Introduction
One of the most frustrating issues that clients encounter when working with an attorney is the fact that calls and e-mails will sometimes go days, if not longer, without a response. To you, your legal issue is a central part of your life, and you think it should be to your lawyer as well. The problem is, lawyers, like everyone else, need to make a living, and we just simply can’t do that by paying attention to only one case.
It actually took me a while to realize this, and I was
frustrated with other attorneys who were so slow to respond. In the early days of my legal career, I used
to promise clients that every e-mail which required a response would receive a
response no later than the next business day, but frequently the same day - and
I stuck to that pretty well. Then, as I
gained experience and took on more responsibility, this became a problem. While I still strive to that goal, I no
longer make it a guarantee.
The reality is, if your attorney is any good, she probably
has a lot of cases to juggle. I, for
example, am currently the primary attorney on more than sixteen active cases,
and am also assisting other attorneys in my office with nearly a dozen
more. If your case has a hearing next
week, but your attorney has another case with a hearing this week, she’s going
to focus on the case with the hearing next week - she’ll focus on yours once
that hearing’s done.
That being said, however, there are some things you can do to help yourself stand out from the crowd as a client, and make sure your case gets more than your attorney’s average level of attention. In this blog post, I hope to help you be a better client, so that your lawyer can be a better lawyer to you.
Pay Your Bills On Time, Every Time
It’s crass, it’s unfortunate, but it’s also reality. As I said above, lawyers are people too. We have bills to pay, children to put through
college, and food to put on the table.
Moreover, despite our reputation, most of us are not filthy rich and
raking it in from our work. If you are
interacting with an attorney in a small law firm - say, one with fewer than ten
attorneys, and if you are hiring an attorney as an individual that’s probably
what you’re doing - the odds are you are dealing with attorneys who make a
middle class to upper-middle class income, and no more - possibly less. Add to that, if they are younger, possibly
$100k or more in student loans, and you start to realize that we have all the
same financial concerns that you do.
So, put yourself in your attorney’s shoes. Each client is kind of like an employer. So, if you had two jobs, both of your bosses
wanted you to work for them for eight hours, those eight hours they want
actually overlap with each other, and one job always pays you your paycheck on
time while the other is sometimes months late or sometimes never pays at all,
which job are you going to go to?
Now, understand that when a lawyer takes a case, she has an ethical obligation to provide her services to you thoroughly and competently, and if your failure to pay her is starting to affect her ability to do that, she is supposed to (and usually will) withdraw as your attorney, not simply neglect your case. Nonetheless, if you want your lawyer to do more than just an adequate job, and if you want your concerns addressed quickly, instead of in due turn, the best way to do that is to make sure your lawyer knows she is going to get paid for the work she is doing for you - and quickly. The best way to do that is to pay your bills on time, every time.
Be Friendly
This may seem like a silly rule, but I really cannot
emphasize it enough. There’s a saying
that you “catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” and at least when it
comes to attorneys, that’s certainly true.
I suppose my running theme of this blog post is to point out
again and again that attorneys are people, just like you. Take my example above and put yourself in
your lawyer’s shoes again. Once again,
you have two jobs, your bosses each want you to work eight hours, and the hours
overlap, only this time both are equally likely to pay you on time. However, one boss is extremely friendly, and
one constantly threatens you with what will happen if you don’t do what that
boss wants. Which job are you going to
go to?
Despite the seemingly obvious simplicity of this rule, you’d
be amazed at how often clients don’t follow it.
One e-mail takes two days to get a response instead of one, and suddenly
you are the worst attorney in the world and subject to repeated threats and
guilt trips from your client, who also then starts threatening to not pay his
bills. Do you think that really is going
to make your attorney more responsive?
I know that I, for one, will generally respond to all of my clients in due course, no matter how unpleasant they may be. But I cannot deny that when I have a particularly friendly and pleasant client, I will go out of my way to make sure that client’s needs are met. I have even ended up friends on a personal level with some clients after their cases ended (one even became my family’s go to dog-sitter!) - and I know I’m not alone in this. In sum, it never hurts to be friendly and understanding towards your lawyer - doing so will likely foster a better attorney-client relationship, and with it get more attention paid to your case.
Be Persistent
The final piece of advice I have is simply to be
persistent. Things slip through the
cracks - that’s just reality, and it’s always possible that your e-mail, voice
mail or letter is one of those things.
Maybe your attorney opened your e-mail then got a distracting phone call
- and now your e-mail no longer shows up as unread. The point is, it very much is possible that
your communication has simply fallen through the cracks.
The best solution to this problem is friendly persistence. A “Hey, I just wanted to see if you got this” is good. A “You jerk, you never responded to my e-mail” is not. Nonetheless, it's amazing how often a client will send one e-mail, not hear back in a couple days, and then just give up. Use your common sense, be persistent, and you will get your response.
Conclusion
Working with an attorney who is busy can be very frustrating to a client - even if the end result of your case is ultimately positive. There are ways you can minimize that frustration, however, by standing out from your attorney’s other clients. Ensuring that you always pay your bills on time, being friendly in all of your communications with your attorney, and being persistent with your attorney are three of the best strategies to ensure the best possible attorney-client relationship. If you feel you are being neglected unfairly by your current attorney, however, feel free to give a call to (703)281-0134, or e-mail me at sleven@thebaldwinlawfirm.com and set up a consultation with me. It’s free for up to half an hour, and we can figure out at that consultation if I can actually provide faster service to you
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