Hattiesburg Divorce Lawyer » clients

Why Your Lawyer Won’t Take Your Calls

Tim Evans — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:58:19 +0000

I belong to the Macs in the Law Office mailing list (MILO). Recently, there was a discussion on reasonable time to respond to business correspondence and phone calls. A MILO member, William L. Pfeifer, Jr., posted a link to an article he wrote, “Why Your Lawyer Won’t Take or Return Your Phone Calls—Top 10 Reasons.” While I’m sure the article was written in jest, there is a lot of validity to the article. Here it is, reprinted in its entirety.

—-

The most frequent complaint about lawyers is they won’t take or return phone calls. Articles on this subject usually sugarcoat the issue, give some blah blah blah about professional responsibility, or try to it wrap up in a touchy-feely feel-good win-win conclusion. No one really wants to tell you what is going on. You want the truth about why your lawyer doesn’t want to talk to you? Here are the top ten reasons your attorney won’t return your calls.

10. Your lawyer is busy on something more important. While you may think and act like you are your lawyer’s only client, the reality is that a lot of other people hired the same attorney as you. Your business alone will not pay your lawyer’s bills. Lawyers have to meet crucial deadlines. They spend hours standing around in courtrooms, and more hours researching and preparing to stand around in courtrooms. They are in meetings with clients, interviewing witnesses, taking depositions, and a million other important things. Your whiney question about a case that won’t be going to trial for two or three years is not as pressing as the case set for trial tomorrow.

9. There is nothing new to tell you. Many people believe that there are always new developments in their case, or that there should be. In reality, most cases involve many periods of intense activity but also include many times of little or no activity. For example, if you send interrogatories to the opposing party, there is probably nothing going on until they submit their answers a month from now. If all discovery has been done and you are just waiting for trial, you could experience months of inactivity in a case just waiting to get in front of a judge. If there is nothing to tell you, your call inquiring about the status of the case may not get returned until there is absolutely nothing else of any importance that the lawyer needs to do.

8. You talk too much. Some people act like a lawyer has all the time in the world, and want to chat endlessly about trivial matters that just aren’t relevant. Lawyers quickly learn which clients can be efficient and which ones are time hogs. If you know how to get to the point, get your answer, and move on, your lawyer is much more likely to return your calls than if he or she knows that your call will go on forever. Lawyers are busy, they only have a limited number of hours in a day, and they can’t spend all day listening to you blab on and on. It’s nothing personal, you are just a waste of time. If the lawyer starts the conversation with, “I’ve only got 5 minutes before I have to do X,” that may be a warning sign that you are a time waster. Make your calls short and to the point, and you’ll hear from your lawyer sooner and more often.

7. Your lawyer has issues. Surprisingly few people do much research before hiring a lawyer. This lack of diligence works out well for lawyers with substance abuse problems, mental illnesses, or a poor work ethic. What do you really know about this person who has been entrusted with the most important matters in your life? Statistics indicate that lawyers suffer from alcoholism and depression at rates significantly higher than the general population. In fact, lawyers have the most alcoholics of any profession. You may have hired a fantastic attorney who is swamped with work, or you may have hired an alcoholic lawyer who is too drunk to talk to you right now.

6. Your lawyer screwed up. While still fairly rare, this does happen more often than people realize. Your lawyer could be avoiding telling you the unpleasant truth that your case has already been lost. How can this happen? The most common way is that the lawyer missed a filing deadline. If there was a statute of limitations on when your case had to be filed with the court and the lawyer missed that deadline, then you are screwed. Your lawyer doesn’t want to tell you because he or she doesn’t want to have to admit to committing malpractice. So he stalls, delays, and avoids you until he can figure out a way out of this mess.

