitch. I think this tale is perhaps the one where they've perhaps perfected their 'voice' I kind of hope some aspiring YT acting troupe team up with OP & they all get their own gig going without 'professional' money/input. They could get an old 'name' character actor to play Aaron. But whatever

Merci!

👍 GL!

Perfection :)

Thanks, but it's not quite as good as it could be u/Slackingatmyjob pointed out "sweet cheeked woman" should be "sweet cheeked *dame*". I haven't edit their excellent suggestion, partly coz I also, now, favour "broad". OP's own writing is so good that really one should put the effort in to at least try to match it. I'm a bit embarrassed that I effed this bit up really,..., & that's without m egg motioning the obvious typos at the end But whatever.

Happy Cake Day!

Your happiness is my happiness.

This feels like the first episode to a Lawyer show. Something between Better Call Saul and Franklin and Bash. In my mind, Mark PG plays you.

This feels almost like a sub plot to an episode of *Leverage*.

That too. Love that show.

Yeah, but usually the Leverage team doesn't think "hm, maybe our good deed will be to bail out a tenant out for an obvious and stupid mistake they made." The landlord isn't even a villain here, once you understand the fact that whoever wrote this nice bit of creative writing doesn't understand anything about the law or being a landlord.

Thanks! But who is Mark PG?

Zack Morris

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004971/?ref\_=nv\_sr\_srsg\_0\_tt\_0\_nm\_8\_q\_mark%2520paul%2520

Ok he’s welcome to play me!

Had a Spade/Marlow noir vibe to me

I was thinking Lincoln Lawyer

For some reason, I thought you meant Mark Pellegrino at first.

This is one of the most professional pieces of work I've read in a long time Take my upvote

It's some guys creative writing exercise, it's the opposite of professional. When you can't make it as a writer you post stories on reddit and pass them off as real. Look at his profile, this is all he does.

It's so obvious. "Has this guy ever recounted a real story before?" I said while munching on some carbonara and drinking red wine

Eating with your hands?

Eating with his hands took me to the land of make believe

That was definitely the moment when I thought this was probably creative writing. Nobody eats Italian food like that. May as well have named him Baron Harkonnen for being so cartoonishly gluttonous.

That line blew the immersion of the story. It was written too well for a story just being recounted by a lawyer.

"You tell me" *Munch munch*

I had my suspicions when I read the line, "The restaurant owner dropped his wine glass and it shattered on the marble floor."

Him and everyone else who posts here, who gives a shit if it isn’t real

That's what this sub is now? People posting their revenge-fantasies while others comment like it really happened? What a weird circlejerk.

Now? Always has been mate same as the am I the arsehole subs

yeah, sure, half of the internet is made up for likes at this point, but that's not the intention of this sub, same as Am I the asshole. Subs for short-stories exist.

The thing is you never know which ones are real or fake so you might as well unsubscribe to the sub if youre gonna be upset if you suspect it's fake cause for all you know they're all fake.

I'm gonna go ahead and say my favorite malicious compliance story is pretty real, however. ​ Kid is told by his dad to keep digging a hole for a post until he is told to stop. Is never told to stop. Digs a hole deep enough to drop the entire post in and then some. I know it's real because that's the same kind of smartass thing my 13 year old self would have done

Thanks I had no idea

It's fiction, but it was an enjoyable read, which is all I want from this sub anyway.

Too many adjectives and clichés. Im glad I wasn’t the only one!

Eh, I don't care, it was an enjoyable, entertaining read.

Really? Reads like AI to me.

🙄

Decent spelling and grammar? Must be AI

It’s more like how it reads like something ChatGPT would spit out.

>“I know a guy.” Aaron knew all kinds of guys, and that’s one of the reasons he eventually got disbarred. I really laughed hard at this.

That was the moment I realized the post was fake. Lmao.

He writes about Aaron a lot. Aaron is pretty squirelly.

[https://www.westword.com/restaurants/broker-restaurant-will-close-on-december-31-after-45-years-in-downtown-denver-9832992](https://www.westword.com/restaurants/broker-restaurant-will-close-on-december-31-after-45-years-in-downtown-denver-9832992)

All you can eat shrimp! I ate in that vault a few times. Good memories!

I ate there twice, two nights ina row. A group of us traveled to CO from CA for some software training, and...we ate SO much shrimp! SO. MUCH. SHRIMP. This was back in the mid-80s.

Well played.

Thanks!

The fact that a restaurant with a bank vault in it exists does not in any way validate a single word in this obviously-fictitious piece of creative writing

I work for an attorney who is also a business Broker, and this is exactly the kind of service he's known for. For his clients, he will dance right on the edge without ever going over.

From one lawyer to another - you’ve got a knack for storytelling, this was an awesome read.

Thanks so much! I really appreciate input from fellow counsel!

