How Clients Can Help Their Attorneys
As an attorney, I have been working with clients for over 25 years. I try my best to achieve the best result I can for clients, but there are things that you, as clients, can do to help achieve the best results. Often, the best assistance you can provide an attorney will be to take the “middle path” whenever possible.
In the past, I have had some clients for whom the lawsuit is a nightmare that they want to think about as little as possible. They do not want to work together to formulate strategies. They do not want to go through their documents and pass on what information may be important. They want to see, hear, and think about the lawsuit as little as possible, as if ignoring it will help make it all go away.
On the other end of the spectrum are clients that are overbearing and overly opinionated. Obviously, the lawsuit is important to them, and their opinions are important contributions to the lawsuit, but they may discount the advice that a seasoned attorney tries to give them, relying instead on sources like Chat GPT, and may try to micromanage the case. Such clients also tend to end up complaining about the bill because, for the most part, each telephone call made, and each string of emails, will have a cost associated with it, and if you are calling your attorney three times a day at 15 minutes as call, the costs can become substantial.
Clients that take the middle path, however, are neither absent nor ever-present, but make themselves reasonably available. They look through their files for what might be helpful evidence. They ask questions and engage in dialogue, especially when there is a need to work out case strategy. Not only are these the easiest clients to work with, the contributions of these clients to the lawsuit are often very welcome and invaluable to developing a case.
Once you are willing to be a client of the middle path, there are specific things you can keep in mind and assist your attorney with.
- Educate your attorney. At the commencement of a case, provide your attorney with a coherent narrative and provide related documents. Be honest and include all facts that may both be helpful and harmful to your case. Identify the players and events that are crucial.
- Assist, but do not overwhelm your attorney. Under the attorney’s Rules of Professional Conduct (“RPC”), the attorney must abide by a client’s decisions concerning the objectives of representation and must consult with the client as to the means by which they are to be pursued. However, this does not mean that the client should micromanage and question every decision made by the attorney. Know what you want, but also be open to suggestions and recommendations from your attorney.
- Make yourself reasonably available to discuss facts and prepare declarations. Make yourself reasonably available to discuss the case and answer questions, especially at the beginning of a case. While the attorney knows the law or can brush up on it with a little research, no one knows the narrative facts and relevant documents as much as the client.
- Stay well informed. Make yourself well informed about the case status and check up on it now and then. Some counties use case scheduling orders that are issued at the beginning of the case. Find out if your case has a scheduling order and be aware of deadlines. The civil rules and local rules of each county are online. Feel free to review the rules and make yourself familiar with them, so that you can better coordinate with your attorney on upcoming events. After a hearing or other deadline, if the lawyer does not provide a status report, follow up and ask about whether any rulings have issues. There is sometimes a fine line between overbearing clients and middle path clients, but it is your right to be well informed and being so can be helpful to the case.
- Feel free to challenge, but do not accuse, your attorney. Likewise, there is a line between helpful and acceptable statements and accusations. A client might challenge an attorney while formulating a litigation strategy and say things like, “I believe you may be incorrect on this point,” or “I am concerned about the consequences if we follow this strategy.” This is fine. However, a client that starts accusing the attorney of damaging them has crossed a line and may make it so that the attorney can no longer ethically represent the client.
There is, of course, a great deal more that can be said regarding the best ways to help your attorney. This small list just scratches the surface. However, hopefully even this small guide can be useful to you if you are ever a party to a lawsuit, in any capacity. Best of luck.
TThe lawyers at Beresford Booth have a wealth of experience in civil litigation. We would be happy to assist you. To learn more, please contact Beresford Booth at info@beresfordlaw.com or by phone at (425) 776-4100.