5. Your lawyer is an ass. Most lawyers are not as bad as the reputation of the profession would lead one to believe. In fact, most are ordinary people who just happen to be in a job that turns them into bitter, cynical asses who hate what they do every day. Most started out with high aspirations for all the good they could do in the world as a lawyer, only to discover so much of the job is just doing the bidding of some of the sorriest SOBs on the planet (such as you). This is very hard on one’s soul, and over time it can turn lawyers into rather unpleasant people. Note: It could also be that he was already an ass before becoming a lawyer, in which case joining the legal profession is like living a dream for him.

4. You are not the client. It is absolutely amazing how many people think they have a right to know what is going on in other people’s cases. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, ex-wives, employers – the number of people who call lawyers wanting to know “what is going on” would surprise most people. If you are leaving messages about someone else’s case and aren’t getting a return call, consider that the lawyer has no obligation to call you. The lawyer doesn’t represent you, can’t tell you anything, and really doesn’t have time to argue with you about why he can’t tell you anything. It doesn’t matter if you are the client’s momma, if you have written authorization, if you have a power of attorney for the client, or even if you are paying the bill. If you aren’t the client, mind your own business.

3. You are an idiot. This one is pretty self-explanatory. You are a dumbass who doesn’t understand anything you are told, or who disregards it to do whatever you want to do anyway. You are going to be getting into trouble for the rest of your life because you are just so dumb. Seen those “stupid criminal” videos? That’s you. Your lawyer is tired of telling you what to do, only to watch you disregard it to indulge your impulses or because you think you are smarter than everyone else. You aren’t. No one likes to waste time talking to a moron.

2. You won’t listen. This one often overlaps with “you are an idiot.” No matter how many times something is explained to you, you ask the same questions over and over because you don’t like the answers you received. You think that if you ask the same question over and over, at some point the answer will change into something you want to hear. This isn’t your mommy saying you can’t have a cookie and finally giving in because you asked for it 100 times. If you’ve been told the same answer a dozen times already, maybe it is because that really is the answer. Since the lawyer doesn’t want to tell you again, he just won’t bother talking to you.

1. You are an ass. The biggest reason that your lawyer doesn’t want to talk to you is that you are an ass. You are rude, demanding, pushy, arrogant, whiney, and annoying. You think that you can catch more flies with a flamethrower than with honey. Your lawyer is the only person who is trying to help you, and yet you want to treat him like this? Hating you is not a good motivator for trying to help win your case. The squeaky wheel may get the grease, but it doesn’t get a returned phone call. Try being polite and pleasant, and you’ll have much better communications with your lawyer.

My Lawyer’s Cheating on Me! I’ve received several calls lately with people concerned that their...
Do You Really Want a Mean Lawyer? Today, Dick Price, a lawyer in Fort Worth, Texas who...
Do I need a Lawyer? I get that question fairly often. The most recent was...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

My Lawyer’s Cheating on Me!

Tim Evans — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:12:25 +0000

I’ve received several calls lately with people concerned that their lawyer is not representing them effectively. Chief among these concerns are that their lawyer and their spouse’s lawyer seemed awfully buddy-buddy before court starts.

That, in itself is nothing to worry about. I have often thought of court as a social event for lawyers, and in many ways, it is. For many lawyers, it’s the only time they see another lawyer who’s outside their office face to face. It’s a chance, while waiting for the case to be called, to sit down and have coffee with a law school classmate and tell war stories.

Clients want their lawyer to have the same feelings of resentment against their spouse as they do. If the spouse is up to no good, the client thinks, then their lawyer must be up to no good either. However, it simply doesn’t work that way.

In small communities like Hattiesburg, almost every lawyer knows every other lawyer. You have to work together and get along or it’s going to be a long miserable existence as long as you practice law.

I’m not trying to deny there may be lawyers out there who take it too far and compromise their client’s interest on this case to get a favor returned on another. I don’t know of any, but anything’s possible.

I’ve also had some people express concerns that their lawyer didn’t pursue an angle of a case that they discussed with them. Cases are like battles in a war, and a lawyer is like a general. He has to decide a plan using the best intelligence he has on his opponent, but there must also be a backup plan. Sometimes, plans change instantly, without any time to inform the client why you’re doing it. So, again, the fact your lawyer is doing something other than was planned is not, in itself, a clause to worry.