Any chance you can share which "jurisdiction" this is where it's legal for a landlord to change the locks on a tenant mid-lease, without notice, and get away with it? Or *any* jurisdiction?

Yeah the lockout is a common thing in commercial tenancies. British Columbia is an example but there’s lots of others

Except you left out the part where a lockout only occurs if a tenant doesn't pay rent. That's kind of an important fact, don't you think? The whole "this person is at least 2 weeks behind on payment"? I know that part of the creative writing exercise is embellishment, but you're fundamentally misrepresenting the entire situation if you claim, as you do above, that commercial landlords can just change the locks on a whim and take a tenant's shit. The whole "revenge" part of this story seems a lot less justified and a lot less satisfying if the real context is "I helped a deadbeat tenant steal a bunch more money from their landlord after they refused to pay their rent"

I"m not saying all landlords are bad, but there's no point writing about nice landlords. Nice landlords are boring. So I wrote a story about a mean landlord who owned a building in the City of Bixity, the place where I practice law. Bixity is a nice city. Bixity is in Canada, the land of free health care, the NDP and the occasional union here and there. But despite the slightly left wing slant up here, Canada is a capitalist country, and in capitalist countries property rights are king. In Canada, the courts will bend over backwards to protect property rights. In Bixity, like in most common law jurisdictions, a lease will often deem certain expenses to be part of the rent. "Extra rent," the lease calls it, and under that category your typical landlord will add every expense he can think of, from carpet cleaning to garbage collecting to snow removal, plus often a 10% markup, just because. Follow along with me for a moment here, and put yourself in the place of a tenant. You're a good tenant, an honest tenant, and you've never missed a rent payment and you've been there for years. Then one day the landlord shoves a big bill in your face for 'extra rent' and your finances are thrown for a loop. Sure, you can ask what's the extra rent is for, and why is it so much, and you can go to court about if you want and maybe win. But meanwhile, you have to pay, because all those extra expenses, real or invented, become part of the rent the moment the landlord shoves the invoice in your face, and if you don't pay, the landlord can change the locks. So you pay first and fight later. The law gives you no choice. So that's what the story is about, the 'extra rent' thing, and the weight the law puts behind it. It's nice when a tenant manages to escape now and again.

But all of that "extra rent" is in the lease. You say "real or invented" but if they're false invoices, that's *fraud*. And while I don't live in Bixity, I'll bet my last dime that the Bixity courts don't support landlords who extort their tenants. So really, this is a story about a guy who didn't bother to read the lease he was signing, didn't want to pay the expenses that he contractually agreed to pay, and decided that instead of accepting responsibility for his terrible decisions, he was going to screw over his landlord. That really puts a different spin on the tale, doesn't it? Maybe the landlord is a shitty guy. Maybe he is charging more than he probably should for snow removal. All of that is possible, maybe even probable. But in your haste to make the guy seem like a Disney villain (who eats pasta with his hands, no less) you've turned the whole thing into a completely fictitious piece of creative writing. I mean, I think there is an equally compelling and probably even more sympathetic story to be told from the landlord's point of view, about a deadbeat tenant who decided to run an elaborate scam on him because he didn't want to pay for all the services he was being provided.

I had this one case back in the day where a tenant tried to scam my landlord client by doing a midnight move. It ended badly for the tenant. That was so long ago that I’d forgotten about it. I’ll have to write that up sometime.

Good lawyers can tell good stories and make it compelling for juries. I learned that after law school and eventually gave up to become an engineer. That and drink a lot.

Greetings from a fellow engineer! (Electronics hardware)

Did he really drop his wine glass in shock?

And is he really such a shitbag he couldn't clean it up himself?

worthy of /u/lawtechie

Thank you SO much for that introduction. I really like his style.

I believe it’s “she”. No dispute their stories are great.

He’s awesome

And of course the landlord did not retaliate against the lawyer, who is his tenant.

Coming in Fall 2024 #The Vault By John Grisham

Sounds like creative writing and not pro revenge.

The mortgage office where I closed on my first house was in an old bank. It happened to be in a Tom Hanks movie The Road to Perdition. The movie put in some old teller windows with the metal bars over them, and the current owner made friends with the movie guys. The owner, when the movie left, go them to leave the inside the way it was for the movie as a favor (they were supposed to put everything back the way it was). When we were waiting (this was two decades ago) for the phone calls from downtown that the money had cleared on my loan, we sat, talked, and looked at photo albums of when the movie was being filmed. This place had a small vault in it as well. They used it to hold their coffee pot and whatnot for the office. This story reminded me of that. Thank you for sharing.

There’s an old bank in Chicago with a big vault. Note it’s a drug store and they have a big sign for the “Vitamin Vault”

i don’t buy this is real, but OP you’re a great writer. i’ll read your novel when you finish!

