My own experience with lawyers confirms why surviving companies selling legal software are owned and operated by lawyers. If you can't sue with equal ease you won't get paid if the customer decides something isn't perfect - and with computer software it isn't ever going to be perfect. You can go broke trying to make it good but you won't get paid.

Last lawyer I dealt with was well over 10 years ago. He acquired a new male lover who fancied himself a "computer expert" and told him my goods were deficient. Cool - an unpaid invoice guaranteed he'd never call again.

Judges seem even worse. Some folks I knew who were definitely not well off sold their VW Microbus to a judge. He examined the records, found there was a time when the odometer cable had been broken and sued them over false mileage. Of course they had no money so he just took the Microbus for free. I've heard plenty of similar stories.

Doctors I'll deal with. They're cheap as hell and don't pay their bills for months or a year or so, but eventually they pay - most of the time. Lawyers and judges - forget it. California anti-discrimination law provides some protection for refusing to do business in situations where you feel it's too dangerous.