Finally, I’ve heard a lot of frustration about communication with their lawyers. This is one that all lawyers are guilty of to some extent, including myself. The number one cause of bar complaints is an attorney failing to communicate to their client. This goes back to a natural feeling of every client that their case is the most important one their lawyer has. The reality is that most lawyers have dozens, if not over a hundred, of cases open at the same time. It is a real juggling act to allocate your limited amount of time to all the cases. Naturally, some cases, due to proximity of trial, complexity, or emergencies, take up more time. Attorneys usually have to ignore calls some times to get work done.

Do you feel that your lawyer is “cheating” on you? If so, leave a comment and maybe I can calm your fears.

Why Your Lawyer Won’t Take Your Calls I belong to the Macs in the Law Office mailing...
Do You Really Want a Mean Lawyer? Today, Dick Price, a lawyer in Fort Worth, Texas who...
Notwithstanding My Objections, Legalese Continues Forthwith Warning: If you are a lawyer, this post may infuriate...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Four Things to Bring to Your First Meeting With a Divorce Lawyer

Tim Evans — Mon, 03 May 2010 12:59:43 +0000

You’ve just decided (or found out) that you’re getting a divorce. You’ve arranged a meeting with one or more divorce lawyers. Bringing the following four things to your first consultation with a Mississippi divorce attorney will help him or her come up to speed on your situation and better evaluate your case. It will also save your lawyer some work, which may end up saving you some money.

1. Bring your tax return. A divorce, in one respect, is the process of separating a legal entity–a marriage–into two separate entities–former spouses. A huge portion of that deals with how to split marital assets and debts. The more assets there are, the more complicated the divorce is likely to be. That’s why your lawyer will want to see the tax return.

It’s not just your lawyer who wants to see it. The rules for chancery courts (the courts in Mississippi that hear divorce cases) require both sides to exchange the previous year’s tax returns (or W-2′s if the previous years taxes have not yet been filed). The court will use this information along with evidence presented to equitably divide the marital property.

2. Complete the financial declaration. This is closely related to bringing your tax returns; if you really want to impress your divorce lawyer, bring your financial declaration to your first appointment. This form is also required by chancery court rules. It will require you to list such information as your assets and liabilities, bank accounts, and income. Like your tax returns, this is required to be exchanged with the other side. You can find a blank financial declaration here.

3. A timeline of your marital problems. This is easier to prepare if you’re the spouse who wants the divorce. If you’re not, you may have been surprised when you found out about the divorce. I know I was in mine. Once you get over the surprise, though, you will probably be able to look back and see particular events or troubles that were red flags your marriage was headed to divorce. Either way, this will help your divorce attorney evaluate your case to see if you have fault-based grounds for a divorce or if your only option is an irreconcilable differences divorce. The order in which events occurred is important because you may lose certain grounds depending on the events that followed them.

4. The truth. People come to lawyers for help, but often fail to be totally honest with their lawyer. This can only hurt your case. Almost every divorce lawyer has a “war story” where they were blind sided by something their client admitted to during cross-examination. When later asked why they withheld the information, the client usually says they didn’t think it was important. This is going to sound arrogant, but you found a divorce lawyer because he or she knows more of the law then you do. You do not know what is important or what isn’t! If you beat your spouse, admit it to your lawyer. If you cheated on your spouse, admit it to your lawyer.The sooner your divorce attorney learns the facts that hurt you, the sooner he or she can deal with them. The sooner the bad facts are dealt with, the less they will probably matter when the judge hears them. You won’t make your lawyer think less of you. They’ve seen all kinds long before they saw you.