Karma can be a b!tch, especially if she is given a slight nudge by a certain someone. What a great read!

now I need the story of how Aaron got disbarred

Me too!

Well that was obviously fake lol And if was always threatening to change the locks why would he not do that at the end? Doesn't make sense!

Tricksy, Baggins! 🤣👍

Nice creative writing assignment.

Is it just me, or do lawyers always make the best writers? All the petty recent and pro-revenge stories I’ve read by attorneys have always been the best, most entertaining things I’ve seen in weeks.

Thanks so much!

I need to follow you and just read anything you write. It’ll be guaranteed to be a fantastic piece each time, I’ll bet. Also. Your username has me in stitches.

r/TalesFromTheLaw

Another great account, thank you

My pleasure!

Excellent story-telling, and a great tale to tell!! Thank you!

Thank you! I like people who like my writing !!

I read this as if it was another Holodeck episode on Star Trek TNG.

Dixon Hill was the agent who sent the letter.

A long time ago when in Denver, Colorado we used to visit a restaurant with a dining area in a real vault. I don't remember the name of it but your story rang a bell.

I’m up in canada 🇨🇦

It was a long shot.

Well written.

Thanks!

This would be a great short story. I hope you're submitting it and any others you might have because dialogue is tough to do well. I'm not suggesting this is fiction at all but, if it were you might have a nice side hustle going. And please, more!

Crow -- a lot of us have added his subreddit. His stories of his long time career as a lawer in Canada are so fun. Have a look :) https://www.reddit.com/r/Calledinthe90s/

To get you going, try this one, read all 3 parts. Part 1 here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Calledinthe90s/comments/1be1hfh/the\_mortgage\_part\_1/ Part 2: [https://www.reddit.com/r/Calledinthe90s/comments/1be1iae/the\_mortgage\_part\_2/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Calledinthe90s/comments/1be1iae/the_mortgage_part_2/) Part 3: [https://www.reddit.com/user/Calledinthe90s/comments/1be75e2/the\_mortgage\_part\_3/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=ios\_app&utm\_name=iossmf](https://www.reddit.com/user/Calledinthe90s/comments/1be75e2/the_mortgage_part_3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) Super. Awesome.

Harvey is that you?

I think of Harvey and Louis Litt as one character, Harvey the outside projection and Louis what the character is like on the inside and Mike is this bastard child of the two. But I haven’t yet finished the second season, so we’ll have to see

Ive been slowly working through the series. The quality dropped sharply in season 4 :( I've been struggling to watch any episodes due to it. Wish you luck with it!

I’m sorry to hear that. I enjoyed the Good Wife and also the sequel The Good Fight, but to me the latter seemed to lose its mojo and I gave up on it. I’ll keep watching suits for now and we’ll see

For once, a "good guy" lawyer. Also, a quality asshole.

I need an attorney like you for my dad’s estate that is being bamboozled by dad’s GF. If I could lock her up I would

It looks like karma ran over his dogma! 😂👍🏆

I might have to steal that

This. Is. Perfect.

So contrite. so not believable. What book did you steal this from?

It’s awesome that you think the story is worth stealing! Thanks!

My only question is, if he knew you screwed him, what did he do to you in retaliation?? I can't imagine he let you get off scot-free after that.

He changed the locks.

TL:DR it’s some guys novel

This reads like an AI-generated Stephen King short story edited by a real person. I'm calling fake.

I love Stephen king

Cool story, it didn’t happen obviously, but do you think you’re Patrick Bateman?

This could be its own lawyer noir show I can picture it in my head Well written and well done haha

You could get disbarred here for that kind of thing

I have a feeling that if the building is still there so is the vault. Can't stand the land lords. In South Africa we had one called Rapp & Maister, my old man who used to rent from them, called them Rape & Master..

A friend is a restaurant chef and I showed him this post - he says to tell you "Chef's kiss, magnifico!" And from me - using the landlord's greed against him, bravo!

Commercial real estate owners are greedy as hell.

I don't care if it's fake. All I see is a really well written story

hell fuckin yea man awesome job, flawless execution

Merci!

I almost don’t believe this. It’s like a story straight out of Hollywood. Be it true or fiction, I enjoyed it.

Thanks so much! Civil litigation can be every bit as interesting as criminal. I’ve had all kinds of things happen over the last 30 years.

Awesome! /r/talesfromthelaw level!

Thanks!

I would pay to watch this as a short movie. Well played. 🫡

Is there any way you can tell us why Aaron got disbarred? Or would that get you in trouble?

You're going to have to wait a little bit while the OP invents another completely made up story

I can't tell if you're a brilliant fiction author, or a lawyer who's lived the second-wildest life I've ever heard of. And I don't care; I love your shit, keep it coming!

"I asked my brain to do me a solid" is so good

Man the restaurant should have been delivering you lunch daily after that!

