Who is Brent Bauer?
Just last Friday I got home from work and there was a voicemail left on the phone. "Would Sulemaan Ahmed please call Brent Bauer at (905) 416-2008." Brent Bauer? I knew of a Jack Bauer but I highly doubt he would ever call me. I sure didn't know of any Brent Bauer.
My wife wondered was it yet another telemarketer? I called and it was a pager number. My wife wondered if it was some kind of scam? Candidly, the same thought crossed my mind. So I entered my phone number at the pager prompt (been years since I've done that) like I was typing in nuclear launch codes. I wondered who this Brent Bauer guy was.
Minutes later the phone rang. "Brent Bauer here." I identified myself and said he left a message for me. He said he was a paralegal and said that I had a court date today where I was supposed to fight a traffic ticket. Damn. I had forgotten all about it. Now I would have to pay a fine and my insurance premiums would go in the opposite direction of my stock portfolio.
Rewind to about 10 months ago and I was up late for a product launch. I made the mistake of driving home while sleep deprived. I got into an accident and it was entirely my fault. I made no excuses and took full responsibility. To this day I feel bad for inconveniencing the other driver who was very gracious about the whole thing.
Upon the advice of one of Peel's finest, the police officer on the scene suggested it wouldn't hurt to fight the ticket in order to avoid increased insurance premiums. So I enlisted X-Copper Legal Services to fight the ticket on my behalf. Good decision, right? Unfortunately no and I was now out $250 and hadn't had my day in court yet.
Fast forward to the present. I'm on the phone with Brent Bauer and he asks me about my court hearing that I missed. I was expecting him to say something like "Well you should have hired me pal" or "Well if you pay me $x I can fight it on appeal." Instead, he tells me that he is a para-legal and he was in court today defending other clients when my name got called up.
The good news was that the police officer and other witnesses didn't show up. The bad news was that neither did I. So Brent (he insisted on the phone I called him Brent as "Mr. Bauer is my father") asked the prosecutor to see my file. When he saw that I was supposed to be represented by X-Copper and I was not there he agreed to represent me pro-bono. He got the charge dismissed. Therefore no fine. Therefore no insurance premium increase. I was stunned.
He had simply called me to tell me so that I could notify my insurance company so my premiums didn't go up. I asked if I could pay him. He declined and said he did it pro-bono. I asked Brent if I could buy him dinner. He declined again as that would be akin to payment. He said that he wanted people to know not all para-legals were bad since so many people were burned by X-Copper.
I asked if he had a favorite charity and he said the Toronto Food Bank. I told him I'd make a donation in his name as it was the least I could do. He said to make any donation in both of our names.
I told Brent that I planned to write this post and asked if he had an email or website which I could refer others to. Not much but the least I could do. He said he was old school and didn't have a computer. He went about building his business the old fashion way through referrals.
So I'm happy to provide one for him here as well. If you ever need to fight a traffic ticket please contact Brent Bauer in the evenings at home at (905) 832-3948.
The man is a true professional and we all (myself included) could learn a thing or two from him. That is who Brent Bauer is. And let me tell you Jack Bauer has got nothing on him.