Help Me Help You Once Again, I find inspiration for a post from Divorce360.com....
Do You Really Want a Mean Lawyer? Today, Dick Price, a lawyer in Fort Worth, Texas who...
Military Divorce Revisited Hattiesburg is home to Camp Shelby. As such, lawyers here...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The Client Who Cried Wolf

Tim Evans — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 12:00:19 +0000

It’s hard for attorneys to put ourselves in our clients’ shoes sometimes. We’re exposed to so much of the bad side of humanity that we become desensitized to it. That’s a bad thing; it would be better if we could “re-sensitize” ourselves, but I don’t know if that’s even possible.

Sometimes, the bad side to which we’re exposed isn’t that of our client’s opposition, it’s our own client. Working with people going though a divorce and serving as a guardian ad litem, I see many claims of child abuse. Most of these, I think are false, but it’s not my place or my expertise to make that determination. In fact, I have a duty to report such allegations, even if my client doesn’t want it to be reported, to the Department of Human Services.

Why would someone make up a false claim of child abuse? The first thing that pops into my head is they think it will help them in their divorce or custody case. More on this in a moment.

I do believe that there are plenty of overprotective parents out there as well, and any bruises that happen to their precious angel must be the result of abuse.

What gets on my nerves are the cases I see of “serial allegations.” The thinking must be that if the authorities didn’t believe the first allegation, maybe they’ll believe the second, or the third, or so on.

Of course, there are real cases of abuse that are reported. But one thing everyone complains of is how overloaded the system is and how, as a result, how slow an abuse investigation goes. Logically, if there weren’t so many reports made that the parent knows are not true, there would be fewer investigations and maybe, just maybe, the investigations on real cases wouldn’t take so long.

And then, just like the boy who cried wolf, there are bound to be some cases where the child eventually does get abused, and the authorities are even slower to investigate or maybe even don’t, because this is the umpteenth time this parent has made an allegation, and all the others have been false.

And I won’t even go into the possible psychological effects this has on the child toward the alleged but innocent parent.

So, if you think you’re helping yourself and your child by making a false report, you’re not. You may even be hurting the child in the long run.

My Lawyer’s Cheating on Me! I’ve received several calls lately with people concerned that their...
Is Speaking English in the Best Interest of the Child That is the question facing a mother in south Mississippi....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How Facebook Almost Ruined a Divorce Case

Tim Evans — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 12:00:23 +0000

The other day, I had something happen to me that would have been devastating had it been discovered at trial. Another lawyer showed me a hard copy of someone’s Facebook page. This other lawyer had represented the opposing party in a recent divorce trial. What made this particular Facebook page important is that it was that of the “other person” with whom my client had been accused of committing adultery.

The first thing that stood out that this person, with whom my client stated they did not have a romantic relationship, had a photo hugging my client. The other thing that stood out was an announcement of their marriage just a few days after the trial. The real shocker was that a few days the other person announced they were having a baby with my client. That announcement was dated two days before the trial! You can imagine what would have happened at the trial

Let this serve as a lesson to any of you who are thinking about a divorce (actually, it can happen in any trial, not just a divorce). No matter on what grounds, if any, you are seeking a divorce, you need to perform an internet search on yourself and see what is out there. You should review any pages you may have on any social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace, Twitter, etc. for any information or photos that may be harmful. Because you may not understand what could be harmful, you may want to allow your attorney to access these pages so he or she can review them. You also want to review friends’ pages for the same sort of information and photos. about you.

I am reminded of a quote from a great criminal defense lawyer. I cannot remember the exact quote (or the lawyer’s name), so I will have to paraphrase. The lawyer was asked, “Just how many trials have you won in your career?” He replied, “I would have won all of them if my clients had just kept their mouths shut.” The moral: No matter how much work a lawyer puts into a trial, it can all be ruined by what seems to be a harmless act by the client.

Why Your Lawyer Won’t Take Your Calls I belong to the Macs in the Law Office mailing...
Hearsay, Experts, and Guardians ad Litem Anyone who’s ever seen a trial, even one on television...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.