Author: Marie E. Matyjaszek
You need them to pay your bills, fund your trips and otherwise allow you to “live the dream.” No, not your parents. Clients. Without them, you wouldn’t have a career, wouldn’t be able to practice law, wouldn’t be the guy with a fancy law degree and mountains of debt to show for it. So, you have to keep them coming in like a steady stream, but you don’t necessarily have to agree with or like everything they do. At times, it seems that your advice goes in one ear and out the other, with the client doing what he or she wants anyways.
The worst part of my job is having to tell a client what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. They are already in a horrible situation, dividing up their belongings, arguing over the kids, and hurting because their marriage didn’t work out. With all of this going on, the last thing they need is me telling them they did something wrong.
When a client repeatedly ignores my advice, or better yet, a court order, it goes downhill quickly. The other attorney starts calling me constantly, updating me on the problems, threatening to file this motion and that motion, asking for attorney fees, trying to force a psychiatric evaluation of my client, blah blah blah. They are the same threats I use when the shoe is on the other foot; I’m familiar with the consequences of people’s actions.
Just when you think your client has “seen the light,” undoubtedly due to one of your amazing lawyerly speeches, you start to get the same phone calls the next day. No lawyer wants the reputation of not having client control – it makes you look incompetent and usually results in the other side running to court before trying to resolve an issue amicably.
I can only protect the client from so much fallout; after a certain point, there runs a good chance that my representation of him will end. There really isn’t much of an option when the client doesn’t care about what I say, and we all have other clients that will listen and deserve attention being paid to their cases.
As soon as a client starts to behave inappropriately, be as clear and stern with him as possible – he may be too ashamed to admit fault, but most clients won’t do it again. If the behavior doesn’t stop, it’s always helpful to remind them of the monetary consequences – the more they misbehave, the more motions are filed, attorney fees are won, and your time spent trying to dig them out of that grave is adding up fast. You may have to rein the client in a few times – lawsuits don’t bring out the best in people and rational thinking comes a bit slower during the proceedings. Putting your advice in writing, in particular the warnings, is a good idea in case he decides you caused his loss in court.
Of course, you can’t discount the possibility that your client simply won’t listen to you – if that’s the case, it’s time to get out of the matter. If the trust has broken down, the lawyer-client relationship is no longer symbiotic and the rest disintegrates quickly. Chances are that at this point, the client thinks that he’s doing the right thing and won’t listen to you no matter what you say. After all, since lawyers never admit that they’re wrong, why would we expect our clients to behave any different?
Courtesy of Jackson County Legal News, 4/19/10, Vol. 45, No. 28
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