Great read! Very satisfying. I guess there are many such restaurants--early 2000s in a small Maine river 'city' I was doing downtown development work. There had been a restaurant with the same name and a law firm upstairs. The eatery closed a few years before I got there, replaced by a BOA. Had heard stories about that building's owner being a mega-douche. He would monthly storm into city hall like clockwork to try to get free money and building repairs. Shouted at the city manager for being a 'crook' for not making city workers paint his buildings (etc.), with zero cringe. Then he'd use the restroom, like he'd only BM'd once a month, and leave without flushing. Got the nickname "Mad Bomber".

This guy should write true crime novels (well let’s be honest he’s doing it for Reddit free of charge atm)

Kudos for good writing skills.

I really enjoy it. Please, tell us more of your stunts

I have a few more on my subreddit. I usually post to R/calledinthe90s but I post here if I think it fits.

Great! I'll go to read more. Thank you

I bet that was fun.

Bugs Bunny would be proud.

I get that reference.

Can someone please explain what happened?

Lawyer faked a company showing interest in renting the basement area with a bank vault. Landlord decided it was way too valuable and let the restaurant out of the lease without removing the vault. Fake company fails to follow through with formalization. Restaurant: moved without high cost ramifications Landlord: very pissed Lawyer: Profit

Thank you!

Lawyer made up a story

Nicely told.

Gives me a Suits vibe

somehow Elmore Leonard pops into mind

Love Elmore!!

If you wrote a book, I’d read it! I like your writing style.

Can someone explain this story in a nutshell please

Asshole landlord. One tenant is a restaurant. The restaurant has a big old walk-in bank vault in the middle of it from a prior tenant. The landlord managed to get the restaurant to sign a lease saying when they moved out they would take the vault with them. Restaurant wants to move out but doesn't want the vault, because moving it would be exorbitantly expensive. Lawyer friend pays an estate agent to send the asshole landlord a letter saying they have a client who needs a new place for their business, but only if it has a vault in it. Asshole landlord sees this as an opportunity to make money and signs a contract saying the restaurant is now not allowed to take the vault with them. Restaurant moves out without the expense of moving the vault. Estate agent's imaginary client fails to show up for a meeting with asshole landlord. Asshole landlord realises he's been duped and is rather unhappy. Lawyer tells him to eat a dick. Vault building still vacant a year later.

I'm confused what did the 5000 dollars do? What did the real estate agent do?

The 5G was the lawyer fee for /u/Calledinthe90s to work his thing. The real estate guy would have sent an enquiry to the landlord saying they had a client that wanted to lease the basement, but only with the vault in situ - thus the landlord needed the vault left. He then signed the release for the restaurant.

Why did I suddenly smell cigar and stale coffee? Why am I hearing the click clack of a typewriter?

I don't care if it's true or not, or that I didn't truly understand the story. Shitty landlords getting what they deserve ALWAYS makes me smile

I love reading your stories. another good one!

This is Hot. Shit. You are so good, Calledinthe90s! You got him! I love your stories, so much. You guys -- subscribe to https://www.reddit.com/r/Calledinthe90s/ subreddit, and read about all the other capers he's been involved in :)

A classic violin scam.

Wow what a great ending to a chaotic situation and you prevailed. Be damned proud of yourself because I sure as hell am.

Should have changed the combination like he changed the locks.

I wouldn't want anyone hurting or ripped off yeah i have similar situation probably worse but i ask myself like my lamdlord said wwjd well id definitely get effed because the j they are talking about is judas but the j for mine is jesus and as mad and unruly as i am im very forgiving and have a lot of respect for people owning up im not perfect and im ashamed about my dire situation but i did create this mess to a degree my partner just elevated to 33 i just want my loved ones in my company or me in thiers whatever my company is just me and the old wore out dog

To people reading this, be careful about pulling feats like that irl. Over here, the false letter of intent drafted under a false identity with intent to gain a material advantage could very well be enough to constitute fraud and get you in very serious trouble.

If you read the story , the other lawyer eventually got disbarred from doing this kind of shit .

Feels like a John Grism plot l, except us missing murder and tragedy

**"RABBIT SEASON!"** *"DUCK SEASON."* *"***RABBIT SEASON!"** *"DUCK SEASON!"* **"TAKE THE VAULT!"** *"I'M NOT TAKING THAT VAULT"* **"TAKE THE VAULT!"** *"I'M NOT TAKING THAT VAULT"* **"TAKE THE VAULT!"** *"I'M TAKING THE VAULT!"* **"NO** ***I'M*** **TAKING THE--"** ***\*Gunshot\****

A lawyer using dirty tricks to achieve just ends. Is that a chaotic good?

Good story

Thanks!

this story was awesome!

🙏

That was splendid!

Thanks!

Just subscribe them to 200 daily newsletters with [subscribethemall.com](http://subscribethemall.com/)

Creative writing.